AI to impact 1.8 Cr jobs in manufacturing, retail, education sectors by 2030: Report

Manufacturing, retail, and education sectors are staring at a "seismic" shift due to agentic artificial intelligence, and over 1.8 crore jobs will be impacted in these sectors by 2030 due to new-age technologies, a report said.

Manufacturing jobs will bear the highest impact, with 80 lakh workers to be affected, closely followed by retail with 76 lakh jobs, and education jobs at 25 lakh over the next five years, as shown in a report by Servicenow.

The report specified that high-automation roles like change managers and payroll clerks are being redefined by AI agents that take over routine coordination. On the other hand, "high-augmentation" roles such as implementation consultants and system admins are increasingly partnering with AI, not competing with it.

There is widespread concern about the impact of AI on jobs following India's largest IT services company, TCS, announcing it would cut 12,000 jobs—about 2% of its overall workforce—due to aspects, including artificial intelligence.

Sumeet Mathur, Managing Director of Servicenow India Technology and Business Centre, said agentic AI will create over 30 lakh new technology jobs by 2030. It is also reshaping the workforce, and will "redefine" over 1.35 crore roles, he said.

"India has a generational opportunity to lead globally by developing AI-ready talent, redesigning workflows, and reorienting business models around continuous innovation," Mathur said.

The company also surveyed over 500 industry leaders on AI adoption, who said that 13.5% of tech budgets are already committed to AI adoption, and a fourth of Indian enterprises are in the transformation phase.

Data security tops the list of concerns for 30% of Indian enterprises, while 26% of organisations "remain unclear" about the future skillsets required, the survey said, highlighting the urgent need for strategic foresight and structured, cross-functional reskilling pathways.