Artificial Intelligence Poses a Major Threat to Employment Prospects of Fresh Engineering Graduates

Due to the increasing use of Artificial Intelligence, or AI, securing jobs in the technology sector may become extremely difficult for fresh students graduating with engineering degrees in India. According to a report published by Aaj Tak, companies are now significantly increasing the use of AI for all those tasks that were previously assigned to entry-level employees. Nasscom President Rajesh Nambiar has issued a serious warning, stating that if our education system does not adapt rapidly alongside technology, students will enter the market with skills that are no longer useful.

This entire shift is not limited only to new employees, but it is also forcing India's leading IT services companies to seriously rethink the old structures of their businesses. Companies will have to explore abundant opportunities in completely new fields such as cybersecurity, AI consulting, AI implementation, and its maintenance. Nambiar clearly believes that difficulties will certainly arise during this transition period, but the long-term overall perspective remains very positive.

Speaking in detail during a special interview with Nikkei Asia, Nambiar stated that AI has begun changing the ways and standards companies expect work from their employees. Routine coding as well as software testing tasks have now started happening very quickly on their own. It is noteworthy that these were the same tasks that had hitherto provided opportunities for young engineering graduates to secure entry-level jobs in their careers. He emphasized that until India's IT industry adapts itself according to this changing business environment and conditions, difficulties for new employees will continue to mount.

In this context, Nambiar added that this is a matter of grave concern from the perspective of new employees, and I will not present this fact in any other soft or mild words. If our education system cannot adopt this transformation quickly enough, students will graduate acquiring knowledge that has long become obsolete and useless. Nambiar firmly believes that in order to prepare students according to the types of jobs that will be offered by companies in the future, making large-scale changes to the entire computer science and engineering curriculum in India is imperative. He stated in clear words that the need for changes in the curriculum is greater today than it has ever been before.

Every year in India, a massive number of students take admission into various engineering colleges. The technology sector has always been considered the sole primary route to securing excellent and well-paying jobs. Looking at official estimates, a total of 5,903 engineering and technology colleges were operational across the country during the financial year ending in March 2026. Approximately 2.6 million students were studying across all these educational institutions.

Despite such a large scale of educational activities, the problem of unemployment among the country's graduates remains a matter of serious concern. According to estimates released by Azim Premji University, the number of unemployed graduates increased nearly fourfold to reach about 11 million during the period from 2004 to 2023.

To tackle this grave problem, some new initiatives related to AI education have also been launched by the government. These government schemes include teaching Artificial Intelligence even to young children up to eight years of age. Additionally, the government has also launched an online repository of courses on subjects associated with AI, data analytics, and cybersecurity. According to the government's own official figures, certificates for successfully completing courses have been awarded to 1.3 million people so far through these special programs.

This terrifying challenge emerging before fresh engineering students is part of the massive transformation currently underway in India's IT services industry. For many years past, software companies have been deploying large teams of employees to maintain the fundamental infrastructure of technology and handle routine everyday IT tasks. It was because of this arrangement that they derived a large share of their total revenue. But now, advanced AI tools and instruments are handling some of these tasks themselves, resulting in heavy pressure on the entire legacy business structure.

Nasscom President Nambiar stated that to make up for the decline in work received through traditional IT services, companies will now have to enter entirely new areas such as cybersecurity, AI consulting, proper AI implementation, and its maintenance. He also added that clients are now paying directly based on the final outcomes derived from any project rather than looking at the number of employees deployed to work on it.

The direct impact of all these changing business environments and commercial conditions is now clearly beginning to show on the country's prominent major IT companies.