CEA Nageswaran Releases White Paper On AI, Automation And Jobs

Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India V. Anantha Nageswaran released a privately authored white paper on artificial intelligence, automation and employment on Sunday.

The paper is titled AI, Automation and India’s Workforce: Who Gains, Who’s Exposed, and How Policy Can Shape the Future.

Who authored the paper

The paper was authored by Vidya Mahambare, chairperson of the Centre for Finance and Economics Research at Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai.

The other authors are Vivek Jadhav, assistant professor of Economics at the Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad, and Vishnu Venugopalan, an Indian Administrative Service officer currently serving as Additional Secretary to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister.

During the launch, bureaucrats, industry experts and members of academia were among those present.

AI exposure has risen since 2012

According to the paper, the share of Indian employment exposed to artificial intelligence has risen modestly since 2012.

The paper also said the quality of that exposure has improved.

The share of employment with a realistic chance of AI complementarity has risen as well, although fewer than 8% of employed people were in these occupations in 2025.

The paper said the ratio of substitution pressure to complementary work has fallen.

However, work under substitution pressure still outweighs complementary work by half, according to the paper.

The share of employment in routine work exposed to automation pressure rose by 4.8 percentage points between 2012 and 2025.

These figures place the paper’s focus on both sides of technological change: work that may face substitution pressure and work in which artificial intelligence could complement employees.

Younger workers face greater exposure

According to the paper, the number of workers in AI complementary occupations stood at 46.3 million in India.

The corresponding figures were 52.5 million in the United States and 20.9 million in Russia.

AI exposure is concentrated among workers in the early stages of their careers and declines steadily with age, the paper said.

About 29% of workers aged 25 to 34 are in AI-exposed occupations.

That is 10 percentage points higher than the share among those aged 55 to 64, which stood at about 19%.

The age pattern is one of the paper’s key descriptions of how exposure to artificial intelligence is distributed across the workforce.

Southern States lead in exposure quantity

The paper said the southern States lead in the quantity of AI exposure, but not in its quality.

The five southern States have an average employment share of 30.9% in AI-exposed occupations.

By comparison, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are at the lower end, with shares ranging from 16.8% to 20%.

The paper therefore distinguishes between the extent of AI exposure and the nature of that exposure when examining employment across regions.

Published - October 11, 2026 10:31 pm IST

Source: The Hindu