LLMs, tooling could destroy a lot of software jobs: Zoho's Sridhar Vembu

Bengaluru: Zoho co-founder and chief scientist, Sridhar Vembu pointed to a productivity revolution wherein use of large language models (LLMs) and tooling could potentially wipe out a lot of software jobs. 

LLM is a type of artificial intelligence (AI) program, trained on huge sets of data that can recognise and generate human language. It is used for software development, enhancing communication, customer service among other things. 

The co-founder of the cloud software company also attacked the high pay scale enjoyed by software engineers as compared to mechanical engineers, civil engineers, chemists or school teachers, stating that it is not a ‘birthright’.

“..We cannot take that for granted, and we cannot assume it will last forever. The fact that customers pay for our products also cannot be taken for granted,” he said in a post on social media platform X on Sunday.

OpenAI Chief Sam Altman had also previously said that artificial intelligence could reduce the demand for software engineers over time. While this shift is expected to not be immediate, the direction is clear. 

Last week, Microsoft laid off 3 per cent of its global workforce, slashing 6,000 jobs. 

This followed the mass layoffs by big tech players including Google and Amazon due to unstable economic conditions with AI’s role making them improve efficiency and redirect resources.