'90% of jobs could experience some degree of disruption by Gen AI': Cognizant-Oxford Economics study

Bengaluru: With an increasing number of organisations adopting AI, employees are concerned about job disruption because of its pace and scale. A recent Cognizant-Oxford Economics study pointed out that in the next 10 years, 90% of jobs could experience some degree of disruption by Generative AI. It said that most jobs will see some change from Gen AI, and over half could be greatly impacted.

Experts say the modern workplace is fast evolving. "AI is no longer something you read about in headlines — it's already in your office, your tools, and your daily workflows. Across industries, jobs are shifting in ways we're still getting used to, and that can feel unsettling," Grassik Search Director & Head Tech-Enabled Businesses Sahil Thakur.

There is no doubt that a significant number of jobs will be replaced by AI. 

But what one needs to understand is that AI isn't here to replace anyone. It's here to improve productivity and handle monotonous and repetitive tasks, he explained.

"Those endless data entries are gone. Formatting long reports has been automated. What's left is what humans do best — thinking creatively, making tough decisions, building relationships, and leading teams. Take a programmer who now spends less time hunting bugs and more time architecting solutions. However, the future workforce must upskill themselves to be eligible to handle these new tools and make the best use of them. As AI evolves, new unique roles will get created, and those who are well-versed with AI will remain relevant in the future," Thakur said.

Cognizant has set a new goal to upskill a total of 2 million individuals by the end of 2030. As of October 2025, over 163,000 India-based associates have completed a course on Gen AI fundamentals.

The report said that adoption of Gen AI could move quickly in the decade ahead. In another five years, Gen AI will assist roles that have traditionally been the exclusive domain of human intuition and experience. It also pointed out that no business can guarantee layoffs will not occur and that by reskilling, businesses will grow the overall productivity pie.

SAIGroup MD Kalyan Kolachala sees parallels with the dot-com boom, when he was in the centre of it in Silicon Valley. SAIGroup is an enterprise AI investment and operating firm. "Then we overestimated the speed of change while underestimating the eventual impact of the digital economy and the internet, and I feel the trajectory will be similar to AI. The AI disruption should not be a cause of alarm, but a call for action," he said.

AI will certainly be a huge productivity aid and augment jobs, and in some cases, humans will be the experts validating/verifying AI output. This increased productivity implies that many jobs will evolve and people will need to move up the value-chain, where there will be many more jobs, he further said.

He calls for re-skilling and continuous learning in AI tools and technologies, and other relevant applied skills, where companies and the government need to help. "There are also unique human skills which AI is unlikely to replace and will remain in demand. It is also a huge opportunity for India, given the young digital talent, and thus India can become the AI talent capital by 2035, but only if we start reskilling today," he added.