AI will wipe out IT and BPO jobs in 5 years, tech billionaire says
MUMBAI, INDIA — Artificial intelligence (AI) will wipe out India’s IT and business process outsourcing (BPO) sector within the next five years, tech billionaire Vinod Khosla warned ahead of the India AI Impact Summit 2026.
In a report from Hindustan Times, Khosla said AI systems are rapidly drawing close to a point where they can outperform humans in nearly all expert-driven tasks, posing a remarkable threat to traditional white-collar jobs.
“IT and BPO services will disappear, almost certainly within the next five years,” Khosla said.
“In the next five years, AI will be better than most humans at most things. There’s very little where humans will be substantially better,” Khosla added.
How artificial intelligence will disrupt white-collar jobs
Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and founder of Khosla Ventures, emphasized that AI will not just supplement workers but autonomously take on complex roles.
“AI workers will be able to do accounting. They’ll do accounting better than accountants. An AI worker can be a physician, a doctor, an oncologist, a mental health therapist, a physical therapist,” he said.
Cognitive automation is expected to precede physical robotic labor by roughly five years, further intensifying the disruption across both intellectual and manual industries.
Khosla explained that AI functions as a basic technology shift that enables machines to perform human cognitive tasks. The technology has the potential to deliver substantial productivity improvements while it creates extensive job disruptions.
Expertise-driven professions, including law, medicine, chip design, and architecture, are especially at risk.
Shifting from IT outsourcing to global AI exports
Despite the looming disruption, Khosla urged India’s 250 million young people to pivot toward AI-driven products and services rather than rely on labor-intensive outsourcing models.
“India could become the largest exporter of AI-based goods and services to the rest of the world, not IT services,” he said.
High-quality healthcare, tutoring services, and legal support can be obtained at low costs, while robotics technology will create automated physical work solutions for all industries.
The expert warned that extensive job losses will create a bigger wealth gap, which will lead to social unrest unless the government implements redistribution programs and develops proper policy strategies.
Countries that develop national AI systems through their AI research institutions will gain a competitive edge against the United States and China, which are expected to dominate the global AI field.
Khosla’s warning indicates that the outsourcing industry needs to develop new approaches to its business operations. The sector needs to become a global employment generator through its AI innovation and service export activities.
The global market, experiencing rapid changes, determines that organizations must develop their ability to adapt in order to succeed, as AI technology will soon replace traditional labor-arbitrage methods.
