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Anand Mahindra warns of ‘far bigger crisis’ than AI wiping out white-collar jobs
The biggest winners of the AI era can be people who can actually build, fix, and keep the world running, Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra says.
Anand Mahindra has warned of “a far bigger crisis” at hand amid fears that AI will wipe out white-collar jobs.
“For decades, we pushed degrees and desk jobs to the top of ‘aspirational’ ladder and quietly pushed skilled trades to the bottom,” the chairman of the namesake conglomerate that makes software to SUVs wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Yet, these are the jobs AI cannot replace: they require judgement, dexterity, apprenticeship, and real-world expertise.”
To be sure, Ford Motor Co. CEO Jim Farley had alluded to the same talent scarcity at the company that invented the assembly line.
Speaking on the ‘Office Hours: Business Edition’ podcast, Farley had said that Ford has 5,000 vacant mechanic jobs—many paying $120,000 (roughly a crore rupees) a year—but still no takers. Across the US, over a million essential roles in plumbing, electrical work, trucking and factory operations are lying vacant.
According to a study by Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute, there will be 2.1 million vacant manufacturing jobs in the US by 2030. The cost of those missing jobs could potentially total $1 trillion by then.
“This isn't the future. It's happening now,” Mahindra said in his post. “So, the real question is: Are we about to witness a reset in what is considered a dream career?”
“If this trend continues, the biggest winners of the AI era will be people who can actually build, fix, and keep the world running.”
