Nearly 197 million Indian workers are in jobs with a high share of routine tasks that could eventually be automated, according to a new study by the Centre for Finance and Economics Research at the Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai.
The study found that around 150.5 million workers, or 24.6% of the working-age population, are in occupations exposed to AI. But the split is uneven. While roughly 46 million workers are in roles where AI could improve their productivity, a far larger number face the risk of having their tasks replaced. Less than 8% of India’s employed workforce is in AI-complementary occupations.
Young and urban workers are the most exposed. Among employed people aged 15 to 24, 39.4% work in routine-task-heavy jobs. In urban areas, that figure rises to 55%. Meanwhile, over 20 million Indians aged 15 to 64 were unemployed in 2025, and 25% of engineering graduates were out of work.
The gender picture is more nuanced. Women in AI-exposed jobs are more likely than men to be in roles where AI supports rather than replaces their work. Among AI-exposed workers, 37.6% of women’s work was AI-complementary compared to 28.4% for men, largely because women are concentrated in non-routine health and education roles.
State-level variation is significant. Kerala has the highest AI exposure at 42%, while Punjab has the highest share of workers in automatable routine jobs at 44.6%. States like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand face greater pressure from possible task substitution.
The authors recommend introducing AI education in schools, expanding access to AI tools, and training workers in routine-task roles before the effects of automation fully materialise.
Source: The Print
