SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Indian-American billionaire Vinod Khosla made bold predictions during a recent conversation with Gruhas co-founder Nikhil Kamath on his WTF podcast.
Considered one of the most influential venture capitalists and the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, Vinod Khosla is well-versed in the movements in the business sector. In his recent feature on Kamath’s podcast, Khosla cautioned the BPO industry about its potential obsolescence due to the rapid adoption of AI.
Software IT services will mostly disappear. Disappear means transform pretty radically. Whether some of those companies can transform or not will determine whether they survive or not.
While his statement was primarily made to capture the current circumstances within the Indian industries, it can still caution the BPO and IT sectors worldwide.
Its Implications for the BPO and IT Industries
A recent upshot of tech layoffs has already highlighted this predicament. Earlier this year, several tech companies, including Microsoft, Meta, Panasonic, TCS, and Intel, laid off thousands of employees as they adjusted to the impact of AI.
This serves as a sharp wake-up call for both employers and employees to adapt to the advancements in AI.
Within the next five years, any economically valuable job humans can do, AI will be able to do 80% of it.
The message is clear: companies must adapt or risk sinking. This is a call for businesses to transition from human-centric systems to outcome-focused and automation-first operations.
The rapid integration of AI in today’s businesses will transform how value is perceived in the BPO and IT industries. Companies must learn to embed AI at the core of their service and operational processes.
What This Means to Professionals
During this conversation, Vinod Khosla didn’t only leave with a predicament. He also provided advice, especially to the most affected population: the professionals.
Most people try to do something that looks like a business. I say go after something that looks like a dream.
In an era where AI makes everything faster and clients prefer automation, Khosla believes the real value lies in being audacious. He encourages young professionals to be generalists, as AI will be engineered to perform narrow tasks more effectively.
