Chapter Synopsis
He works in marketing at a mid-sized company in Gurugram — postgraduate degree, good salary, six years in the role, a team of four people reporting to him. Two phones, always within reach. Every week, meetings where strategies are debated and campaigns are approved. By any reasonable definition, he is a successful professional.
He also uses ChatGPT. He drafts client emails faster with it, produces first-cut briefs that he then refines, and last month used it to prepare talking points for a presentation. In conversations about AI, he positions himself as someone who has adapted. He is, he believes, ahead of the curve. He is using the technology. He is not afraid of it.
Using a tool is not the same as being irreplaceable. 92% of Indian knowledge workers now use AI — India ranks first in the world. That is not a sign of safety. It is a sign of how deeply the tool has penetrated the work that was once considered immune.
TCS shed 12,261 jobs in July 2025 while growing revenue 1.3% and profit 5.9% in the same period. That is the sentence that matters. More revenue, more profit, fewer people. 64,000 IT jobs were shed in FY2024 alone. Campus hiring fell 60%+. PhonePe reduced its customer support headcount by 60% over five years.
Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, said in February 2026: 'White-collar work... most of those tasks will be fully automated by an AI within the next 12 to 18 months.' The shore was never safe. The person standing on it, watching the wave approach, was already in the water.
Using a tool is not the same as being irreplaceable. 92% of Indian knowledge workers use AI. That is not a sign of safety. It is a sign of how deeply the tool has penetrated the work that was once considered immune.