Gen AI no threat to jobs: Sindhu Gangadharan, MD, SAP Labs India

Sindhu Gangadharan, MD, SAP Labs India, assures young tech grads that smart technologists are always wanted globally. Gen AI is not a threat to job prospects, but an opportunity to focus on innovation and become the best at it. SAP India is equipping product owners and managers with extensive training to make them AI ready. 53 India-developed Gen AI solutions were showcased at SAP TechED 2023.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) is no threat to anyone’s job prospects, instead, more young and smart technologists are going to be required round the globe and there is no doubt about it, said Sindhu Gangadharan, MD, SAP Labs India and Vice-Chairperson, Nasscom.

She was allaying concerns over a common misconception that Gen AI would do away with some jobs, while responding to a query from The Hindu on ‘Hiring freeze and job outlook’ in the tech industry.

“The tech sector in general was overwhelmed and hired a lot of people during the pandemic. Now, the demand has rationalised. But that doesn’t mean no jobs. So, find your niche, know where you want to focus on and become the best at it is my message to the young tech grads. Market fluctuations will anyway keep happening, but smart technologists are always wanted all over the world,’‘ she said.

However, she agreed that there was a lot of banter going on around Gen AI, and ‘honestly’ that had to settle down a bit. “Again, we can talk about a lot of use cases, but concrete application of these use cases is what matters and for that we require smart engineers right?” she argued.

With Gen AI offering enterprises extra power of technology, technologists could now focus on what matters the most, spend more energies in innovation or use the rest of the hours in doing something more better, she stated.

Commenting on the job scene she said, “It is a phase we have to go through. It is critical for young engineers to focus on what they bring to the table. No doubt they will get hired,’‘ assured the technologist, the first woman to lead SAP Labs India, who is responsible for overseeing the product development and innovation at all five centres of SAP in Bengaluru, Gurgaon, Pune, Hyderabad, and Mumbai.

Ms. Gangadharan further said, 34% of SAP’s workforce was early talent (freshers), especially when many tech services firms in the country announced hiring freeze or negative hiring in the last two quarters.