- Vinod Khosla predicts AI will eliminate conventional jobs by 2050 globally
- He warns India's IT and BPO sectors may vanish by 2030 due to AI disruption
- Khosla praises India's AI policies and stresses the need for sovereign AI models
Indian-American investor Vinod Khosla has issued a blunt forecast on the future of employment, arguing that artificial intelligence could upend the global jobs market within a generation and deal a severe blow to India's outsourcing-led growth model much sooner.
Addressing the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, Khosla told delegates that the long-term trajectory of AI points toward a world where conventional jobs cease to exist.
“By 2050, it'll be very clear that nobody needs jobs because with enough production of goods and services that are near free, you won't need jobs. Now, that's not to say people won't do jobs. People have much more time to spend with their kids, with their parents. You'll be able to dedicate your life to whatever passion you have,” he said.
In a warning to the BPO and IT services industry, he said the very concept would be annihilated in five years.
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“The whole idea of IT services will go away. By 2030, there will be no such thing as IT services or BPO, they will be gone. There will be new kinds of services based on AI because India has the best talent, engineers, and education in the world,” he said.
He emphasised the importance of sovereignty in AI and appreciated India's efforts at the policy level.
“At the policy level, India is doing the right thing. I have long believed countries should have sovereign AI, and that's why we have invested in Sarvam here in India. Clearly, for national defence and cyber security, you cannot have foreign models. Every country will want its own models.”
Khosla said that AI can have a far-reaching impact on healthcare access and education in India. “It is possible today and within the next year or two in India to provide a near free AI doctor to every Indian 24x7,” he said.
One of the benefits of using AI for school-level education will be personalisation, which it can offer more of than a human tutor.
“It's possible to provide every Indian child or 250 million children in India an AI personal tutor. That would be far better than if they could afford to pay for a human tutor because it can judge a person's level of knowledge, know where the gaps are, and keep at the level of personalisation nobody could.”
He further highlighted that the traditional model of education involving college and universities is set to become obsolete.
“If you ask me, then 15 years from now, I don't see any need for universities and colleges. There will be other ways to learn that are much better and on your time, without the expense of a university and the time dedication. I don't see a huge future for universities,” he said.
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