AI in your career elevator. Here’s where you go up, and down

The common myth that followed AI’s hype was- it will take away human jobs. Then came a view with a more patient and hands-on lens- it will not displace humans but augment them. But Vijay Swaminathan, CEO, Draup unpacked a different, and more handy, picture of AI’s rolling balls moving towards human pins in workforce alley. Turns out not all pins fall down. Some topple, get their balance back. Some fall flat on the lane. Some move up to higher levels.

Yes. Instead of getting a blanket impact-gaze of AI on human jobs, it is more interesting to see it pushing new buttons for various floors on an average white-collar person’s career path.

Entry-level jobs are becoming AI’s breakfast. But the levels beyond it are getting re-whipped for both humans and AI. While there has been a 30 per cent inflection in mid-2025 in AI hiring, entry-level jobs are witnessing a dip of 12 to 14 per cent (2024-25) at a global level.

“One study on high performers we did had showed that AI is a force-multiplier with them.  These humans find themselves empowered as super-workers with AI working alongside them. But it has also been seen that there is a hidden downgrade of some high-skill roles like QA engineer, HRIS data analyst, application developer etc.  ”

In the next five years, only one-third of tasks will be done by humans (a 47 per cent human share reduction is observed). But early-career parts are in the bright spots, Swaminathan weighed in. “Jobs like prompt engineer or multi-modal AI associate are in this area. Also many mid-level career roles are now shrinking in experience window (five years to two years) and they are now shifting to entry-level career roles.”

Perhaps it would be hard for entry-level workers to adapt to this future but those who can leverage high-skill areas in a hybrid-AI-human way and those in early career phases will gain a lot – if they stand in the right spots.
The best impact is how AI has been rearchitecting the space per square feet in these new elevators. Now even people with no/less degrees or people with special abilities can be in this pool. AI has redefined careers with an inclusivity factor. 

Swaminathan was speaking on ‘Recomposition of work’ at the 18th edition of Zinnov Confluence.

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