SOURCE : NEW18 NEWS
Last Updated:June 08, 2025, 15:35 IST
Sridhar Vembu, Zoho founder, discussed AI’s impact on jobs, emphasizing economic distribution.
Sridha Vembu said, ‘There will be at least one country in the world that would get the political economy right.’
Sridhar Vembu, Zoho founder, recently posted on X discussing AI’s impact on jobs. He speculated on the scenario where all software development is automated, emphasizing that we are far from achieving this. Vembu highlighted that even if software engineers are rendered jobless, humans will still have tasks to perform.
He pointed out the economic challenge: how can people afford goods from automated factories without being employed? Vembu proposed two solutions to this problem. Firstly, prices of AI-produced goods could drop significantly, possibly to zero, akin to the cost-free nature of breathing air. Secondly, remaining human-performed tasks, such as childcare, home-cooked meals, nursing, farming, forest restoration, and local live performances, could become highly paid. This would ensure income circulation, enabling people to purchase the cheap goods from automated factories.
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Vembu clarified that if robots and AI automate all production work, tasks like childcare would yield high purchasing power due to the affordability of goods. He stressed that this issue is fundamentally about economic distribution and political economy, not just technology. Governments must curb monopolies, especially tech ones, to ensure goods’ prices reflect their low production costs driven by AI and automation. Vembu concluded optimistically, believing at least one country would get the political economy right.
On the subject of AI and jobs: Hypothetically, if all software development were to be automated – I want to emphasize that we are _nowhere_ close to that goal – and all software engineers such as myself are out of work, it is not like human beings will have nothing to do.The…
— Sridhar Vembu (@svembu) June 7, 2025
“This is fundamentally an economic distribution problem, a problem of political economy and not purely a technological problem. One key part is for governments to crack down on monopolies, particularly tech monopolies. Only that will ensure that the prices of goods reflect the very low cost of production arising from AI and automation,” he adds.
About the Author
Varun Yadav is a Sub Editor at News18 Business Digital. He writes articles on markets, personal finance, technology, and more. He completed his post-graduation diploma in English Journalism from the Indian Inst…Read More
Varun Yadav is a Sub Editor at News18 Business Digital. He writes articles on markets, personal finance, technology, and more. He completed his post-graduation diploma in English Journalism from the Indian Inst… Read More
- First Published:
June 08, 2025, 15:16 IST
