Labour market resilience emerged as a central theme at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 during a session titled “Global Dialogue on AI Usage – Data for Labour Market Resilience.” The discussion examined the changing nature of work amid accelerating artificial intelligence adoption and the policy choices required to manage the transition effectively.
Drawing on emerging international evidence, panellists noted that AI’s impact on employment is differentiated across age groups, sectors and geographies. Early trends suggest that younger workers in roles with higher AI exposure may be experiencing employment pressures. However, the absence of comprehensive and comparable cross-country data continues to limit governments’ ability to design timely and targeted interventions.
The discussion underscored the importance of moving forward with adaptive policy frameworks even in the absence of perfect information. Strengthening social protection systems, expanding reskilling pathways and designing context-specific strategies for sectors such as services, agriculture and public delivery were highlighted as essential steps to ensure inclusive growth.
Shamika Ravi, Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, observed that India shows one of the highest levels of firm-level AI adoption, characterised by openness and optimism. While productivity effects are still being measured, she noted that AI in India is likely to be applied to long-standing challenges in health, education and services, particularly where last-mile connectivity constraints have limited outcomes.
Yoshua Bengio, Professor at Université de Montréal and a leading AI expert, stated that employment trends observed over the past five years are likely to continue shaping the job market. He cautioned that access to AI will increasingly become a competitive advantage, underscoring the need for international coordination and dialogue to ensure AI development benefits all.
Representatives from Microsoft and OpenAI highlighted that much of the existing evidence on AI’s employment impact is concentrated in a few countries, particularly the United States, with limited data available from emerging economies. This gap makes it difficult to draw firm conclusions and reinforces the need for systematic global data collection on AI adoption and employment outcomes.
The session concluded that strengthening labour market resilience in the AI era will require better measurement of technology adoption, anticipatory governance, coordinated investments in skills and institutional capacity, and robust social protection systems. Only through such integrated efforts can productivity gains from AI translate into broad-based economic and social benefits.
