New Delhi, Sep 10 — Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani said on Thursday at the Global Fintech Fest (GFF) that India’s best defence against job disruption from artificial intelligence may not be creating more large firms but enabling millions of small businesses to grow.
Nilekani said when large corporations use AI to improve efficiency and reduce headcount, a broader base of small enterprises would spread employment and make the economy more resilient to automation.
“If you want to create an economy that’s generating jobs, it’s not necessarily done by having a few big companies. It’s going to come from having millions of small companies,” he said.
He said jobs created by smaller businesses could be “safer” and help “AI-proof an economy”.
Further, Nilekani also mentioned potential for AI and digital infrastructure to give small businesses capabilities that were earlier largely associated with bigger companies.
“You can have a small business with a 24/7 agent, the best analysis on the Internet, a token that talks to itself and a marketplace, and sell it or give a loan against it,” he said.
He forecasted that technology could ease the process for smaller enterprises to participate in markets on an equal footing with larger businesses. “If you want businesses to have access, you should be able to make it easy for a small business to participate as if it's a large business,” Nilekani said.
Nilekani also stressed that digital systems should be designed on an inclusive basis to serve a broad section of the population. “We must build systems that can reach everybody. It's not for a few that we do this,” he said.
On infrastructure necessary to build global markets for tokenised assets with enough demand and liquidity, he said that they should be placed “on a public chain.”
“You have to think through the ecosystem design of the organisation of regulated assets on how it's used and to get liquidity,” Nilekani said.