India, April 10 -- There is a certain irony in the data now circulating through the inboxes of tech journalists. It does not originate from a think tank or any multilateral institution. Instead, it comes from a US-based construction technology firm called Planera. A study by this firm ranks Malta, a Mediterranean island with just 333,000 workers, as the world's most Artificial Intelligence (AI)-exposed economy.

It simply means nearly half its workforce is in roles that machines can already replicate. After Malta come Canada, Greece, Cyprus, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the United States, Spain, Belgium and Italy.

This implication is counter-intuitive. The most immediate disruption will not be on factory floors, but in cognitive and serv...