India, April 7 -- AI was supposed to change how we work, boosting efficiency and giving a fillip to human expertise. Instead, something unsettling has begun to unfold. The apprehension that AI would one day throw people out of their jobs has arrived way too early, with thousands of big tech employees waking up to early-morning emails: "Unfortunately, your role has become redundant in a company-wide restructuring effort."

That's what's happening at large tech companies, and technology giant Oracle is just one case in point. Recently, the company laid off 30,000 employees globally. In the final week of March itself, as many as 10,000 employees (across divisions, including cloud and engineering teams) reportedly woke up to an early morning ...