New Delhi, July 9 -- Artificial Intelligence is typically sold as infinitely scalable digital labour-faster, more productive, and much cheaper than humans. The logic is compelling. Unlike human employees, AI systems incur no recruitment, training, benefits, office, or payroll costs, yet can draft emails, write code, analyse documents, and provide customer support around the clock. Nor do AI agents suffer from fatigue, endless meetings, coordination bottlenecks, or office politics.

That promise has encouraged companies, including some of the world's largest tech firms, to eliminate thousands of jobs while betting heavily on autonomous AI agents capable of planning, reasoning, and executing tasks. The industry has shed over 100,000 jobs in...