With automation taking place at a much faster pace across industries, domestic software firms that employ over 16 million are set to slash headcount by 3 million by 2022, that will help them save $100 billion, mostly in salaries annually, Bank of America said in a report.
About 9 million of them are employed in low-skilled services and BPO roles, as per industry association Nasscom. Of these 9 million roles, 30%, or about 3 million, will be lost by 2022, principally driven by the impact of robot process automation or RPA. Roughly 0.7 million roles are expected to be replaced by RPA and the rest due to other technological upgrades and upskilling, according to the report.
“TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL, Tech Mahindra and Cognizant and others appear to be planning for a 3-million reduction in low-skilled roles by 2022 because of RPA upskilling.
“This is $100-billion in reduced salary and other costs... on the flip side, it offers a likely $10 billion boon for IT firms that successfully implement RPA and $5 billion from a vibrant new software niche by 2022.”