Everyday Reflections

I have been thinking about the brouhaha over the H-1B visa and believe a deeper look at Indian IT is in order. 

The sector’s under fire on two fronts: 

→Due to the hike in H1B visa fees to $100,000.
→From the disruption by artificial intelligence.

Indians make up 70% of H1B visa recipients, with China trailing behind at 12%. The new fees surpass 60% of Indian workers’ annual salaries in the US as they draw lower median wages, hitting us more than global peers. Indian IT companies could also see a drop in profit margin.  

Besides that, AI is threatening to eliminate entry-level jobs. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that he’s confident customer service jobs will be among the first to go, along with those who do routine coding tasks. 

It’s disheartening that highly skilled professionals — from developers to creators — who help build the system are under threat. They are stuck in bloated teams and face delays as they await endless approvals. While they bring value, creativity, and problem solving skills — essential to enable differentiation in products and services — they are struggling to prove their worth.

The service-model mindset is partly to blame. The role of the ‘knowledge worker’ has been diluted — from someone who applied expertise in solving complex problems and innovating to merely executing tasks. By including people in the decision-making chain who add no value but facilitate communication, we end up hindering agility. 

Corporate organisations are filled with pointless mid-management roles that reduce accountability. It’s possibly the result of an experiment gone wrong or an inability to fix the basics. Anthropologist David Graeber used the term “bullshit jobs” to describe such redundant positions in his 2018 book. In the era of AI, when information can be aggregated and distributed without intervention, it’s a wonder why we retain such roles. 

The lack of accountability that drives the current top-down system has to be fixed. So far, the skilled went abroad to become system builders, while India was left with mid-level staff. 

Now, we need to reframe India as a launchpad. Educational institutions, startups, and R&D labs must turn co-creators and lead skilled talent to use AI as a catalyst to creation. We need to set clear expectations for tech workers, provide resources and autonomy, give feedback, and establish a culture of ownership. 

The National Education Policy 2020, which aims to integrate application-based learning within mainstream education, could prove to be a game-changer. Companies also need to create pathways and opportunities for innovation at home. It’s only through such interventions that we can change the mindset that the only path to success lies abroad. 

So, yes, we do need to rethink some roles. But, it’s not that of a highly skilled tech professional. 

#ArtificialIntelligence #H1BVisa #Software #IT #Technology