Indian-origin techie shares Delhi Uber driver’s fear of job loss after AI Summit: ‘’Main kya karoon, Madam?’
A social media post an Indian-origin techie recounting a conversation with her cab driver after the Delhi AI Summit has sparked an online discussion about automation, employability, and the human impact of artificial intelligence. Ishika Mukerji, head of US-based AI company Morphic, shared on X how her cab driver asked a simple yet troubling question: “AI will take away our jobs, Madam?”Mukerji wrote that while the AI summit left her inspired technological progress, it also left her unsettled. (Representational image/Unsplash)According to Mukerji, the question came up as she was returning from the AI summit, still immersed in conversations about innovation, investment, and India’s AI future. The driver, she said, then showed her his college degree – describing himself as a “college topper” and the “first in his family to ever get educated”. The driver told her that, despite his qualifications, he now drives for Uber to support his family.“He said it so plainly it hit different: ‘A task that used to need 100 people now needs 10. Main kya karoon, Madam? I will keep trying, you think I like doing this?’” Mukerji quoted him as saying. The driver added that several companies had told him they were automating roles he had applied for. “I didn’t study for 4 years to drive a car. But what choice do I have right now?” she said.(Also Read: US CEO attending AI Summit surprised to see Bata store: ‘Had no idea it was such a universal brand’)Mukerji wrote that while the AI summit left her inspired technological progress, it also left her unsettled. “Because we are building at a speed that most people cannot keep up with. And nobody is stopping to ask, what happens to him? The first-generation graduate. The topper with no safety net. The guy who did everything right and still got left behind,” she explained.“The AI summit had panels on regulation, on investment, on scaling. Not enough on education. Not enough on how do we bring everyone into this conversation, not just the builders and the funders, but the people whose entire livelihoods are being quietly restructured something they don’t fully understand yet and nobody has properly explained to them,” Mukerji added.She further called for more courses, workshops and grassroots sessions in languages, added that AI literacy was becoming essential for survival rather than a luxury.Social media reactionsHer post quickly drew strong reactions online, with many users saying it highlighted the gap between rapid technological change and workforce preparedness.One user wrote, “We talk about AI disruption in boardrooms and on panels, but for him it’s not disruption – it’s survival. He didn’t ask for sympathy. He asked for clarity. He did everything right – studied hard, woke up at 5am, kept trying and still feels left behind. That’s the real gap we need to address. Build, yes. Innovate, absolutely. But if we don’t educate and include, we’re just widening the divide.”“This is the real tragedy of people like him! Educated but not employsble and then fear of AI! Thanks for sharing! Often in bubble, we do not think of others!” commented another.“Not sure how real it is, but since I build & deploy AI into actual businesses daily, I see this happening very closely. Job pressure is real. It’s not gonna reduce, it would increase. Ignoring it now will just make it harder later. But AI is mostly killing repetitive work, not hardworking people. In our SaaS someone would identify the data, understand the numbers, and then make a report with lot of human errors. Now AI does most of it faster. Same person did not become useless suddenly. They just moved from manual work to more decision making stuff. Yes it feels scary at first, totally fine. But once people start using AI themselves, fear usually reduces. We have talent in bulk, not enough exposure,” wrote a third user.
