As artificial intelligence adoption accelerates across economies, governments must make proactive policy choices to manage workforce transitions and build labour market resilience, global experts said at the India AI Impact Summit 2026.
Speaking at the session on Global Dialogue on AI Usage – Data for Labour Market Resilience on the second day of the summit, policymakers, economists and technology leaders examined how AI is reshaping employment patterns and the policy responses required to ensure inclusive growth. Drawing on emerging international evidence, the discussion highlighted that AI’s impact on jobs is uneven across age groups, sectors and geographies, with early signs of employment pressures for younger workers in roles with higher exposure to AI technologies.
A recurring theme during the session was the lack of comprehensive and comparable labour market data across countries, which continues to limit governments’ ability to design timely and targeted interventions. Panelists argued that policymakers cannot afford to wait for perfect data and must move ahead with adaptive frameworks that strengthen social protection systems and expand reskilling pathways.
Shamika Ravi, Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, said India stands out globally for its high levels of firm-level AI adoption, characterised by openness and optimism. While the productivity impact is still being assessed, she said AI in India is likely to be deployed to address long-standing challenges in health, education and services—areas where last-mile connectivity has historically constrained outcomes.
Highlighting the demographic dimension of the transition, Philip Thigo, Special Envoy for Technology, Republic of Kenya, said preparing for AI-driven change requires more than reskilling initiatives. “Countries with young populations alongside ageing workers, particularly in sectors like agriculture, need policies that support innovation while ensuring social protection across generations,” he said.
From a data and evidence perspective, Hector de Revoire, Director of Responsible AI Public Policy at Microsoft, noted that most existing evidence on AI’s employment impact comes from a handful of advanced economies, especially the United States. “In many emerging markets, the data simply does not yet exist, underscoring the need for systematic global measurement of AI adoption and employment trends,” he said.
Setting the broader context, Yoshua Bengio, Professor at the Université de Montréal, warned that trends observed over the past five years are likely to intensify. He said access to AI will increasingly become a competitive advantage, while countries without such access risk falling behind, making international coordination and alliances critical to mitigating adverse impacts.
Pamela Mishkin, Researcher at OpenAI, said labour market resilience should be viewed as preparing for multiple future scenarios rather than predicting a single outcome. “Waiting for perfect usage data before acting risks being too late, particularly when workers need support through difficult transitions,” she said.
Adding a research perspective, Bharat Chandar from the Stanford Digital Economy Lab highlighted a critical distinction between AI exposure and AI adoption. While jobs with higher AI exposure have seen a decline in employment among young workers, firm-level adoption shows mixed effects, pointing to the need for better data on executive expectations, productivity and hiring behaviour.
The session concluded that strengthening labour market resilience in the AI era will require improved measurement of technology adoption, anticipatory governance, and coordinated investments in skills, social protection and institutional capacity—ensuring that productivity gains from AI translate into broad-based economic and social benefits.