Zoho Leaders Warn AI Is Pushing Tech Toward a Job-Light Future

Artificial Intelligence is rapidly transforming how companies operate, and the technology sector is now feeling its impact more deeply than ever. From automated coding to faster product development cycles, AI is helping businesses achieve in weeks what once took months or even years. But this surge in productivity is also raising a difficult question: if machines can do more, how many humans will still be needed?

Leaders at Zoho Corporation, one of India’s most prominent global software companies, believe the industry has reached a critical turning point. In a recent post on X, Raju Vegesna, Zoho’s Chief Evangelist, warned that tech companies are approaching what he called a “productivity tipping point” — a phase where gains from tools like AI could reduce the need for large workforces.

“Every industry reaches a productivity tipping point after which the number of jobs in that industry starts to shrink. We have seen this repeatedly as productivity gains lead to smaller workforces,” Vegesna wrote. Drawing a historical parallel, he added, “In the US, around 1.5 per cent of the workforce is in farming today, yet they produce nearly ten times what about 40 per cent once did. Productivity increased. Workforce shrank. The same pattern played out in manufacturing. Now we’re seeing it in tech.”

Vegesna’s message reflects a growing unease across the technology world. As AI tools become better at writing code, fixing bugs, analysing data, and even designing systems, companies can deliver more products with fewer people. While new roles may emerge, he believes the overall number of jobs in tech could decline over time, even if the change happens gradually rather than overnight.

These concerns are echoed by Zoho co-founder Sridhar Vembu, who has been candid about how AI is reshaping software development. In several posts, Vembu explained that artificial intelligence is dramatically increasing the output of experienced engineers while simultaneously reducing the need for large teams of junior developers.

“AI makes senior architects more productive and reduces the need for junior engineers,” Vembu wrote. He compared modern developers to orchestra conductors, with AI tools now doing much of the detailed work that once required entire teams.

Vembu also shared a real example from within Zoho. According to him, one engineer recently built an advanced assembly and machine-code security tool in just one month — a project that would normally have taken three or four engineers nearly a year. “He has developed this alone, in a month, what a team of 3-4 would have taken a year at least,” Vembu wrote.

The engineer, he said, credited the breakthrough to a powerful AI model. “He told me he found the Opus 4.5 AI model to be a game changer. Until that model, he was not all that enthusiastic about AI generated code but now he has revised his opinion.”

Yet alongside the excitement, Vembu raised a troubling dilemma. If companies hire fewer junior engineers because AI can handle much of the workload, how will the next generation of senior architects be trained? “But if we don’t have junior engineers, we don’t get to train the next generation of architects — after all, how does someone become a software architect without being a junior engineer first?” he asked.

Summing up the magnitude of the shift, Vembu compared today’s AI tools to the industrial machines that once replaced manual weaving. “Powerful machine looms have arrived for software development,” he wrote, “challenging the handloom weavers that we have been in software — and the implications are enormous.”

Together, these warnings from Zoho’s leadership suggest that while AI is unlocking extraordinary efficiency, it may also usher in a future where tech teams are smaller, flatter, and far more dependent on intelligent machines than ever before.