Zoho founder and Chief Scientist Sridhar Vembu warned on Sunday morning, May 18, that high salaries in the tech industry may not last forever, through a detailed post on X.

He compared the incomes of mechanical engineers, civil engineers, chemists, school teachers, and software programmers, he stated that high-paying jobs were "not some birthright."

His cautionary note warned them, "We cannot take it for granted, and we cannot assume it will last forever." As a reminder that anyone's career path might be "disrupted," he also stated, "The fact that customers pay for our products cannot be taken for granted."

“The productivity revolution I see coming to software development (LLMs + tooling) could destroy a lot of software jobs. This is sobering but necessary to internalise,” he said, quoting Intel’s Co-founder Andre Grove, “Only the paranoid survive.”

The Zoho chief scientist's predictions about AI (Artificial Intelligence) related productivity eating jobs are consistent with the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) January 2024 report, which predicted that roughly 40 per cent of global employment would be lost to artificial intelligence.

However, some tech leaders, like Microsoft founder Bill Gates, opine that AI “taking over” jobs could be a good thing. Speaking at an event organised by The Indian Express, he mapped out a vision that sought to reevaluate traditional work structures.

“As you move away from human-driven action being a necessity, you get a lot more leisure time, and it becomes almost a philosophical question — a matter of purpose,” he said.