Palanivel Thiaga Rajan’s View on AI and Human Capital

• Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, Tamil Nadu’s Minister for Information Technology and Digital Services, views AI as augmentative technology rather than a replacement for human capital.

• He believes India will become the largest source of working-age human capital in the world in the next 20 years.

• Rajan highlights the volume of data collected, stored, and available for analysis, stating that data collection and storage are automatic.

• He emphasizes the shift towards automation and processing, but acknowledges the limitations of technology.

• Rajan believes the ultimate benefit of AI would be to address governance problems, stating that governments have under-invested in infrastructure, processing capability, and cybersecurity.

• He predicts job replacements will happen, but not immediately. Rajan believes that collective efforts from government, industry, academia, global companies, and innovators will see this as an inflection point in technology and economic activity.