GenAI to automate 40% of IT, media job roles within three years, say experts

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), already reshaping the white-collar job market, is expected to push even more job roles at risk as the technology reaches maturity over the next three years.

Building on this trend, Anupama Bhimrajka, VP of Marketing at foundit, noted that nearly 42% of transactional and execution-heavy roles could be restructured or automated once GenAI adoption reaches its full potential.

"The threat of AI-driven redundancy is particularly high for roles that are rule-based, objective, repeatable, and transferable," said Divya Kurup, Business Head - Sales Staffing at Xpheno.

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In the tech sector, roles such as test engineers, QA testers, and software test engineers are increasingly becoming vulnerable as agentic AI tools and large language models (LLMs) mature. Meanwhile, in media and creative agencies, jobs that require heavy execution in design, graphics, video production, animation, and podcasting are witnessing growing pressure from automation, as clients demand faster and more scalable content delivery.

'Jobs already disappearing'

The impact of GenAI is visible across IT, services, retail, and media, said Neeti Sharma, CEO of TeamLease Digital.

AI-embedded tasks have triggered 5-8% job cuts in IT services, 3-5% in e-commerce and retail, 2-4% in FMCG, and 5-7% in media, with the deepest impact on data entry, quality testing, and basic customer support functions.

"Companies are saving about 15-25% in operating costs where GenAI has automated or streamlined roles," Sharma told Storyboard18.

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"In IT and GCCs, GenAI tools have reduced the need for manual coding, testing, and reporting teams by around 20%, while in e-commerce and FMCG, digitising CRM and content tasks has led to 10-15% savings".

'Emerging opportunities'

However, experts emphasized that the GenAI era is not about job loss--it's also spawning a workforce of AI-proficient and creative professionals.

"While some roles will be restructured, the GenAI shift will also unlock a wave of demand for talent that can blend human judgement with machine intelligence," said Bhimrajka.

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The emerging opportunities for white-collar professionals include AI engineers, automation architects, prompt engineers, AI model validators, compliance managers, data scientists, creative strategists, and AI content creators.

Experts have projected that while IT and media will experience the highest level of automation (up to 40% tasks), FMCG and retail sectors will maintain a hybrid model, where human insight remain core to storytelling and customer engagement.