Amid fears of AI-induced job losses, Anand Mahindra warns about ‘far bigger crisis’ hitting the world
Amid fears that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will steal jobs, Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra has warned of a bigger crisis ahead.
In a post on
He cited a podcast by Ford CEO Jim Farley, who said there were no takers for $120,000-a-year mechanic jobs at the company.
“Ford CEO Jim Farley made a surprising statement in a recent podcast: Ford has 5,000 unfilled repair jobs, many paying $120,000 a year, and still no takers. More than a million key positions remain vacant across the U.S. in plumbing, electrical, trucking and factory operations,” he said.
Anand Mahindra warned that this is not the future. “It’s happening now.”
Artificial intelligence cannot replace these jobs
Mahindra Group Chairman argued that desk jobs can be replaced but jobs that require real-world skills cannot be eliminated.
“For decades, we’ve pushed degrees and desk jobs to the top of the ‘aspirational’ ladder and quietly pushed skilled jobs to the bottom. But these are jobs that AI can’t replace: they require judgment, manual dexterity, apprenticeships and real-world expertise,” he said.
Mahindra asked: “So the real question is: Are we about to witness a reset in the career that society sees as a dream?”
If this trend continues, he said, people who can actually build, repair and keep the world running will be the biggest winners of the AI era.
“Marx imagined workers rising through struggle. He never imagined they would rise because they had become too skilled, too scarce, too necessary to replace them. A revolution not through violence, but through the discovery of value,” he said.
What did netizens say?
Anand Mahindra’s view sparked an intense debate about X; Netizens agreed with the industrialist and emphasized how important skilled trades are.
“Be careful! We’re so dazzled by the glare of AI that we dim the lights on the work that makes our world go round. Imagine: robots coding code but humans still need to wire servers. The real revolution? Raising apprenticeships to PhD status. Who’s ready to replace the cubicle with the toolbox,” one person said.
Another person said basic work is a new aspiration at a time when workers with fair degrees are in oversupply.
“It’s crazy how a degree-obsessed culture has forgotten the people who make society tick. Mechanics. Electricians. Plumbers. Truckers. Skilled workers who built the world while the world was chasing titles. And now demand has reversed. High wages. Zero supply. Artificial intelligence looms on corporate desks as human hands become priceless. The cinematic switch comes into play when you imagine a generation discovering that essential work is the new aspiration. A reset driven by value, not fear. The value type for us Ignore for too long. This The moment feels important.
“Funny how we made everyone feel bad about working with their hands and now those same people are irreplaceable and impossible to get paid like doctors. The economy told us what real scarcity looked like and we weren’t even listening,” a third user added.
