Open Instagram today and you’ll notice something striking: almost every other ad, filter, or trend is powered by AI. What once felt like a Silicon Valley experiment is now in our feeds — and in our jobs.
The recent decision by TCS (Tata Consultancy Services), one of India’s largest IT companies, to lay off 12,000 employees is proof enough: AI is not coming, it is here, and it is rewriting livelihoods across India.
For years, India celebrated the fact that we produce over 15 lakh engineers annually. It was proof that we were a nation of builders, thinkers, innovators. But the ground has shifted.
A TeamLease Digital survey shows only 1.6 lakh freshers are expected to find jobs in FY 2025 — a sharp drop from 2.3 lakh the year before. These are not just numbers. They expose a brutal reality: a machine-driven workforce that is faster, cheaper, and, in many cases, more reliable than humans is pushing our graduates out of the very jobs we once prided ourselves on.
If this is the crisis for India’s engineers, what does it mean for the Northeast — where youth unemployment is already among the highest in the country? What happens when a region struggling with jobs meets a future where even engineers are being replaced? Where opportunities in technology and industry are scarce, and access to AI, data science, or cloud computing education remains rare, the gap threatens to widen unless we move now.
Yet there is hope. A NASSCOM survey found that 62% of professionals aged 40–60 who actively reskilled and networked landed equal or better roles within 18 months. If mid-career workers can reinvent themselves, what excuse do we — the younger generation — have for not adapting?
The truth is simple: adaptability is survival. AI is not just another tool; it is a new language of work, and we must learn to speak it.
India is already the second-largest market for ChatGPT, with over 13.5% of global users. OpenAI’s decision to set up an Indian unit and open its first office in New Delhi confirms what the numbers say: the world sees India as the frontline of the AI revolution.
But here lies the danger. Unless we learn to create with AI, not just consume it, we risk becoming passive users in a global game where the real power lies with creators. Our education must go beyond coding. It must teach young people to think critically, ask better questions, and use AI as a collaborator rather than a crutch.
And the Northeast is not starting from zero. Tripura’s plan to introduce AI in every panchayat — backed by full computerisation and the Amar Sarkar portal, which resolves local issues within 15 days — has already been praised by the Prime Minister as a model for the nation.
Arunachal Pradesh’s ₹11.37 crore Smart Agriculture Mission is giving farmers real-time insights on soil, weather, and crop health through AI and IoT sensors. In Assam and Tripura, Quickobook is using AI-powered telemedicine to bring multilingual consultations to villages where people once traveled hours for basic care.
Scattered today, these examples signal something bigger: AI, deployed thoughtfully, can close long-standing gaps in our systems.
These experiments show what’s possible at the village or state level. But while the Northeast is experimenting with AI for agriculture, governance, and healthcare, the global AI race is unfolding at an entirely different scale — one that could reshape not just jobs but entire societies.
The global race toward Artificial General Intelligence — where machines can outperform humans at nearly all intellectual tasks — is accelerating. Many of the very researchers building these systems now warn that misaligned AI could threaten not just jobs but democracy, decision-making, even human agency. We already live with algorithms that manipulate what we see online, nudge our choices, and polarize elections. Scale that to superintelligent systems, and the risks deepen.
This is why the Northeast, and India as a whole, must walk carefully. Yes, we must embrace innovation.
But if we adopt blindly, without safeguards, without teaching independent thinking, we risk sleepwalking into dependence on systems we neither built nor control.
The paradox is clear: AI can empower us, but it can also erode what makes us human — our imagination, our empathy, our independence of thought.
The Northeast, with its traditions of storytelling, community, and lived wisdom, has a unique advantage. If harnessed well, these cultural strengths can balance technological change with human-centered values. Technology must serve people, not the other way around.
The rest of the world isn’t waiting for us to catch up. The choice before us is stark: will we be mere spectators of this revolution, scrolling endlessly while others write the future?
Or will we dare to step in — to learn, to build, to compete? The answer will shape not just our personal futures but the place of the Northeast in India’s story of progress.
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