Continuous skilling key as AI shifts from tool to ‘digital colleague’; Microsoft to invest $17.5 billion in India data centres
Artificial intelligence will fundamentally reshape jobs rather than eliminate them, and India is well-positioned to lead the “AI century,” Puneet Chandok, President of Microsoft India and South Asia, said on Monday.
Speaking at the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) “Democratizing AI Resources for Economic Growth and Social Good” event, held as part of the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, Chandok said AI would “unbundle” jobs into smaller, task-based components instead of replacing workers outright.
“AI will not kill jobs. AI will unbundle jobs. Your job is a bundle of tasks. What AI will do is unbundle it,” he said, adding that continuous skilling will be critical for professionals to stay relevant in a rapidly evolving technology landscape.
Chandok described the next phase of AI as one where systems evolve from tools into “digital colleagues.” The real transformation, he said, will occur when AI moves beyond being an application on a phone or laptop to becoming a true teammate—agents with perception, cognition and agency that act “with your permission, but not your involvement.”
He also noted that AI could disrupt traditional business models, particularly those built around billing by the hour. “AI doesn’t bill hours; it gives you outputs. If AI can draft a legal document in 30 seconds, you cannot charge by the hour,” he said, signalling a shift toward outcome-based economics.
Highlighting India’s potential to lead globally, Chandok pointed to government investments in artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure, alongside a broader “full-stack” approach spanning energy, chips, tokens, models and applications.
Microsoft has announced plans to invest $17.5 billion over the next few years to expand its data centre capacity in India, he said, describing it as part of a significant infrastructure build-out.
Chandok emphasised that large-scale skilling will determine whether India capitalises on the AI opportunity. “If you’re not learning AI today, if you’re not learning every day, you’ll be redundant,” he said, adding that the real transformation will come “when a billion people in India rise with AI.
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