In a time when many are worrying about artificial intelligence snatching away jobs, Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy has a very different message: don’t fear AI—learn to work with it. He believes AI will bring smarter work, not mass unemployment.
Speaking to Moneycontrol, the 78-year-old tech pioneer said, “This whole fear that technology will take away jobs is not right. It will create a different kind of job.”
He compared it to a moment in Indian history many professionals still remember. When computers first came into banks in the 1970s, unions resisted. They thought jobs would vanish. That didn’t happen.
“Everybody said when computers came to the banking sector, jobs would go away. But jobs have multiplied by a factor of 40 to 50,” Murthy said.
He believes AI will follow the same path.
ChatGPT changed his workflow and might change yours too
Murthy didn’t just speak in theory. He revealed that he’s a daily user of OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4 and that it has transformed the way he works.
“Earlier, I used to take about 25–30 hours to prepare a lecture, because I take these things very seriously. There must be a theme, a sub-theme; they must be interrelated. At the end, there must be a strong message, all of that,” he said.
Then his son, Rohan Murty, suggested trying ChatGPT to speed things up. It worked.
“In a matter of five hours, I could improve the draft. In other words, I improved my own productivity by as much as five times,” Murthy said.
The point wasn’t that AI wrote everything for him. It was that AI helped him think and write more efficiently. That’s the model he believes others can follow.
No divide between management and tech
In India’s current education landscape, many students still debate whether it’s better to study management or engineering—especially with AI reshaping industries.
Murthy dismissed that divide entirely.
“I do not see any difference between a management graduate and a technology graduate because they attack the problem at different levels. One asks ‘what,’ while the other focuses on ‘how’,” he said.
To him, both are crucial in the AI age. And both must learn to think better, not just faster.
Smarter work, not harder work
Looking to the future, Murthy said AI will shift how people solve problems rather than take over their roles. For India’s massive IT workforce, that means more sophisticated thinking will be required.
“What will happen in the future is our programmers and analysts will become smarter and smarter in defining better and better requirements, more complex requirements. They will solve bigger problems, more complex problems,” he predicted.
But to do that, people will need to ask the right questions.
“The smartness is in asking the right question,” he said. It’s not just about doing more—it’s about thinking better.
Productivity is the true promise
Murthy’s core message is that AI can unlock a new level of productivity—if people treat it as a collaborator, not a competitor.
“It is all about improving productivity. It is all about solving problems that are beyond human effort,” he said.
He believes the human role won’t disappear. Instead, it will become more strategic. People will need to focus on defining complex problems clearly, using AI to execute the solution.
This view puts the emphasis on human intelligence—not artificial.
For Murthy, this moment isn’t about job destruction. It’s about transformation. And it requires a mindset shift.
He said, “The smartness is in providing the requirement definition… The smartness is in asking the right question.”
In a world filled with fast-changing tools, that kind of clarity might become the most important skill of all.
Speaking to Moneycontrol, the 78-year-old tech pioneer said, “This whole fear that technology will take away jobs is not right. It will create a different kind of job.”
He compared it to a moment in Indian history many professionals still remember. When computers first came into banks in the 1970s, unions resisted. They thought jobs would vanish. That didn’t happen.
“Everybody said when computers came to the banking sector, jobs would go away. But jobs have multiplied by a factor of 40 to 50,” Murthy said.
He believes AI will follow the same path.
ChatGPT changed his workflow and might change yours too
Murthy didn’t just speak in theory. He revealed that he’s a daily user of OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4 and that it has transformed the way he works.
“Earlier, I used to take about 25–30 hours to prepare a lecture, because I take these things very seriously. There must be a theme, a sub-theme; they must be interrelated. At the end, there must be a strong message, all of that,” he said.
Then his son, Rohan Murty, suggested trying ChatGPT to speed things up. It worked.
“In a matter of five hours, I could improve the draft. In other words, I improved my own productivity by as much as five times,” Murthy said.
The point wasn’t that AI wrote everything for him. It was that AI helped him think and write more efficiently. That’s the model he believes others can follow.
No divide between management and tech
In India’s current education landscape, many students still debate whether it’s better to study management or engineering—especially with AI reshaping industries.
Murthy dismissed that divide entirely.
“I do not see any difference between a management graduate and a technology graduate because they attack the problem at different levels. One asks ‘what,’ while the other focuses on ‘how’,” he said.
To him, both are crucial in the AI age. And both must learn to think better, not just faster.
Smarter work, not harder work
Looking to the future, Murthy said AI will shift how people solve problems rather than take over their roles. For India’s massive IT workforce, that means more sophisticated thinking will be required.
“What will happen in the future is our programmers and analysts will become smarter and smarter in defining better and better requirements, more complex requirements. They will solve bigger problems, more complex problems,” he predicted.
But to do that, people will need to ask the right questions.
“The smartness is in asking the right question,” he said. It’s not just about doing more—it’s about thinking better.
Productivity is the true promise
Murthy’s core message is that AI can unlock a new level of productivity—if people treat it as a collaborator, not a competitor.
“It is all about improving productivity. It is all about solving problems that are beyond human effort,” he said.
He believes the human role won’t disappear. Instead, it will become more strategic. People will need to focus on defining complex problems clearly, using AI to execute the solution.
This view puts the emphasis on human intelligence—not artificial.
For Murthy, this moment isn’t about job destruction. It’s about transformation. And it requires a mindset shift.
He said, “The smartness is in providing the requirement definition… The smartness is in asking the right question.”
In a world filled with fast-changing tools, that kind of clarity might become the most important skill of all.
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