NDTV ProfitOctober 12, 2026

IMF Chief Warns AI Will Eat 40% of Jobs, First Jobs After Graduation Most at Risk

What to look for
Through concrete assessments from the IMF chief — an estimated 40% impact on jobs worldwide and falling demand for first jobs after graduation — you can grasp the scale and shape of AI's shock to the labor market.
Why it matters
Understanding the AI producer-infrastructure-adopter structure and how impacts differ by country income level helps in interpreting AI and employment news.

In a World Bank 81st-meeting interview, the IMF chief names the United States, China, and India as the core producers in the AI supply chain and explains that Asia, including Thailand, handles AI infrastructure. Despite the energy supply shock, the world economy keeps growing at around 3%. AI adoption is a slow-moving but tsunami-like shock, and about 40% of jobs worldwide are estimated to be augmented, downgraded, or eliminated. Large language models disrupt jobs in advanced economies, but in middle- and low-income countries small AI holds great opportunity to grow jobs and productivity. Demand for first jobs after graduation is already falling, with the clearest evidence in the most AI-exposed tech sector and spreading across all sectors. All directional outlooks are the speaker's conditional judgment and do not confirm any short-term price prediction.

Timeline

3 segments

Was this helpful?

Educational information only; not investment advice.