Most outsourced coders in India will be gone in 2 years due to A.I., Stability AI boss predicts
OpenAI Dall E 2 on a phone with an AI brain illustration seen on the screen behind.
Jonathan Raa | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Most outsourced programmers in India will see their jobs wiped out in the next year or two, Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque said.
Mostaque, on a call with UBS analysts, said that most of the country’s outsourced coders will lose their jobs as the effects of AI mean that it is now possible for software to be developed with far fewer people.
“I think that it affects different types of jobs in different ways,” Mostaque said on a call with analysts at the Swiss investment bank last week.
“If you’re doing a job in front of a computer, and no one ever sees you, then it’s massively impactful, because these models are like really talented grads.”
According to Mostaque, not everyone will be affected in the same way, however.
That is due in no small part to differing rules and regulations around the world. Countries with stronger labor laws, like France, will be less likely to see such an impact, for example.
In India, Mostaque said, “outsourced coders up to level three programmers will be gone in the next year or two, whereas in France, you’ll never fire a developer.”
“So it affects different models in different countries in different ways in different sectors.”
India is home to more than 5 million software programmers, who are most under threat from the impacts of advanced AI tools like ChatGPT, according to a report from Bloomberg.
Asia’s second-largest country is a prime location for companies that outsource back-office jobs and other roles overseas. Silicon Valley tech giants, Wall Street banks, airlines and retailers are all customers to India’s outsourcing firms.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), an Indian multinational IT services and consulting firm, is the country’s largest outsourcing provider. Others include Infosys and Wipro.
TCS has bet big on generative AI, committing to train more than 25,000 engineers on the technology over Microsoft’s Azure Open AI service to “help clients accelerate their adoption of this powerful new technology.”
In an interview with CNBC Thursday, TCS’s CEO N. Ganapathy Subramaniam said that the company began taking a “machine-first” approach to project delivery about four years ago and it showed how AI will make an “enormous impact on the way that we operate and the way that we do things.”
Generative AI, Subramaniam said, “has just advanced it by a few years.”
Mostaque reiterated a previous statement he made saying that there will be “no more programmers” in five years’ time — however, he caveated this to say that he meant coders in the traditional sense.
“Why would you have to write code where the computer can write code better? When you deconstruct the programming thing from bug testing to unit testing to ideation, an AI can do that, just better,” Mostaque said.
“But it won’t be doing it automatically, it will be AI ‘co-pilots,'” Mostaque said. “That means less people are needed for classical programming, but then are they needed for other things? This is the question and this is the balance that we have to understand, because different areas are also affected differently.”
WATCH: A.I. will make an ‘enormous impact’ on the way we operate: Tata Consultancy Services
Google chief executive Sundar Pichai speaks during the tech titan’s annual I/O developers conference on May 14, 2024, in Mountain View, California.
Glenn Chapman | Afp | Getty Images
Google will start using artificial intelligence to determine whether users are age appropriate for its products, the company said Wednesday.
Google announced the new technique for determining users’ ages as part of a blog focused on “New digital protections for kids, teens and parents.” The automation will be used across Google products, including YouTube, a spokesperson confirmed. Google has billions of users across its properties and users designated as under the age of 18 have restrictions to some Google services.
“This year we’ll begin testing a machine learning-based age estimation model in the U.S.,” wrote Jenn Fitzpatrick, SVP of Google’s “Core” Technology team, in the blog post. The Core unit is responsible for building the technical foundation behind the company’s flagship products and for protecting users’ online safety.
“This model helps us estimate whether a user is over or under 18 so that we can apply protections to help provide more age-appropriate experiences,” Fitzpatrick wrote.
The latest AI move also comes as lawmakers pressure online platforms to create more provisions around child safety. The company said it will bring its AI-based age estimations to more countries over time. Meta rolled out similar features that uses AI to determine that someone may be lying about their age in September.
Google, and others within the tech industry, have been ramping their reliance on AI for various tasks and products. Using AI for age-related content represents the latest AI front for Google.
The new initiative by Google’s “Core” team comes despite the company reorganization that unit last year, laying off hundreds of employees and moving some roles to India and Mexico, CNBC reported at the time.
WATCH: Google kills diversity hiring targets, reviewing other DEI programs
Adam Foroughi, CEO of AppLovin.
CNBC
AppLovin shares soared almost 30% in extended trading on Wednesday after the company reported earnings and revenue that sailed past analysts’ estimates and issued better-than-expected guidance.
Here’s how the company performed compared with analysts’ expectations, according to LSEG:
- Earnings per share: $1.73 vs. $1.24 expected
- Revenue: $1.37 billion vs. $1.26 billion expected
Net income in the quarter more than tripled to $599.2 million, or $1.73 per share, from $172.3 million, or 51 cents per share, a year earlier, the company said in a statement.
Revenue jumped 43% from $953.3 million a year earlier.
AppLovin was the best-performing U.S. tech stock last year, soaring more than 700%, driven by the company’s artificial intelligence-powered advertising system. In 2023, AppLovin released the updated 2.0 version of its ad search engine called AXON, which helps put more targeted ads on the gaming apps the company owns and is also used by studios that license the technology.
AppLovin’s business has been split between advertising and apps, which is primarily made up of game studios that the company has acquired over the years. With the historic growth in its advertising unit, the apps business has become much less important, and now the company says it is selling it off.
“Today we’re announcing we’ve signed an exclusive term sheet to sell all of our apps business,” CEO Adam Foroughi said on the earnings call.
Later in the call, the company said it has signed a term sheet for the sale for a “total estimated consideration” of $900 million. That includes $500 million in cash, “with the remainder representing a minority equity stake in the combined private company.”
Advertising revenue climbed 73% in the quarter to almost $1 billion. The ad business was previously categorized as Software Platform. The company said it made the change because advertising accounts for “substantially all of the revenue in this segment.”
AppLovin said it expects first-quarter revenue of between $1.36 billion and 1.39 billion, exceeding the $1.32 billion average analyst estimate, according to LSEG. More than $1 billion of that will come from its advertising segment, as the company said it is “still in the early stages” of bolstering its AI models.
“The roadmap ahead is filled with opportunities for iteration,” the company said in its shareholder letter. “As we execute, we believe we can continue to drive value creation for our shareholders.”
WATCH: AppLovin shares jump
Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins speaking on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” outside the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 22, 2025.
Gerry Miller | CNBC
Cisco shares climbed about 6% in extended trading on Wednesday after the networking hardware maker reported fiscal second-quarter results and guidance that topped Wall Street’s expectations.
Here’s how the company did against LSEG consensus:
- Earnings per share: 94 cents adjusted vs. 91 cents expected
- Revenue: $13.99 billion vs. $13.87 billion expected
Revenue increased 9% in the quarter, which ended on Jan. 25, from $12.79 billion a year earlier, according to a statement. The growth follows four quarters of revenue declines. The company said it had orders for artificial intelligence infrastructure that exceeded $350 million in the quarter.
Cisco now sees adjusted earnings of $3.68 to $3.74 for the 2025 fiscal year, with $56 billion to $56.5 billion in revenue. Analysts polled by LSEG had been looking for $3.66 in adjusted earnings per share and $55.99 billion in revenue. In November, the forecast was $3.60 to $3.66 in earnings per share and $55.3 billion to $56.3 billion in revenue.
Net income in the latest period slid almost 8% to $2.43 billion, or 61 cents per share, from $2.63 billion, or 65 cents per share, a year ago.
Revenue from the networking division totaled $6.85 billion, down 3% but more than the $6.67 billion consensus among analysts surveyed by StreetAccount.
The security unit contributed $2.11 billion. That is a 117% increase from a year earlier, thanks to the addition of Splunk. Analysts expected $2.01 billion, according to StreetAccount.
Splunk, which Cisco bought in March 2024 for $27 billion, was accretive to adjusted earnings per share sooner than planned, Scott Herren, Cisco’s finance chief, was quoted as saying in the statement. Cisco’s total revenue would have been down 1% year over year if not for Splunk’s contribution, according to the statement.
Many technology companies have been trying to predict the effects from President Donald Trump’s newly established Department of Government Efficiency. But three-quarters of Cisco’s U.S. federal business comes from the Defense Department, while most of the headcount cutting thus far has occurred in other agencies, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins said on a conference call with analysts.
“Everything seems to be progressing as we expected,” he said.
Customers do not appear to be pulling up orders before tariffs go into effect, Herren said on the conference call.
As of Thursday’s close, Cisco shares were up 5% so far in 2025, while the S&P 500 index had gained about 3%.
WATCH: Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins on impact of tariffs, AI innovation and future of DEI
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