02-07-2025
Sorry techies, in a few years plumbers, electricians will have ‘more pricing power' in market in AI era, IIM alumnus's shocking prediction
In a world where degrees often decide respect and salary, one IIM-Mumbai graduate is shaking the table. Lokesh Ahuja recently took to LinkedIn with a bold prediction that's making India's white-collar workforce pause: in the near future, plumbers, electricians, and carpenters may be more valuable than coders and product managers. Why? While AI is rapidly replacing knowledge workers, hands-on skills are still irreplaceable.
Reflecting on how society celebrates IIM grads making crores but ridicules creators doing the same, Ahuja highlighted the real driver of wealth: supply and demand. "There are over 2 lakh IIM grads in India, but fewer than 10,000 creators with over a million followers,' he wrote. Those few creators who make it big aren't just influencers—they're CEOs of their own attention engines.
But this wasn't just a post about the creator economy. Ahuja's real warning lies in what comes next: the quiet yet inevitable rise of skilled manual labour in the age of AI. As automation sweeps across industries, traditionally 'safe' jobs like analysts, writers, and even coders are becoming vulnerable. With supply surging, value drops. Meanwhile, plumbers and electricians—jobs that can't be automated (yet)—might soon have more pricing power than your average MBA.
'The hard truth is: it's not about what you studied. It's about whether the market still needs it,' Ahuja concluded. Ahuja further added in the comment that this shift in value isn't new—it's just the next wave. 'Not the first time we've seen this kind of shift,' he wrote. 'In the 90s, coders out-earned bankers. In the 2000s, startup founders with no degrees leapfrogged CXOs. Now, it's creators and researchers.' According to him, every few decades, the job market resets, moving away from rigid, linear career paths to reward impact over pedigree. 'The rules change,' he added.
