Brics embraces AI but leaves job displacement largely unaddressed

Brics New Delhi Declaration backs AI-driven growth and worker re-skilling but leaves unanswered what happens to jobs lost to automation.

NEW DELHI: Brics has set out an ambitious plan to prepare people for an AI-driven economy, but its New Delhi Declaration leaves a key question largely unanswered — what happens to workers whose jobs are lost or sharply changed because of automation and AI?The declaration calls AI an “immense opportunity to stimulate economic growth and sustainable development for all” and backs wider access to AI, while stressing safety, security, inclusion and reliability.

But on employment, its response is largely to prepare workers for changing skill needs rather than spell out what happens when technology replaces existing work.The declaration commits Brics countries to strengthen cooperation in “forecasting skills needs by analysing labour market trends in digital, green, care and other priority sectors”. It also welcomes Brics Connect, the “BRICS Cooperation Network for Capacity Building, Employability, and New Skills and Technologies”, focused on skills for changing labour markets.The declaration addresses some changes already taking place. It calls for nationally tailored approaches to expand social protection for gig and platform workers and recognises the need to protect workers moving across borders, including through portability of benefits. It also notes an initiative to establish an “International Digital Platform for Remote Employment” for Brics countries.But there is no equivalent, specific commitment on workers whose existing jobs may disappear because of AI.

The declaration does not propose a Brics system to identify occupations exposed to automation, provide transition support to affected workers or measure AI-related job losses.That gap stands out because Brics is simultaneously encouraging wider use of AI across its economies. Its Centre for Industrial Competencies supports manufacturing companies, including SMEs, in adopting Industry 4.0 and advanced digital production technologies, including AI.

Brics does recognise some AI-related risks beyond employment. In the intellectual property section, it notes “risks relating to misappropriation and misrepresentation of knowledge, heritage, and cultural values” that are insufficiently represented in datasets and AI models.For workers the declaration promises labour markets that are “future-ready”, “ensuring that no worker is left behind”.