Brics Backs AI Growth, But Stays Quiet on Jobs Lost to Automation

New Delhi: The Brics New Delhi Declaration sets out an ambitious plan to prepare people for an AI-driven economy, but leaves one central question largely unanswered: what happens to workers whose jobs are lost or sharply changed because of automation and artificial intelligence?

The declaration describes AI as an "immense opportunity to stimulate economic growth and sustainable development for all" and backs wider access to the technology across member economies. It also stresses that the spread of AI must be safe, secure, inclusive and reliable.

On employment, however, the emphasis falls on preparing workers for shifting skill requirements rather than on 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", which is aimed at equipping workers for changing labour markets.

Some changes already under way are addressed directly. The declaration calls for nationally tailored approaches to widen social protection for gig and platform workers, and recognises the need to protect workers who move across borders, including through the portability of benefits. It notes an initiative to establish an "International Digital Platform for Remote Employment" for Brics countries.

Yet there is no equivalent, specific commitment for workers whose present jobs may disappear because of AI. The declaration does not propose a Brics system to identify occupations exposed to automation, offer transition support to affected workers, or measure AI-related job losses.

That absence stands out because Brics is at the same time encouraging the wider use of AI across its economies. Its Centre for Industrial Competencies supports manufacturing companies, including small and medium enterprises, in adopting Industry 4.0 and advanced digital production technologies, among them AI.

The declaration does acknowledge certain AI-related risks beyond employment. In its section on intellectual property, it flags "risks relating to misappropriation and misrepresentation of knowledge, heritage, and cultural values" that are not adequately represented in datasets and AI models.

For workers, the document promises labour markets that are "future-ready", stating that it aims at "ensuring that no worker is left behind".

Brics began as a grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and has expanded in recent years to include additional members. Its economies sit at different stages of industrialisation and automation, which means the pace and scale of job disruption is likely to vary widely from country to country.

Summit declarations of this kind are statements of shared intent rather than binding obligations. The commitments on skills forecasting, social protection for platform workers and cross-border benefit portability are frameworks for cooperation; each member government retains the responsibility for deciding how, and how quickly, to act.

That division of responsibility is precisely why the unresolved question matters. Re-skilling programmes can help workers move into new roles, but they do not by themselves answer what happens to those whose jobs vanish before new ones are available, or to those whose skills cannot be transferred to emerging sectors.

By backing AI adoption while stopping short of a shared plan for displacement, the New Delhi Declaration leaves the hardest part of the transition to national governments, and to the workers who will experience it first.