Automation has threatened IT employment, but it is also creating jobs in the sector, going by the placement trend at the top institutes in the country.

Many job offers are now focused on machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), product designing and research. Earlier, coding and data analytics were the major profiles, according to an official at an institute.

The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, which recently concluded its first round of campus placement, reported the same number of job offers by the software majors like Microsoft, Yahoo and NEC Corporation as the previous year, says a student associated with the placement cell.

"The high skilled students, updated with the latest technologies and government policies, were the preferred choice of software majors this time," says Sandeep Meshram, head of campus placement cell at College of Engineering Pune (COEP) in Maharashtra.

High-skilled jobs require analytical and critical thinking. The emerging fields of AI, robotics, cloud computing, high-end product designs, advanced web platforms need these set of skills.

Almost 90% computer science students of COEP and Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI) in Mumbai, top-rated state-run colleges in Maharashtra, have been placed this time with the pay packages that are at par with the IITs.

"With automation rising, other sectors, too, will require high-end product designers, research and development engineers and solution architects focused on the convergence of technologies. But there's dearth in supply," said Ramachandran Ganapathy, founder and managing director of Trigyn Technologies, an Indian software company having businesses around the world.

"Cloud computing and cyber-security are the other two focus areas where skills are in high demand, though business process management and big data analytics will continue to remain core for the evolution of business process automation," he said.

Moreover, digital platforms are expected to see a greater shift towards Java Scripting frameworks like Angular JS which will require end-to-end product implementation skills across platforms.Ganapathy said, "As enterprises have grown across geographies with reliance on large workforce and business process compliance, they are now looking at emerging technologies in instrumentation, cognitive analytics, internet of things (IoT), and blockchain. They have started investing heavily in R&D to keep pace with the changing time."

However, the impact of AI may not be as visible in India as in the US or Japan for a few years, thanks to our demographic dividend, feel experts. Nevertheless, Indian IT companies have started hiring cautiously. "For instance, TCS has created TCS Digital which offers jobs with almost double pay package compared to the parent company," says Farhan Shaikh, consultant with a French IT company.

However, the low-skilled jobs offers have declined, mainly due to skewed demand in BPO industry which is facing pressure due to double blow - anti-immigrant sentiments in the US and the UK and automation. "Mass recruiters such as Accenture, TCS, Tech Mahindra and IBM have hired less this year," said VM Phalle, campus placement head at VJTI.

To get a fair idea how our workforce, including white collar jobs, is set to change in the coming years, one can look at software major Wipro.

The company is deploying AI platform 'Holmes' to automate several projects, which will free around 3,000 engineers from software maintenance activities and help Wipro save up to $46.5 million.

Likewise, Japan's Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance is reportedly replacing 34 insurance claim workers with "IBM Watson Explorer," this year. The explorer will scan hospital records and patients' history to determine insurance payouts.

IBM's Watson Explorer is a cognitive search and content analysis platform that gives access to all data as well as uncovers patterns to improve decision-making and customer service with the help of built-in machine learning and natural language processing.

While Fukoku Mutual will spend $1.7 million on the installation of Explorer and $128,000 a year on its maintenance, it will save roughly $1.1 million per year in employee salaries. This translates into a return on the investment within two years.

But who will make those self-driving cars, robots and other automation machines? Of course, humans, with little higher skills than them.

Hence, more jobs are now available in the areas of artificial intelligence, machine learning, product design, cloud computing, design thinking and research on the convergence of technologies, say experts.

The HFS, a US-based research firm, predicted six months ago that India's IT services industry would lose 6.4 lakh low-skilled jobs to automation in the next five years. The firm also predicted that by 2021, the IT industry worldwide would see a net decrease of 9% jobs or about 1.4 million jobs.

The report says IT industry is expected to see a 50% increase in high-skilled jobs in the next couple of years because of adoption of automation and paradigm shift across various sectors including manufacturing, supply chain, logistics and financial services.