India is set to lose a third of its 7 lakh or so low-skilled “rote” jobs to robotic process automation (RPA), according a report published by US-based research firm HfS Refresh.

The report said that while the number of low-skilled job profiles will diminish by 2022, the number of medium and high-skilled jobs are set to increase by 1 lakh and 1.9 lakh jobs respectively.

The cumulative effect of job losses and gains in all three skill categories will lead to a net loss of 4.5 lakh jobs in India by 2022.

Worldwide, the IT and the Business Processing and Outsourcing (BPO) industry is expected to see a net decrease of 7.5 percent in job numbers with the US, UK and India bearing the brunt of the losses incurred.

The report said that to reap the benefits of the proliferation of high-skilled jobs, which are set to grow by 57 percent in the next five years, close to 20 percent of the current IT force must be reskilled while we still have time on our hands.

"While companies are taking time to build the impact of RPA into service contracts ... Time is on our side to manage the transition and train staff for the future," the report said.

“The next five years we can manage, it's the five after that when the impact on labor becomes much more challenging,” it added.