Zoho Chief Scientist and co-founder Sridhar Vembu said on Thursday that artificial intelligence (AI) could help businesses that previously could not afford software engineers and digital marketers hire such professionals as the cost of their services falls.

AI tools now allow a single worker to perform tasks that once required much larger teams, Vembu said, warning that this shift could trigger a painful economic rebalancing.

In a post on X, Vembu said that “any job performed on the computer” faces the risk of AI enabling one person to do the work of 10 people. He added that this risk is becoming increasingly real.

“This does not mean 90 per cent of people working on a computer will have no work at all. Industries that previously could not afford to hire software engineers or digital marketers could afford them now,” he said in the post.

Vembu said the broader impact could bring painful changes across the economy. He urged people to accept the coming shift and prepare for its consequences.

Earlier this month, the Zoho co-founder said the company had reduced its marketing budget and advised employees not to expect their usual pay increases this year.

He also highlighted the uncertain outlook for the software industry, saying AI had significantly increased operating costs.

Vembu noted that server prices for data centres had quadrupled, while rising AI adoption continued to drive up expenses. He said Zoho was working to control these costs.

In May, Vembu warned that soaring valuations of the world’s largest technology companies, driven by investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence, showed signs of a market bubble that could surpass the dot-com era.