According to a survey by London U.K.-headquartered Willis Towers Watson, automation will double over the next three years in Indian factories. Companies in India expect use of automation in the workplace to increase from a current 14% to 27% in three years; higher than the global and APAC average.
Manufacturing, as Professor Dani Rodrik of Harvard University, puts it, is “the quintessential escalator for developing economies.” Only 18.5% of India’s labor force is skilled or holds an intermediate or advanced level of education, according to the United Nations Development Program. Contrary to the traditional outlook where automation was believed to replace humans to minimize costs, the Willis Towers Watson study found that more than half the companies in India believe that automation will augment human performance and create new work, not replace it.
Last updated: December 26th, 2025
