Is AI boon or curse for the job market?

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Once upon a time in the bustling city of California, there was a spirited debate echoing through the streets and boardrooms – whether Artificial Intelligence (AI) was a boon or a curse for the job market.

In the heart of the city, a group of optimistic tech enthusiasts believed AI to be a magical boon, a genie granting wishes for efficiency and innovation. They saw AI as the gateway to a world where repetitive tasks vanished, leaving room for humans to focus on creativity and complex problem-solving.

On the flip side, skeptics huddled in the shadows, viewing AI as an impending curse, a mythical monster threatening to devour jobs. They feared the displacement of traditional roles, envisioning a landscape where machines outperformed humans, rendering some professions obsolete.

As the debate raged on, a wise person stepped forward, urging the citizens of California to embrace a balanced perspective. The elder emphasized that while AI might disrupt certain jobs, it would also create new opportunities, unlocking realms of innovation and entrepreneurship. ​

The noble individual introduced the masses to his new invention, an idea that he had nurtured in his startup. His idea originated from his past professional experience. As a Software Engineer, he had to take several interviews each day which was both tiring & cumbersome because as a recruiter it was his responsibility to recruit the best of the people who fit in perfectly with the desired roles. While at a job, he realized that many companies were facing similar issues in hiring people who met their job criteria & could excel in the Technical rounds. That individual went by the name Rahul Arora who later became Co-founder & CEO of Intervue.io, a startup that recently got an offer from as many as 3 Shark Tank judges. More on this later.

The year was 2019, when Rahul thought of converting his idea that allowed Interviewers & Interviewees to seamlessly connect over a platform into reality. The broader goal was to outsource the Technical round of the Interview process to a platform that will result in making the process efficient & less time-consuming. Thus the startup got its name Intervue.io. Now that idea had seemed to gain some traction, to scale up rapidly it had to gain access to both funding & mentorship.

Rahul along with Co-founder Puspender Rautela sought to look at a favorable market where they could gain access to Strategic capital & mentorship. Rahul found India, the World’s most populous market with a booming young population as the perfect place to launch their startup. Most importantly the company had a thriving Startup base. Now that he had found a market he wanted to gain access to Capital & Mentorship. One late night while Rahul was surfing through different channels on his Television set, he switched on the popular reality show Shark Tank India where 5 Sharks were giving funding offers to Startups with high-achieving potential in exchange for equity or debt with a good interest.

Rahul found this as a perfect opportunity to not only get access to Strategic Capital & mentorship but also gain a lot of traction among the masses for his platform. In short, achieving two targets with one arrow. He spoke to Pushpender & they both mutually agreed on launching their idea in India formally & chose targeted Shark Tank to be their Capital-accessing destination.
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Rahul filled in the papers & both set on their visit to India where they finally got an opportunity to make a case in front of the 5 Sharks. Their ask was simple & to the point but before we come to the result of whether they succeeded in gaining access to capital or not let’s first understand the Operating Model of Intervue in detail.

Intervue.io aims to revolutionize the interview process with its innovative Interview As A Service platform. Organizations, through Intervue, can seamlessly outsource their interview tasks, leveraging skilled interviewers who conduct thorough assessments and deliver comprehensive reports on their behalf.

Apart from outsourcing this platform acted as a one-stop destination for all the testing requirements of the Interviewers, providing the following services:

Assess candidate in real-time through their coding environment
Share Assessment across batches
Send projects to their candidates to test their knowledge & skills.

The best part about this platform was, First there were no competitors as of date in India, while there was one in the US, Second, the company was profitable already which meant it was over its initial setting up phase & third the platform had a big potential to go global where a person sitting in Europe or US could take the interview of an interviewee sitting India. This opened up the job markets like nothing before. ​

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The valuation quoted by the Startup was ₹75 Cr. & the ask was for ₹1.5 Cr. for 1% of equity. The pitch seemed to have left an indelible mark on the minds of the sharks with as many as 3 Sharks namely Aman, Anupam & Deepinder giving offers. Ultimately Aman was chosen over the rest in a deal where the startup would get ₹1.5 Cr. for 2% of equity.

While here, Rahul & Pushpendra pitched their startup in front of the world, in some other corner of the world a debate raged on- Is AI a boon or a curse for the job market?

Seems like the answer lies in the pudding itself. If one looks at this startup closely, one would find that while AI tends to make a few jobs irrelevant, it has the potential to add millions more. For eg. in this case, Intervue is making the lives of millions of job seekers & interviewers easier by connecting them over a platform. The role of HR Manager in a company doesn’t change as much. It broadly changes from being a primary recruiter role towards a more company-intrinsic role. In other words, towards setting up policies, solving issues of employees & overall ensuring a healthy environment & work culture to be followed in the organization.
Ultimately, people learned that the tale of AI was not a simple dichotomy. It was a nuanced narrative, with both boons and challenges woven into its fabric. The key, they realized, was to navigate this technological frontier wisely, ensuring that the magic of AI contributed to the prosperity and evolution of their vibrant job market. And so, the story of AI continued, with citizens adapting and thriving in the ever-evolving landscape of progress.
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