AI, layoffs and the demand trap: The prisoner’s dilemma facing corporate India
Every CEO in India today is staring at the same irresistible choice: deploy AI, reduce headcount, boost productivity and protect margins. PwC’s 2026 AI Jobs Barometer confirms it: companies most exposed to AI are clocking 40% higher productivity growth than the least exposed. At an individual company level, the math makes perfect sense.
The problem starts the moment every CEO does the same math, at the same time, across the same economy. This is a classic prisoner’s dilemma – a situation where the most rational individual choice produces the worst collective outcome.
