Engineering is another job people expected AI to take first but turned out to be one of the safest.
Many tech workers believe AI will take their jobs, so they think the safe move is to work in AI. However, the data says the opposite. In a survey of 1,552 India-based professionals by Blind, the anonymous community app for professionals, AI/ML roles report one of the highest perceived layoff fears of any function, with 66 per cent expecting a layoff or significant headcount cut in their team within the next 3 to 6 months.That puts AI/ML right next to the jobs everyone already assumes are most at risk like Sales/Marketing, which leads at 68 per cent . Product/Design is close behind at 65 per cent . AI/ML workers feel just as at risk as the ones they thought AI would replace.Engineering is another job people expected AI to take first but turned out to be one of the safest. Only 24 per cent of engineers say a cut is likely, the lowest of any function, and overall at-risk sentiment (58 per cent ) is below the survey average. Data/Analytics’ at-risk sentiment falls to 51 per cent , and 4 in 10 of its workers call a cut unlikely, the highest of any team.The fear does not come from direct layoffs but from the signs before.hiring freezesAmong workers who expect a headcount cut, hiring freezes (27 per cent ) and budget or headcount-target cuts (24 per cent ) are the strongest signals they point to. Formal layoff announcements account for just 9 per cent .In a Blind post on engineers’ job prospects in India, one Coinbase professional said: “ML is honestly dead too… The best you can do is augment your current skills for backend AI pipelines. And ride it out as long as you can.”Published on August 7, 2026
