Telkom Executive Outlines Characteristics of Workers at Risk from AI Displacement

Jakarta – The concern that artificial intelligence will replace human workers across various industrial sectors has become a matter of debate. However, PT Telkom Indonesia Tbk believes such worries require a more comprehensive perspective.

Komang Budi Aryasa, Executive General Manager of Digital Product at Telkom Indonesia, asserts that the wave of AI-driven disruption will actually create far more new job opportunities than jobs lost.

“So compared with jobs that are disrupted, many more new jobs are created. We also predict the same pattern in the AI world,” he stated during Telkom’s Business Update in Jakarta on Monday, 2 March 2026.

Komang emphasised that the narrative of AI replacing humans is not entirely accurate. According to him, what is actually occurring is a shift in required competencies.

“It is not AI replacing people. We will be replaced by people who are smarter at mastering AI than we are,” said Komang.

He explained that individuals most vulnerable to disruption are those unwilling to adapt and lacking mastery of AI technology. Consequently, enhancing capability becomes the key to remaining relevant in the job market.

“People who will be disrupted are those who do not master AI,” he stressed.

Telkom encourages society, including professionals across various fields, to actively learn and utilise available AI tools.

“Our effort moving forward must involve learning AI. We must learn to enhance our capabilities with the AI tools that exist. So do not remain idle,” said Komang.

He cited the example of journalists, who also need to adapt to technological developments.

“For instance, in journalism, people also need to learn the AI tools that now exist,” he noted.

Komang acknowledged that repetitive or routine work does have the potential to be replaced by automated systems and AI. This phenomenon, he noted, has long occurred in the manufacturing sector.

“When repetitive, routine work is replaced by AI, just as has already happened in factories with robots,” he said.

However, he views this condition as an opportunity to advance into more strategic roles with greater added value.

By mastering AI tools, workers are seen as capable of contributing to other industries or taking on new roles that previously did not exist.

Komang summarised Telkom’s perspective in two key points. First, although some jobs will be replaced, AI is believed to create more new types of jobs overall. Second, the actual threat comes not from the technology itself, but from people who master AI and will replace those who do not.

“It is not AI replacing us, but people who master AI who will replace us,” he concluded.