Ankur Kumar, a delivery partner with Blinkit in Noida, works a minimum of 12 hours a day, six days a week. On days when he still has energy left, his work stretches to 15 hours. Kumar is unaware though that just 50 km away, in Gurgaon, drones are now delivering the same groceries and medicines he does—faster, and at a much cheaper rate.

On most days, the odometer on Kumar's two-wheeler clocks between 100 and 180 km. For each delivery, he earns a base pay of Rs 15 for a trip within a km, and Rs 10-14 for every extra km. Reports suggest drones are doing the same work for just Rs 4 a km.

While artificial intelligence (AI) replacing white-collar jobs is widely talked about , what often goes unnoticed is how AI-driven automation threatens workers like Kumar, part of India's 12-million-str

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