Opendoor office shut: AI will end many jobs in India, Silicon Valley VC warns

Opendoor on Thursday announced it was shutting down its entire India office and would now use smaller but AI-augmented teams in the US. The move has led to a chatter on social media with Silicon Valley investor Sheel Mohnot saying this is just the beginning.

In Short

• Opendoor shuts India operations, impacting nearly 250 employees
• The company is moving back to the US and adopting smaller AI-powered teams
• Investor Sheel Mohnot says India might lose more jobs as AI arrives at more workplaces

US real estate technology company Opendoor is shutting down its India operations, a move that will impact nearly 250 employees. The company says it is shifting work back to the United States and reorganising around smaller AI-powered teams. The move has added to the worries around AI and its looming threat on India's outsourcing industry. In fact, Silicon Valley investor Sheel Mohnot, believes this may only be the beginning. Mohnot warns that as AI becomes increasingly capable of handling routine work, many jobs in India could eventually disappear.

Mohnot, a partner at venture capital firm Better Tomorrow Ventures and a well-known fintech investor, reacted to Opendoor's announcement on X, saying, "As manual work gets replaced by AI, a lot of jobs will be lost in India." His comment came after Opendoor CEO Kaz Nejatian shared an internal note explaining the company's decision to wind down its India-based operations.

In the note, Nejatian said Opendoor had nearly 250 employees in India when it launched "Opendoor 2.0" a few months ago. Since then, some roles have already been relocated to the United States. The company is now completing the process of moving those functions closer to its customers in America and beginning the closure of its India operations.

According to Nejatian, the shutdown of Opendoor's India office is part of a broader change in how the company operates. He said Opendoor had built a large team in India over the years to handle manual processes. But as the company has improved its systems and started using more AI, it is now relying on smaller AI-powered teams based in the United States. Opendoor believes these teams can do much of the same work with fewer people while staying closer to customers.

Mohnot believes Opendoor's decision could be a warning sign for the broader outsourcing sector. For years, companies have relied on India for large teams handling operational and support work. But as AI is becoming more capable, some of that work could be done by smaller teams supported by AI tools.

Following on the post of Mohnot, technology investor and writer John Loeber pointed to Opendoor's decision as evidence that AI could reshape global labour markets.

Referencing earlier predictions by entrepreneur Daniel Gross, Loeber argued that countries such as India and the Philippines derive a significant share of their economic activity from outsourced white-collar work and could face disruption as AI takes over more of those tasks. Mohnot agreed to his argument.

AI vs outsourcing

The biggest concern for the outsourcing industry is the rise of agentic AI. These are AI systems that can complete complex, multi-step tasks with little human involvement. As the technology improves, many believe it could take over work that is currently done by large offshore teams, potentially reducing demand for outsourcing services.

Instead of employing hundreds of workers to manage repetitive processes, companies may increasingly rely on smaller teams supported by AI agents capable of completing much of the work automatically. In fact, TCS Chairman N. Chandrasekaran recently said the company could eventually have as many AI agents as human employees. He also said the industry would not hire at the same scale it did over the past two decades.

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