Hyderabad: The growing concern over artificial intelligence’s impact on entry-level jobs appears to be spilling over into engineering admissions, with 14,257 convenor quota seats remaining vacant after the second phase of EAPCET allotments released on Thursday. Of these, 8118 seats are in computer science engineering (CSE) and IT-related branches.Managements say the admission scenario has changed significantly. Gone are the days when students worried about securing an engineering seat. Today, a single student receives calls from 10 to 15 engineering colleges asking them to choose their institution, they say.Among the CSE and allied streams, 3,035 seats in CSE, 1,753 in AI and Machine Learning (AI&ML), and 1,329 in Data Science, among others, remain vacant. Overall, 58,364 of the 66,482 convenor quota seats in CSE and allied branches have been allotted.“Students are now in a commanding position. They are not in a hurry to take a seat in whichever college they get. If not through the convenor quota, they know that many managements are willing to offer them a seat under the management quota for the convenor fee. The allotments reflect the confidence,” said KVK Rao, general secretary of the All India Federation of Self-Financing Technical Institutions (FSFTI).Managements and faculty, however, said the vacancies were the result of multiple factors. Besides growing concern over AI’s impact on entry-level jobs, about 10,000 new seats have been added this year even though the number of students opting for engineering has remained almost the same as last year. This, they said, has also contributed to the higher number of vacant seats.“Above all, students are now thinking twice before opting for CSE and related courses as they are aware that AI has taken away many entry-level jobs in the IT industry that were earlier bagged by students through campus placements. The same is true of other fields as AI has affected almost every sector. As a result, parents are making more conscious decisions, and we may see a further decline in demand for engineering courses in the coming years,” said Praveen L, a faculty member at a private engineering college in the city.In the state, there are 94,424 convenor quota seats across 176 engineering colleges. Of these, 80,167 have been filled. Last year, after the final phase, 11, 638 seats remained vacant.
