Artificial intelligence takes centre stage in India
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Welcome to the third issue of the Tech Wrap India, a fortnightly newsletter bringing you the hottest conversations shaping the world of tech right now, brought to you by Isha Chitnis , tech and innovation editor at LinkedIn News India.
This week, let’s dive into the world of artificial intelligence — where India stands, what skills professionals should consider working on to make it in the field, what it would take to bridge the AI gender gap, and the path to creating an AI-ready workforce.
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From healthcare to government initiatives to education to both tech and non-tech sectors — AI has made its mark across fields and unlocked innovation, debate about risks, and a need for talent equipped to support this revolution.
Demand for talent to support this is heating up. There were 45,000 AI job openings in India in February 2023, with data scientists and machine learning (ML) engineers among the most sought-after careers, according to a Teamlease report.
India ranked fifth in terms of inbound investments in startups offering AI-based services and products in 2022, with the number touching $3.24 million, showed Stanford University’s AI Index report.?
From marketing to music to gaming, Generative AI is the talk of the town across sectors — use cases are aplenty, and experimentation is on in full swing. IT companies like Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, and Tech Mahindra are also planning investments and including generative AI in their offerings, says a Livemint report.
India’s Union Budget 2023 also had a strong AI focus? — it proposed the setting up of three centres of excellence for artificial intelligence in top educational institutions, along with upgrading the country’s skill development scheme with new-age courses for AI, robotics, mechatronics to prepare the workforce for Industry 4.0. The government in 2018 also released a National Strategy for AI, which focused on five sectors it envisioned to benefit most from the technology solving societal needs — healthcare, education, agriculture, smart cities and infrastructure, and smart mobility and transportation.
Along with government initiatives, other key drivers propelling India’s AI revolution and its prospects include AI-focused deep tech start-ups that are fuelling innovation and job creation, thus creating a competitive landscape that attracts top talent, and education in AI that is strengthening the AI revolution, says AmitKumar Shrivastava , Technical Head, Artificial Intelligence Unit, India at Fujitsu.
India has the highest AI skills penetration — almost 3.23 times the global average, followed by the United States (2.23), Germany (1.72), and Israel (1.66), shows LinkedIn data. The country also leads in skills penetration across industries like technology, information and media,? professional services, manufacturing, education, and financial services.?
Machine learning claimed the top spot when it comes to the most commonly added skills, followed by data structures, artificial intelligence (AI), and deep learning. The fastest-growing AI skills in India in 2022 were Computer Vision, Pandas (Software), Natural Language Processing (NLP), PyTorch, image processing, and machine learning.
A combination of factors has led to the growing importance of machine learning as a skill, says Vaibhav Goyal , Co-founder and CEO, Predixion AI. These include the large amounts of data available due to digitisation across industries, which can be used to train machine learning models and generate insights,?cheap compute resources, and data storage. He also adds that the availability of pre-trained models, ML libraries/frameworks and advancement in algorithms has made it easier for developers to build and deploy machine learning applications.
Computer vision is another important area which offers a wide range of interesting and valuable applications in various industries and businesses, says Goyal. It is used in healthcare to analyse medical images, in retail to analyse customer behaviour and to detect theft and prevent shoplifting, and in autonomous vehicles to provide real-time feedback to the vehicle’s control system, he adds.
What skills do you think will gain importance in India's AI journey? Share your thoughts using #TechWrapIndia.
“With a diverse and interdisciplinary workforce, I believe that we can make significant strides in developing AI solutions that address some of the world's most pressing challenges,” says Priyanka Panigrahi , Demand Gen and Growth at Factors.AI.
While the gender gap still persists in AI, data shows that the sector is inching towards closing it. In 2022, women accounted for almost 30% of the global AI workforce, an increase from 26% in 2016. India also saw a similar trend with the percentage of female representation within AI talent touching almost 30% in 2022, up from 25% in 2016, shows LinkedIn data.
What does the effort to increase representation of women in the field look like in action? “Organisations should actively seek out and encourage diverse candidates to apply for related positions. This can be achieved through targeted outreach, partnerships with women in technology groups, and highlighting the benefits of a diverse workforce,” says Panigrahi.
She also believes that providing women in AI with training and development opportunities like mentorship programmes, leadership training, and access to conferences and other learning opportunities can help them acquire new skills and advance in their careers.?
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How can India Inc work towards closing the gender gap in AI? Share your thoughts using #TechWrapIndia.
As the AI wave sweeps across sectors, there is an enhanced focus at India Inc on equipping professionals with the right skills to stay ahead of the game. From staff at IT firms to top execs — upskilling efforts are underway to ensure employees are ready to tackle challenges that the digital and AI transformation might bring.
Shashank Garg , Co-founder and CEO at Infocepts sees three main reasons impacting India’s sustained high demand for talent — India’s talent pool, disruptive startups providing innovative AI solutions, and the government’s investment in skill upgradation and promotion of the sector.
What are the roadblocks to address to make India’s workforce AI-ready? Skills shortages, lack of business engagement, difficulty accepting change, and poor data literacy throughout an organisation, says Garg.
“Industry leaders are still not speaking the language of business, but we’re under intense pressure to demonstrate the value of our initiatives to other business peers and executives,” he adds, suggesting that now more than ever, industry leaders must have a translation layer between their upskilling programs and the organisation’s mission-critical priorities.
As AI advances, new roles will emerge apart from traditional ones like data scientists and data engineers, says Shilpa Rao , Senior Partner, Purpose Institute at Tata Consultancy Services. “Advancement in AI also needs cross-industry expertise in modelling, computational intelligence, machine learning, mathematics, psychology, linguistics, and neuroscience. Developing deep domain skills and global industry understanding is crucial,” she adds.
She suggests empowering employees with secure access to the latest technologies and rewarding them for creativity and risk-taking — a move that will help companies stay ahead of the curve and prepare for new AI-enabled opportunities.
Breaking down the path to making India’s workforce ready for the AI revolution, AmitKumar Shrivastava suggests investing in education and training, cultivating a culture of continuous learning, leveraging public-private partnerships, adopting AI ethical guidelines, developing AI infrastructure, and encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship.
What steps can India Inc take to build an AI-ready workforce? Share your thoughts using #TechWrapIndia.
Methodology: The AI skill penetration rate signals the prevalence of AI skills across occupations, or the intensity with which LinkedIn members utilize AI skills in their jobs. The global average, pooled across the same set of occupations, is 1.0. A value of 1.5 means those members in country are 1.5 times more likely to report AI skills than the global average. A LinkedIn member is considered AI talent if they have explicitly added AI skills to their profile and/or they are occupied in an AI job that requires AI skills to perform the job.
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Reported by: Isha Chitnis
Creator Manager: Raunak Ramteke
The discussion on bridging the gender gap in AI is particularly crucial, and we also focus on AI skills and the discussion around the most sought-after capabilities in the field.
We are organizing https://aidevdayindia.org/ and inviting individuals and product teams who are working in the AI domain. This is a good opportunity to learn from AI experts and share your experience with the wider community. Please drop a note to [email protected] or call/WhatsApp at +91-8368865197 if you need more details about the event.
Sales And Marketing Specialist at Carvewing Solutions
1 年It's great to see the focus on India's AI revolution in your newsletter. The fusion of skills and trends is undoubtedly driving this transformative wave. Speaking of trends, Carvewing is at the forefront of leveraging AI to shape businesses and industries. In the context of India's AI revolution, Carvewing offers a range of solutions that align perfectly with the evolving landscape. Our AI-driven tools not only cater to the growing demand for automation and predictive analytics but also empower businesses to make sense of the massive amounts of data generated. Visit for more: https://carvewing.com/
Academic Counselor at Unified Collaboration Services LLP
1 年Wonderful article. IIM A has a very good programme in Business Analytics, very relevant, https://vcnow.in/iima-business-analytics-epaba/
Great article full of insights. It's heartening to note that India has the highest AI skills penetration. Thankfully, India has many opportunities for working professionals to skill themselves in domains like data analytics, AI and ML. For instance, IIM Ahmedabad's four-month executive programme in advanced data analytics is a great way to learn the science of applying data analytics to functional areas like Finance, HR, Marketing and Operations. https://vcnow.in/iima-business-analytics-epaba/