India has fewer than 2,000 senior engineers for developing core AI products | News

The active pool of senior artificial intelligence (AI) engineers, who can build core AI products and services in India, is less than 2,000, showed data from specialist staffing firm Xpheno.

This stands in stark contrast to the 650,000-700,000 individuals that the tech industry body National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) said have received training in AI within leading tech companies.

Indian firms are at the forefront of adopting AI, and are making significant investments in enhancing the skills of their workforce, with Tata Consultancy Services training 350,000 employees in AI skills, and Infosys training eight out of its ten employees for AI tasks.

But the number of active senior AI engineers capable of working on core AI products and services such as AI-based apps and platforms is less than 2,000, Moneycontrol reported while cutting the report.

The report also revealed that the total active individuals with the necessary minimum skills, experience, and exposure to core AI amounts is under 21,000, specifically referring to the emerging segment of AI engineers.

Mass market AI training

Moneycontrol quoted Jagdish Mitra, a board member of the non-profit National Skill Development Corporation, as saying, “The (AI) training that people are doing is more mass market. And that’s not what will be valuable. What will be valuable is process-specific, application-specific and industry-specific skills that will make a difference to how the skills are being used. It has to be more specific, otherwise it’s like a man walking around with a hammer trying to find a nail.”

Sangeeta Gupta, senior vice president at Nasscom, said the demand for AI talent is projected to increase by 15 per cent annually, with an existing demand-supply gap of approximately 51 per cent for specialised skills crucial for advancing core AI capabilities.

Adoption of GenAI and AI

Prasadh MS, head of workforce research at Xpheno, India is anticipating the surge in widespread adoption of GenAI and AI overall.

“Core engineering of and for AI remains concentrated with high niche micro-talent pools operating outside India. The core engineering of AI has minor footprints in India. Global AI products looking for service and support skills in India are the first major wave the tech sector will ride in the AI domain.”

The report quoted Krishna Vij, business head-IT staffing at TeamLease Digital, as saying that IT companies are investing heavily in AI training. “Also, even if companies are looking at reducing their budget towards employee cost, they’ve kept a specific budget and are okay to shell out 25-30 per cent more to identify the right talent for the AI kind of role.”

Originally appeared on: TheSpuzz