India Ranks Among Top 5 Nations for Rapidly Growing AI Talent: Report

India Ranks Among Top 5 Nations for Rapidly Growing AI Talent: Report

Artificial Intelligence takes center stage in India

Ira Singh
6 Sep’23

In a significant milestone for the global tech community, India has secured a spot among the top five nations with rapidly growing AI talent, according to a recent report published by a networking platform. This accomplishment reaffirms India’s emergence as a hub for artificial intelligence and machine learning expertise.As the artificial intelligence landscape continues to evolve, businesses around the world are keeping a close eye on the latest advancements in AI-driven technologies. One such innovation that has generated considerable interest is the Enterprise edition of ChatGPT, a powerful language model developed by OpenAI. However, there is a growing concern will businesses adopt this cutting-edge AI solution to revolutionize their operations and customer interactions?

According to the report the number of profiles in networking platform indicating talents in artificial intelligence (AI) has increased 14 times in the previous seven years in India, placing the country among the top five in the world with the fastest-
growing talent for the technology.

Over the last year, 43 per cent of the Indian workforce has seen an increase in AI adoption in their organizations. This spike has driven 60 per cent of all workers and 71 percent of so-called Generation Z professionals to recognise that learning AI abilities might help them advance in their careers. Two-thirds of Indians stated they plan to master at least one digital talent by 2023, with AI and machine learning among the top abilities on their list.

The report’s analysis of 25 countries highlights that the number of members of so-called LinkedIn networking platform who added AI skills to their profiles nearly doubled after the launch of ChatGPT, the popular AI chatbot that responds to a variety of written queries, last year, rising from 7.7 percent in May–November 2022 to 13 percent in November 2022–June 2023.According to the survey, the focus on soft skills like creativity and communication is especially significant in India in the age of AI. Around 91 percent of senior executives see the rising necessity of AI skills, above the global average of 72 percent. The bulk of the Indian workforce agrees, with 7 in 10 (69 percent) professionals believing that soft skills like creativity and problem solving enable them to offer a fresh perspective on work.

The first ‘Future of Work: State of Work @ AI’ report from the professional networking platform states that, India, Singapore, Finland, Ireland, and Canada have the highest percentage of AI skill adoption. The usage of the skills goes beyond technology into a variety of areas, such as retail, education, and financial services.The top vocations with talents that can be boosted by generative AI are software engineer (96 per cent), customer service representative (76 per cent), and salesman (59 per cent). Oil field operators (one per cent), environmental health and safety professionals (three per cent), and nurses (six percent), on the other hand, are the vocations with the fewest augmentable abilities.

In 2023, half of India’s top executives plan to upskill or hire for AI skills. Concurrently, 57 percent of CEOs intend to increase AI adoption in their organizations next year.

Challenges and Opportunities of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

For India to extend its now unrivalled outsourcing success story to Artificial Intelligence (AI) innovation,the government needs to invest in building a common AI compute infrastructure that would help bridge the critical gap with the US and draw in the necessary investments.India’s largest cluster of Graphics processing units (GPU) was about 2000-2500 as compared with 20,000 plus in the US,said Shridhar Garge, Head, Strategy, Planning & Programs, NVIDIA, illustrating the relevant AI infrastructure gap that impedes growth potential for the biggest breakthrough technology in the world.

The graphics processor and chipset major is the world’s sixth-most valuable company by market capitalization at nearly $1.2 trillion,and the NVIDIA stock has surged nearly four times in a year as discussions around AI grab more column inches and dominate the air waves.The US chip giant’s products play a crucial role in AI systems.Garge also said that for clusters that have about 1000 GPU’s, India would have around four or five.
“There are certain things that are limiting the thought process of Indian startup founders- infrastructure being a very important one,”Garge said at the India Internet Day 2023 in New Delhi last week.

Similarly, Rajan Anandan,MD,Peak XV Partners and Surge said that for application-level companies like those involved in healthcare, education and customer support among others, not having this infrastructure in place is a real constraint.Thus,he said it boils down to how much capital the startups can raise but also the access that they can get.

“One thing the government can do is to build a very large scale GPU cluster”, Anandan said.”Why shouldn’t India build a 100000 cluster and then we give it to the Indian developers, Indian research institutions, Indian startups to build on it and make it very affordable?”He said this would be playing on our strengths of doing population scale projects at ultra-low cost and high volumes.

As AI usage gains prominence countries will need to work on building their own capabilities in large language models and computing infrastructure to support sovereign AI capabilities,IBM chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna had also said last week during his visit to India.The government could possibly consider investing in this area that will come at the cost “millions and not billions”,he said.

NVIDIA President Jensen Huang and Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurein are now in India and these issues may come up for discussions with the government.

“As artificial intelligence shapes the future of work, India recognizes the value of human potential and the critical role that soft skills will play in developing a world-class workforce of the future. With India’s top CEOs acknowledging the relevance of interpersonal skills in the age of AI, we’re approaching an era that values more rewarding, human-centric work,” Ashutosh Gupta, LinkedIn India’s national manager,said.