According to a recently published NASSCOM report, India ranks first in AI skill penetration and talent concentration and fifth in AI scientific publications.  

The report states that tech talent in India is three times more likely to have/report AI skills than in other countries. This indicates that Indian tech talent is rapidly skilling themselves in DS&AI. This includes talent looking to build their careers in emerging areas of AI and Analytics.  

India’s AI skills Penetration Factor leads all (OECD and G20) countries across education, finance, hardware and networking, manufacturing, software and IT services. 

Over other technology talent hotspots except for Japan, in terms of concentration and growth of installed DS&AI talent over the past five years, 25%* of India’s talent base is women, higher than the global average of 17%-18%. India is also expected to witness high growth in the demand for data science and AI professionals, with an estimate of more than 1 million professionals by 2014.  

Multiple factors are at play impacting the sustained high demand for talent in India –from market forces, data implosion, the need for better decision-making, compensation and rapid growth prospects. As a result, the Indian AI skills landscape is witnessing a strong demand for Data Scientists, Data Engineers, and Product Engineers with exposure to building data products.  

Debjani Ghosh, President of NASSCOM, said in a statement that AI-led disruption in India’s core sectors alone has a potential impact of $500 billion on India’s economy in gross value added (GVA) terms by 2026. However, this cannot be achieved alone and would require concentrated efforts from the government, industry and academia to ramp up AI skilling and initiatives at scale. The recent announcement by the government to set up three Centers of Excellence to develop AI for India and to make AI work for India is ocean excellent step forward. 

The study states that the AI market in India is projected to reach $7.8bn in value by 2025, clocking a CAGR of 20.2% over the next five years; the growth is expected across segments -Hardware, Software and Services. 

‘With over 1.6 million digital talent pool, India has emerged as the prime destination for talent globally’, stated the report.