India’s AI Growth Hindered by Skill Shortage: Deloitte-Nasscom Report

The need for qualified talent in India remains a major obstacle to the country’s ascent to the top of the AI world. Deloitte India and Nasscom collaborated to create a research titled “Advancing India’s AI Skills: Interventions and programmes needed,” highlighting the pressing need to cultivate a highly competent AI workforce to propel the country’s digital economy. Even if AI is increasingly employed in many industries, more qualified labour is needed to ensure innovation and advancement. 

The market’s increasing demand for relevant artificial intelligence (AI) skills is a result of the emergence of generative AI. The Indian AI industry is anticipated to develop at a 25–35% CAGR through 2027, with a focus on the software and services sector. Apart from proposing recommendations for national AI skilling programs, this report offers an outlook on structuring current and future AI positions within the broader organizational framework and developing the requisite competencies in India while taking cues from similar worldwide endeavours.

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Expertise Takes Center Stage as Industry Expands

From 2022 to 2031 the Indian AI talent pool is predicted to increase from 600,000–650,000. However, the market for AI is predicted to expand at a rate of 25–35 percent, which can indicate a talent shortage due to a mismatch between supply and demand.

The majority of Indian IT firms have already begun providing AI and related technology training to their employees. TCS trained 350,000 workers in 2023–2024, and Wipro taught 220,000 employees in AI. Additionally, Microsoft has committed to giving 2 million Indians access to AI skilling opportunities by 2025 to equip the country’s workforce with future-ready capabilities. To better prepare its employees, Infosys has started offering extensive, customized internal AI training courses. Under its “Infosys Springboard” digital literacy project, they have also worked with several institutions to support academics in developing curricula.  

Government-Tech Industry Collaboration to Promote India’s Skilling Revolution

To create a talent pool prepared for AI, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has planned several K–12 and graduate/postgraduate level activities. The model curriculum and technology, framework, ecosystem development, research for MSMEs and start-ups, faculty training, career path mapping, and creating an AI community will all be the main focuses of these interventions. Additionally, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship has partnered with tech firms on the ADVANTA(I)GE INDIA project, which aims to democratize access to AI capabilities across the country and equip India’s workforce with skills fit for the future. 

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Industry Leaders Give AI and Tech Excellence Internal Skilling Programs Top Priority

To stay competitive in the global AI market, major industry firms are envisioning a whole stack of tech and AI skills across three levels. encompassing both fundamental and sophisticated AI abilities as well as domain-specific knowledge, including redesigned AI-enabled value chains and procedures within corresponding fields. Furthermore, a three-dimensional lens of AI skills emphasizes fundamental talents like critical thinking, problem-solving, and social skills like teamwork and mentoring support:

• Level 1—Outdated skills: These abilities, which include data analysis, basic programming, and AI/ML principles, are only going to be important for the next three to four years and won’t have a major impact on professional advancement.
• Level 2—Contemporary Relevant Skills: These AI abilities (such as advanced ML and deep learning, NLP, RPA, and AI model deployment) are applicable in the current context.
• Level 3: Future Skills In the coming years, several cutting-edge AI competencies—such as autonomous systems, edge AI, training and optimizing AI models, ethics and compliance in AI, and quantum computing for AI—will become widely used.

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According to these levels, five essential segments—from general to specialized—need to be the focus of various learning pathways:

• AI-informed: Emphasizing broad AI knowledge
• Users of AI: Concentrated on leveraging AI to boost output and lead the field in AI applications
• Integrators of AI: Workers in IT using AI techniques and technologies in current processes
• The workforce that will create AI-related software and apps is made up of AI builders, developers, and architects.
• AI experts are top-tier individuals with a concentration on cutting-edge research who are capable of creating AI models from scratch.

This article discusses corporate, academic, and government initiatives along with the necessary skills, all while referencing these five major elements. To maintain India’s leading position in the world for AI skill penetration, the government needs to prioritize upskilling its workforce through active industry-academia collaboration, specialized training programs, online courses, and the establishment of dedicated data and AI labs around the nation. 

Click here to read the full report.

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