Stating that AI is ushering in a new era of digital revolution, the report highlighted three key points:
With an increase of 190% between 2015-17, AI skills are one of the most widely growing skills on LinkedIn.
The industries incorporating more AI skills within their workforce are the most dynamic industries.
The countries that record the highest usage of skills in and around AI are China, the USA, Israel, and Germany.
Another study titled The Augmented Human Enterprise (a collaborative study by Goldsmiths, the University of London, and Automation Anywhere) reinforces India’s stand as one among the top five countries in the world to have the highest penetration of AI skills. In a survey of four markets, this study established that India has the highest proportion of AI penetration with nearly 71% of the Indian respondents stated that their employees integrated both AI-based augmentation and Robotic Process Automation to the optimum potential.
So, how did India come to the forefront as being one of the leading countries in the world with AI skills?
The reasons behind India emerging as a forerunner of AI skills are many with a major push coming from the $143 billion outsourcing industry. For a long time, Indian IT and Consultancy magnates such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, and Wipro have been providing their services to global magnates including the US Army, Microsoft, IBM, and Deutsche Bank, to name a few.
Another impetus for AI comes from the Indian government’s Digital India and Make in India campaigns both of which focus on making India a digitally savvy and self-sufficient nation.
An excellent case in point is the NITI Aayog. In the June 2018 discussion paper titled ‘National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence’, NITI Aayog seeks to embark on a mission - #AIforAll - with special focus being on five sectors - agriculture, healthcare, education, smart cities and infrastructure, and smart mobility and transportation.
India has become a hotbed for startups and with the government’s efforts to digitize India, the startup scene is further blossoming. In just a matter of a few years, the AI-based startups in India have generated around $36 million in funding from philanthropic investors like Ratan Tata and also from VC firms such as Sequoia Capital.
At present, the trend is towards developing smart AI solutions in the country itself and Indian tech giants are fast catching up with the other two global leaders (China and the US). For instance, Tata Consultancy Services is now laying increased emphasis on building a strong market for its state-of-the-art AI product, Ignio. Infosys and Wipro, too, have joined TCS in the AI race. Infosys is working on its AI platform Nia which is based on its first AI platform Mana. The aim behind developing Nia is to promote data-driven business decisions by helping businesses dive into customer and market data to understand consumer behavior, market revenue patterns, predict compliance and fraudulent issues, among others. Wipro is focusing on leveraging Holmes (Wipro’s AI platform) to automate various mundane and routine facets of fixed-price projects with the aim of boosting the efficiency of the Software Engineers while also allowing them to focus on more important tasks that demand human intelligence. In the process, Wipro aims to save around $46.5 million!
Coming to the job front, job site Indeed maintains that between June 2016-June 2018, there has been a whopping 179% increase in the number of AI-related job searches in India. The report further maintains that since the very beginning of 2018, the demand for AI skills has been at an all-time high in India.
In the 2018 Boston Consulting Group (BCG) study it was found that although companies across the globe are planning to implement AI and other related technologies with their operational infrastructure, China and India hold the greatest chances of implementing AI in the short-term. Experts suggest that a primary reason behind this is that China and India being developing nations, the impact of any technological change on such economies is always of a greater magnitude than that in a developed nation. Let’s look at the case of smartphones. China and India are two of the largest global consumers of smartphones. Why? Because consumers in a developing nation are quick to adopt the latest technological trends. And with India being one of the fasted-growing economies backed by a huge population (the second largest in the world), the Indian market is ripe for AI-penetration.
How To Gear Up For India’s Emerging AI-Driven Economy?
The most important thing that you need to do in this rapidly advancing technological age is to Upskill! Make active learning a part of your upskilling routine. Learning as you go will not only increase your knowledge base but it will also increase your chances of being hired by top tech companies (the World Economic Forum maintains that today ‘active learning’ is a key in-demand skill). By learning the in-demand skills you can maintain your relevancy with the ever-changing needs of the job industry.
Upskilling has become quite easy today, thanks to the numerous online platforms offering excellent
artificial intelligence courses. Taught by the leading industry experts and academicians, the most advantageous point of learning from an online platform is that you get to learn at your own pace and convenience.
So, are you ready to gear for India’s rapidly growing AI market?
