India is far behind US and China when it comes to AI talent.
A recent study says that out of the top 300 engineers specialised in AI, India has only 8!
Only 75% of the students from IIT Bombay got placed this year.
TCS said they needed 81,000 people, but they could not get employees with the required skill set.
Unfortunately, most of our students use AI to replace knowledge when they should be using the AI tools to enhance their knowledge.
Beyond the top colleges, there is very little happening in Gen AI (each and every college is now launching commercial courses to attract working professionals to get upskilled, with zero focus on the existing students).
We are at standing still (shouting we are the best) - and the world is moving forward like crazy.
5-7 years behind?
In the next few months, we might be double digit years behind the AI world if we don’t wake up.
I am clearly seeing this gap when I am interviewing AI engineers. There is an issue not just with the overall quality, but the bigger challenge I see is the overall lack of enthusiasm when it comes to hacking around with Gen AI.
At entry/fresher level, things are far worse.
How do you think this gap can be fixed? What are you seeing in your workspace / conversations? Do we need to reimagine college education and integrate academia better with industry?
Indeed, this is a concerning and very real problem. The challenge India faces in AI talent development is not one that can be easily overcome, especially considering the country's historical success in IT outsourcing. Over the past three decades, India has established itself as the global gold standard for creating talent, workers, and managers suited for traditional IT roles. However, the AI landscape presents a new and different challenge.
In his book "The Coming Wave," Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, highlights China's significant lead in AI. This advantage, as he points out, is no accident. It's the result of more than a decade of focused effort and billions of dollars in investment. Unfortunately, India's current level of investment and strategic focus in AI appears to be far behind.
That said, while catching up will be extremely challenging, it's not impossible for India. The path forward requires visionaries across multiple sectors: industry, government, academia, and particularly industry bodies. The primary hurdle will be the enormous investment required, which may not yield immediate returns. This is where government support and public funding become crucial.
The solution will likely involve a multi-pronged approach:
Revamping educational curricula to emphasize AI and related technologies
Fostering closer collaboration between academia and industry
Encouraging more research and development in AI within India
Creating incentives for companies to invest in AI talent development
Establishing national AI initiatives and policies to guide and support these efforts
As someone with extensive experience in the IT services space, I can attest to India's ability to rise to technological challenges. However, this particular challenge will require a level of coordinated effort and investment that surpasses previous initiatives. It's a critical juncture for India's tech industry, and the actions we take now will significantly impact our global competitiveness in the AI era.
Yeah - we are a decade behind in R&D - and we only realize it in closed door conversations. Publicly, we are claiming to be something else. This reminds of a recent quote by Sergey Brin: "You need to be willing to have some embarrassments and take some risks." (https://www.nextbigwhat.com/p/writing-code-from-scratch-feels-really)
As a society, we can only build an engineering culture when we are open for embarrassments / failure/trials - i.e. hacking around/building products.
And that's a long way to go. We don't even need to invest building foundational models - but atleast at application layer, can do better? Yes, we can and we should strive for that (to start with).
Indeed, this is a concerning and very real problem. The challenge India faces in AI talent development is not one that can be easily overcome, especially considering the country's historical success in IT outsourcing. Over the past three decades, India has established itself as the global gold standard for creating talent, workers, and managers suited for traditional IT roles. However, the AI landscape presents a new and different challenge.
In his book "The Coming Wave," Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, highlights China's significant lead in AI. This advantage, as he points out, is no accident. It's the result of more than a decade of focused effort and billions of dollars in investment. Unfortunately, India's current level of investment and strategic focus in AI appears to be far behind.
That said, while catching up will be extremely challenging, it's not impossible for India. The path forward requires visionaries across multiple sectors: industry, government, academia, and particularly industry bodies. The primary hurdle will be the enormous investment required, which may not yield immediate returns. This is where government support and public funding become crucial.
The solution will likely involve a multi-pronged approach:
Revamping educational curricula to emphasize AI and related technologies
Fostering closer collaboration between academia and industry
Encouraging more research and development in AI within India
Creating incentives for companies to invest in AI talent development
Establishing national AI initiatives and policies to guide and support these efforts
As someone with extensive experience in the IT services space, I can attest to India's ability to rise to technological challenges. However, this particular challenge will require a level of coordinated effort and investment that surpasses previous initiatives. It's a critical juncture for India's tech industry, and the actions we take now will significantly impact our global competitiveness in the AI era.
Great points Venkatarangan.
Yeah - we are a decade behind in R&D - and we only realize it in closed door conversations. Publicly, we are claiming to be something else. This reminds of a recent quote by Sergey Brin: "You need to be willing to have some embarrassments and take some risks." (https://www.nextbigwhat.com/p/writing-code-from-scratch-feels-really)
As a society, we can only build an engineering culture when we are open for embarrassments / failure/trials - i.e. hacking around/building products.
And that's a long way to go. We don't even need to invest building foundational models - but atleast at application layer, can do better? Yes, we can and we should strive for that (to start with).