India’s IT Army Gets Smarter: 50% Receive AI Training at Work

Image Source: Business Standard

A recent Naukri survey shines the spotlight on a significant change in India's technology industry, with almost half of tech professionals now being taught artificial intelligence (AI) directly by their employers. The results indicate a fast-paced mainstreaming of AI skills in the nation's IT workforce.

Highlights:

Nearly 50% of Indian technology workers are now enjoying some type of AI upskilling assistance at their companies, as a trend of employer-sponsored training surges.
The poll, which collected feedback from more than 16,000 industry professionals, revealed that a third of tech staff is receiving formal AI training from their company.
Early-career professionals and freshers are particularly benefiting, with over half saying they have received basic or full AI training.
Formal AI training is most common in mature technology clusters such as Bengaluru and Gurgaon, where 33% of the respondents indicated active corporate training on AI applications.
Generative AI has also become the most important skill priority for technology professionals, with 42% of respondents with 10-15 years of experience and 46% with over 15 years citing it as their primary priority for future-proofing their professional lives.
Junior professionals are also giving high priority to cloud computing, DevOps, and data engineering in addition to AI.

Even with the upskilling boom, issues remain: 18% of professionals mentioned layoffs as a primary concern, 46% were unhappy with minimal salary increases, 20% lacked time for upskilling, and 17% were annoyed with old technology stacks.

The trend reflects India's speeding shift from a labour-focus to an AI-focus as companies invest in transforming their workforce to compete in the world's tech space.

Source: The Economic Times