India’s Top 500 Companies Need To Train And Upskill Their Managers To Leverage AI

The good news is that the pandemic years have given a push to digital technology, resulting in companies showing an improvement in the AI maturity index.

According to a recent study conducted by the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A) and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the majority of Indian businesses, approximately 75%, have not yet harnessed the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance their profitability. The study, named “AI In India — A strategic necessity,” reveals that if AI is effectively embraced, it has the potential to contribute an annual increase of up to 1.4 percentage points to India’s real GDP growth.

The study also revealed that the top 500 Indian companies must invest approximately one million hours in training and upskilling their mid- and senior-level management personnel to effectively utilize AI for boosting profits. Encouragingly, the years of the pandemic have accelerated the adoption of digital technologies, improving the AI maturity index among companies.

The report drew attention to the gap between the demand and supply of AI professionals in India. It stated that India currently accounts for only 4.5% of the world’s AI workforce, and the shortage of talent is expected to become even more severe. The IT services industry presently employs 76% of India’s data talent; however, companies struggle to find AI experts with the necessary business acumen and industry understanding. Consequently, despite the high demand, direct hiring of AI professionals remains low.

The study further highlighted that the top 500 listed corporations, within the next 3 to 5 years, would require a minimum of 25,000 to 30,000 skilled practitioners in Artificial Intelligence Markup Language (AIML) to navigate AI-driven transformations. To effectively handle these transformations, the existing senior and middle-level managers of these 500 companies would need to undergo a minimum of one million hours of training.

The report underlines the significance of achieving advanced AI maturity to succeed in the present business environment. Bharat Bhasker, the director of IIM-A, emphasized that India is on the cusp of a digital revolution, where the successful adoption of AI by the industry will be a crucial factor in India’s global competitiveness. He further stated that Indian companies can leverage widespread internet access and cost-effective labor to align themselves with global AI maturity standards.