According to a report by specialist staffing firm Xpheno, the active pool of senior AI engineers in India who can actually build core AI products and services is less than 2,000. And this is in a country that boasts over 2,20,000 software engineers.

A common consensus is that these handful of specialist engineers, which form less than 1% of the IT total engineering strength in the country, may not be enough to address our AI needs.

This also highlights a significant gap between the number of people receiving general AI training versus those with specialised skills to develop core AI technologies.

If we delve into the reasons behind this, the first that comes to mind is time. It takes time to become a seasoned AI engineer (approximately 15-20 years). This simply means it is difficult to nurture senior AI engineers and easier to create fresh graduates. 

Another reason is the pay scale. AI is booming like never before, which means big tech companies are looking for experienced engineers to improve their products.

In India, the average salary of a senior AI engineer is between INR 9-21 lakh ($11,000 – $25,000), whereas in the USA, they can easily bag an offer of at least $121,000.  

Another important factor is the lifestyle and standard of living in foreign countries, which is much-desired by Indians. Many AI professionals get swept off by offshore companies, thanks to the brain drain, leaving India with a minuscule number of senior AI folks. 

How less is >2000?

India’s demand for AI talent is projected to grow 15% annually, with an existing demand-supply gap of about 51% for niche skills required to build core AI. This suggests that the current pool of AI engineers is inadequate to meet the increasing demand.

But the question is does India require its own LLM or an core AI product built from scratch? There are various FOSS projects which can be tuned to solve existing problems.

India has a different approach towards solving problems through AI. One such example is Tamil-Llama. It is based on Llama 2 and intended to break the language barrier and stay relevant to the AI world. 

The Indian path in AI seems to be different. Nandan Nilekani also said, “We are not in the arms race to build the next LLM, let people with capital, let people who want to pedal ships do all that stuff… We are here to make a difference, and our aim is to put this technology in the hands of people.”

Furthermore, if you want to build something from scratch, it’ll only require a few senior engineers to provide vision and draw a path to a certain milestone. 

“Core products and AI are driven by a few thousand people. You don’t need lakhs to build a core AI product,” said Atul Mehra, the founder of Vaayu. 

What is the solution? 

To solve this problem, India has started several focused AI and data science institutes to cater to the high demand for AI engineers. These institutes allow students and working professionals to pursue doctorates in AI and data science fields. 

One such example is the Wadhwani brothers, Sunil and Romesh, who have established the Wadhwani Institute of AI (WIAI), which uses AI to serve underserved communities in developing countries and has impacted over 30 million lives across eight states in India.

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur has established the Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to foster cutting-edge research and develop skilled AI professionals. The centre aims to position IIT Kharagpur and India as global AI research and application leaders. 

The core idea of AI is to help and educate people, and India is focused on democratizing AI technology and making it accessible to the masses. With this strategic vision and investment in AI education, India is well-positioned to overcome its talent gap and cement its position as the global AI hub in the years to come.