Adopt AI solutions at scale and upskill to remain relevant
After initial fears that AI (artificial intelligence) would kill the software services industry, the market has come to terms, at least for now. Most investors realise that such assumptions are too simplistic in nature. No doubt, AI is one of the transformational technologies that mankind has invented in recent years. From individual users to enterprises, all are adopting AI technology at a fast pace. But doomsday predictions are but serious exaggerations. Evidence of such claims is already visible if one goes by the hiring numbers. Except big tech firms, which are operating in the product space, entities into IT services have not laid off employees in large numbers. If automation is making everyone redundant is a valid claim, then it has not played out yet or the claim is an overstatement. Take for instance the Indian white-collar job market, which showed recovery last month on the back of rising demand for IT engineers. According to the Naukri JobSpeak Index Report, white-collar job market grew 12 per cent year-on-year in India.
The IT sector posted six per cent job growth over the past year, while recruitment of freshers rose eight per cent in February. Importantly, within the IT sector, multinational corporations have led the surge with 55 per cent higher hiring over the past year. What’s more, hiring for AI and ML skills is rising. The report said jobs with AI/ML skills set rose 40 per cent over the past year. These statistics indicate that IT hiring is recovering at a healthy pace. The key takeaways from this job report are many. Despite all the tales of gloom and doom, AI adoption is driving demand for new job roles. While automation is making many of those roles redundant, AI has started creating new jobs. Secondly, AI adoption is increasing steadily among enterprises. That is the reason many companies are going up the value chain. They are now looking to hire professionals with sound skills in the AI technology domain. Thirdly, India’s talent base is successfully navigating the AI wave.
They are upskilling themselves with missionary zeal. Such a phenomenon plays out well for India. After all, India has been the biggest talent base for the global technology industry. Its relevance will only remain if it stays updated with emerging technologies. This job report shows that such relevance stays with India. In addition, IT services companies in the last 10 days have announced several large deals with global enterprises. These deals indicate that enterprises are employing Indian IT firms to deploy new AI solutions. Therefore, all the doomsday predictions are not happening as of now. Though AI is evolving fast and it can move in any direction, it seems that Indian IT industry is navigating well for now. The need of the hour for the technology leaders is to convince their teams to adopt
AI in a furious space and don’t leave in a denial mode. Though some cannibalisation of revenue may happen in the short-run, this will open new revenue streams coming from AI-led solutions. Such an approach can create a win-win scenario for all-IT firms, clients and professionals.
