Ms. Saloni Srivastava | Prompt Engineering Expert Area Chair, Training, Learning and Development, Lloyd Business School
Through the glass windows of the cemented jungles of Gurgaon’s bustling cybercity, 23-year-old Sangeeta hunches over her computer as she meticulously labels images and relentlessly types prompts that will train the next generation of artificial intelligence. On the other side of the world, her work will help a self-driving automobile navigate San Francisco’s steep hills or enable a robot to distinguish between a scalpel and a syringe in an operating room in New York. Priya represents the vanguard of India’s expanding AI services and data labeling industry—a that’s not just transforming the nation’s job market but also reshaping its economic future while also creating new channels for increasing employability.
The AI Gold Rush
Who knew that the AI industry would represent nothing short of an AI gold rush for India? With its artillery of tech-savvy, English-speaking graduates and relatively competitive labor costs, the country has positioned itself as the go-to destination for Prompt Engineering and data labelling. Global Tech Giants have identified this fertile landscape of the ripe Indian tech workforce. They too are flocking, in fact getting in line, to set up expansive operations that range from basic data annotation to cutting-edge machine learning model development.
Even the numbers validate this hypothesis. Mirroring the growth of the global AI market, the Indian AI service industry is predicted to grow at a rate of 25–35% over the next four years. One has to be living under a rock to not see the surge of AI, but for naysayers, the 2024 AI Enterprise Adoption Index 2.0 has highlighted that the transformative impact of generative AI is driving rapid advancements in AI technologies, and the next few years are crucial for India to lap up on this opportunity.
Beyond the Valley: India’s Homegrown AI Ecosystem
Commencing with outsourcing from Western tech companies, the AI boom in India has evolved into a vibrant domestic ecosystem which is harping on the wave of AI innovation. Indian startups like Haptik, Vernacular.ai (Bengaluru), and Green Rider Technology (Gurgaon) are not just serving the requirements of their global clients but are also developing AI solutions tailored to address uniquely Indian challenges. Whether it is building language processing tools that can handle multilingualism to diving into AI education or further developing AI-powered agricultural apps that are helping farmers track and optimise their produce, these organisations are raising the bar.
Even in terms of entrepreneurial support and potential, as year-to-date in 2024, Indian AI startups have raised nearly $96 million, which is a 61% increase over the same period in 2023. But global tech giants are moving beyond just LLM training and towards companies that can also develop applications.
Educate, Empower and Employ
With growing emphasis and opportunities in the AI industry, the education sector has taken matters in their own hands, and universities across the nation are incorporating AI education in their curricula. Edtech platforms are offering various AI certifications. Even AI service-based companies like Green Rider Technology are also rapidly working towards building student-friendly AI platforms and launching certifications to further employ these certified Prompt Engineers.
What Happens Next?
AI services and prompt engineering services in India are on the rise. What is important to note is that the conversation has moved beyond just slowly solving national unemployability of qualified graduates towards positioning the country as a leading destination for Prompt engineering. Like the automobile boom in the United States in the second half of the twentieth century, the Indian AI market has incorporated the assembly line production of data labelling and AI services for the world, one prompt at a time.
As India rides this wave of AI service advancement, the world watches with bated breath. Will this Siliconization of the Indian Subcontinent take us further up the ladder in the space of innovation? Will India successfully navigate the challenges and emerge as a true AI superpower? Is AI learning the answer to solve the employability crisis in the country? The answers to these questions will transform the future of AI not just in India but the world at large.
In collaboration with Dr. Saumendra Mohanty, Adjunct Professor of Practice, Bennett University.
