Generative AI and Data Analytics: High Demand Skills for a Promising Career

Digital skills such as generative AI and data analytics are in high demand and will only increase, suggesting exciting opportunities for India's skilled workforce. According to research, in the first quarter of FY24, there was a noteworthy increase in the need for people with technical capabilities such as development, systems, applications, and products (SAP), automotive design, testing, and infrastructure support.

Functional suites in high-demand

It has been shown that only five IT skill suites account for 78% of total demand. Development positions (28%) had the most functional skill suites with the highest intent-to-hire in Q1FY2024. There was a noticeable demand for developers with over 65 technical skills and platforms. Interestingly, full-stack abilities were in high demand in the consulting, automotive, finance, and telecommunications industries.

SAP knowledge, accounting for 16% of competence, has remained stable, including development and implementation. There has been a significant increase in demand for these talents, particularly in the consultancy and global capabilities centre (GCC) client areas.

Another key talent in great demand is automotive design, which accounts for 14% of the sought-after expertise. The worldwide and Indian automotive sectors are seeing a significant increase in the need for trained people. This increase can be linked to the increasing integration of digital technology into the industry and the growing need for employees skilled in technological disciplines.

Furthermore, there is a noticeable increase in the need for testing abilities (12%), which applies to both manual and automated domains. The high demand for expertise in products like Selenium, TOSCA, Workday, and ServiceNow is particularly noticeable.

The need for IT infrastructure support skills (8%) is stable across industries, covering both Level 1 and Level 2 support roles. This criterion encompasses a broad range of more than 30 particular topics. Along with these functional skill sets, there is a demand for data science, DevOps, cloud computing, enterprise resource planning (ERP), cybersecurity, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), user interface and user experience (UI/UX) design, and other related fields.

The requirement for various recruitment frameworks

According to the research, to overcome the gap between talent need and supply, the sector must investigate techniques to increase the availability of a talented workforce through various hiring initiatives. Centre of Excellence programs, which have a pool of pre-assessed and skilled individuals, can help speed up the recruiting process for traditional technology skills. Companies can conduct hire-train-deploy efforts to encourage applicants to improve their abilities and keep current with the latest technology in places where technological knowledge is scarce.

IT recruiting is focused on IT hubs

India's Hiring efforts have focused on IT centres in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Haryana. The growth in employment activities in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities has been supported by the predominance of remote work rules and the strengthening of data services infrastructure. This is especially obvious in e-commerce and financial services firms. Quess, for example, has successfully placed professionals in Jaipur, Coimbatore, Indore, Kochi, Gulmarg, Siliguri, and other locations.

Demand for technical skills in the industry

When the distribution of demand for technical skills across various sectors is examined, the Information Technology (IT) sector (15%) emerges as the clear leader, closely followed by the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sector (15%) and the digital engineering sector (13%). Positive attitude has also emerged in the telecommunications and healthcare industries. As the world's attention changes to renewable energy sources, the oil and gas industry is pressured to rethink its business strategies and decision-making processes to remain competitive.

In response to this problem, businesses are adopting digital solutions to discover new income streams, improve production efficiency, and cut operating expenses. Data analytics, artificial intelligence, and the Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) enable these firms to optimise complex operations and respond more quickly to market volatility, unforeseen disruptions, and other issues.