Why India needs a strong developer community in the AI sector

The Indian SaaS market is the second largest SaaS ecosystem in the world. With revolutionary AI adoption, a strong workforce, exceptional product offerings, and a customer-centric approach, India is on the cusp of transforming into an AI powerhouse. More than 60% of SaaS startups are now evolving into AI-enabled SaaS providers. This transformation is not superficial as many companies are reshaping their business models and value propositions. The future is bright but there are a few major roadblocks — an AI-ready workforce, infrastructure to build homegrown foundational models and concerted efforts from academia to ensure the future of India’s workforce is AI ready.

The AI-skill gap in India

India ranks first in terms of AI skill penetration and AI talent concentration. And yet, there is a 51% skill gap concerning AI-related skills. The AI evolution is expected to transform technology-based jobs, with some positions being impacted and new ones emerging. AI won’t replace jobs, but people who work with AI will replace those who don’t. AI is also expected to usher in new roles as the technology evolves. With a more productive future ahead, it’s important that businesses start upskilling developers now, or risk being left behind.

Over the next six months, businesses must clearly define their AI transformation strategy by identifying the current and future skill requirements and anticipating technology gaps. Businesses too have a role to play in ensuring AI is easily accessible to all. A clear AI-adoption roadmap paves the way for comprehensive upskilling programs that include foundational courses, advanced training, and continuous learning opportunities.

A great way to begin the AI transformation journey is identifying low-code to no-code platforms that allow developers to build customised AI agents best-suited for the business, which can be plugged into their existing SaaS products.

Additionally, industry collaboration with academia is much needed to ensure future developers are equipped with the right skills to enter the workforce. Industry must lead AI skilling initiatives, collaborating with peers and academia to implement training programs that enhance AI awareness and user proficiency. For example: The government’s India AI initiative is great to ensure that educational institutes focus on creating talent that is future ready. While this collaboration is necessary, developers themselves must take the initiative to upskill and be equipped with the necessary skills. AI is constantly evolving, making continuous learning a necessary part of a developer’s arsenal.

The India context for foundational models

Computing infrastructure determines the scale and scope of AI applications. However, components of such infrastructure, such as GPUs, are in extremely short supply in India. Adding to the challenge is the reliance on public cloud infrastructure providers, which is driving the need to improve India’s computing capacity, so AI-led transformations can truly be scaled.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s Expert Working Group on AI recently recommended setting up a three-tier compute infrastructure across five locations with a capacity of 3000 AI petaFLOPs, along with an inference farm and edge computing systems. While it is a step in the right direction, India needs more developers to focus on building foundational models that incorporate the essence of the Indian context.

Currently, all AI products are being built on foundational models from the West. However, the same model for language, or geolocation cannot be accurately implemented in India because Indian roads are very different from those in the west, and translating from one Indian language to another cannot be replicated using Western models.

The opportunity lies in creating platforms where developers can build, train and fine tune foundational models that can be hosted for others to use. Businesses need to turn their focus towards creating the engine that will drive AI transformation. There are a few startups in India focused on building marketplaces where developers can either build their own AI agents using low-to-no code platforms, or host their own agentic frameworks and foundation models. The future of AI skills lies in marketplaces and online developer communities, where people can come together, collaborate with each other to learn and build. It also ensures that the skills and know-how are accessible by all— regardless of the size of the organisation.

Towards this end, India needs highly specialised research and development on deep learning models from scratch. AI researchers and scientists, AI developers, builders and architects, and AI integrators will be in major demand in the future. This makes it important for industry and academia to focus on skilling and upskilling initiatives to ensure India can meet the demand for talent and lead the AI revolution.

By Praveer Kochhar, Co-Founder & CPO, KOGO