India Inc in a bind on whom to train for AI

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2 years ago

March 11, 2024

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A senior partner from one of the Big Four audit and consulting firms explained the dilemma, noting the rapid pace at which AI skills become obsolete. Skills acquired today might not be relevant in just 18 months, complicating decisions about who should receive training. Moreover, the scarcity of a predefined talent pool means that candidates applying for AI roles may exploit the system, the senior partner said. “What does it take for you to sprinkle ‘Gen AI’ five times on your CV.”

The partner also highlighted the difficulty in distinguishing between a candidate’s foundational abilities and their specialized Gen AI skills, a challenge compounded by concerns over skill redundancy, particularly for heads of Global Capability Centres (GCCs).

A 2024 Global Talent Trends report by Mercer, drawing on insights from over 12,000 C-suite executives, human resource leaders, employees, and investors worldwide, found that 58% believe technological advancements have surpassed their organization’s capacity to retrain workers. Less than half are confident in their current talent model’s ability to meet this year’s demands.

“Now, what is changing is, instead of just looking for specific expertise, we are looking for things like learnability. Because whatever this person is hired for, in three years, the person is going to have to rediscover or reinvent themselves,” said Sanjay Menon, managing director (MD) of Publicis Sapient, a Boston-based digital transformation and consulting company.

With no established curriculum for AI, professionals must be prepared to continually update their knowledge and skills. “Those textbooks will be written over time and even the ones that are written, will have to keep getting rewritten,” Menon said.

Amid the complexities of implementing AI training programmes, companies also face tough decisions on workforce management. While the need for AI training is clear, not all high-potential employees will be selected for these opportunities, and as such the threat of job losses remains.

Deepti Sagar, chief people and experience officer at Deloitte India, emphasized the importance of a persona-centric approach to training, tailored to different employee cohorts, such as sales, delivery, productivity, and strategic impacts.

“Managing changes within the organisation while upskilling employees across career levels to adopt Gen AI will need to be dealt with sensitivity. This is because employees, irrespective of whether they are at the entry-, mid-, or senior-levels, come to embrace Gen AI as a career accelerator rather than a deterrent,” said Sagar.

Vijay Sivaram, chief executive for IT Staffing at recruitment firm Quess, outlined that the initial focus of AI training would be on professionals in data analytics, machine learning (ML), and development roles. “Right now, most demands are coming in for prompt engineers, AI/ML & data scientists,” noted Sivaram.

Against this backdrop of industry-wide dilemmas, major Indian IT companies are forging ahead, undertaking substantial initiatives in AI training and development to address the skills gap and prepare their workforce for the evolving technological landscape.

Tata Consultancy Services, India’s biggest IT Services firm, has trained some 150,000 employees in foundational Gen AI skills and launched an AI Experience Zone. Infosys introduced Infosys Springboard, offering free AI certification programmes, including introductory and advanced-level courses on Gen AI, deep learning, and natural language processing.

Cross-city rival Wipro has launched Wipro ai360, committing $1 billion to AI advancements over the next three years, with plans to train all its 250,000 employees in AI fundamentals.