AI offers opportunity for Indian firms to drive job transformation: Nasscom

The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) globally presents significant opportunities for Indian companies and will not adversely impact their businesses, Nasscom AI Head Ankit Bose said on Tuesday.

He said instead of job cuts, India will witness job transformations as roles evolve with the growing adoption of AI.

"AI is getting developed across the world, but who will deploy that. For that you need people... So now India adding capacity... AI is happening at a massive scale and Indian professionals will deploy that. So it's a big opportunity for us but we have to be ahead of the curve and we have to keep our skills up to date," Bose told PTI.

He said at the sidelines of a session in the AI Impact Summit here.

To build capacity, the government and private sector are taking steps.

"In the next few months we are going to enable 1.5 lakh people in AI-based developers... We are working with government to develop curriculum that are needed in colleges," he said.

He added that there is no major worry for Indian companies which are supplying services to domestic firms or global companies due to this fast-growing technology.

In fact, the companies will grow, Bose said.

More people are required to deploy AI globally and there India has strength, he said, adding that there could be some turbulence, but only in the short run.

The remarks are important as India is a major IT and ITeS exporter.

Speaking at the session, Sify Technologies Chairman and MD Raju Vegesna said there is a long way to go at the AI front.

Raju emphasised the need for availability of power supply to data centres in India.

"AI is not a project, it is a journey. It is going to take a lot of time," he said, adding that huge investments are required for graphics processing units (GPUs) and data centres.

At present, only 4-5 firms in the US and 2-3 in China are investing.

India has a lot to offer to the world such as scale, cost-effective manpower, and sustainability, he added.