With the recent surge in artificial intelligence (AI) development, global IT companies have launched large-scale talent recruitment efforts in India, a leading IT powerhouse. These companies are absorbing developers by offering high salaries as conditions for job changes.
On the 4th, Bloomberg reported that global IT companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have established local businesses in India and are employing thousands of local workers.
The reason global companies are recruiting talent in India is that India has the second largest AI development workforce in the world, following the United States. NASSCOM, an Indian software industry association, explained, "India supplies 16% of the global AI workforce," and "India is considered one of the top three AI talent-producing countries along with the US and China." According to NASSCOM's statistics, there are currently about 416,000 AI and data-related professionals in India.
However, this number is far from sufficient to meet the demand in the Indian labor market. NASSCOM stated that the current talent pool only fulfills half of the market demand, and the AI industry requires approximately an additional 213,000 professionals.
The demand for IT-related talent in India is expected to expand further. As of last year, the number of AI-related innovation centers and companies established in India is reported to be close to 1,600.
In response, companies are offering high salaries as conditions for job changes to retain talent. An AI developer living in New Delhi told Bloomberg, "Whenever my colleagues change jobs, their salaries increase by 35% to 50%," adding, "There is a severe shortage of data and AI-related talent."
Bloomberg also reported that companies struggling with labor shortages continuously make job offer calls even to developers who do not wish to change jobs. Additionally, some AI developers have reportedly exploited the labor shortage by demanding motorcycles as a condition for accepting job offers.
Rahul Shah, founder of Workwater Talent Advisors, a headhunting company in India, said, "AI talent is irreplaceable and is at the core of organizations," adding, "There is an unmet demand for AI talent among companies."
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