How Can India’s Workforce Be Prepared for the Artificial Intelligence Era?

Role of AI in enhancing and empowering the workforce of a country like India

India will experience distinct automation effects compared to other countries as artificial intelligence technologies take over a greater number of activities. Advances in artificial intelligence will influence India in a variety of ways, from jobs to quality of life, due to its vast and young population. In addition, the Indian economy is now unprepared to deal with the rise of automation and artificial intelligence. Even though India is one of the world's fastest developing major economies, more growth does not translate into additional jobs. The government must take steps to address the difficulties that occur when various job settings become increasingly automated. These include increasing employment in industries that are least susceptible to automation and promoting young entrepreneurship. To prepare India for automation, political will and knowledge of the problems connected with automation are essential.

It's impossible to imagine the future of work and labor without taking into account India's future as the world's fifth-largest economy. With a population of 1.3 billion people, the country is already having difficulty hiring its large and rising workforce. According to Ernst & Young's research, the Indian workforce grows by 17 million people per year, yet only 5.5 million jobs are produced.

During the April-May 2020 lockdown, 100 million jobs were destroyed, according to the State of Working in India 2021 study. By June 2020, the majority of these employees had found work, but around 15 million remained unemployed. During the pandemic, employees' monthly wages decreased by an average of 17%, with self-employed and informal paid workers losing the most money. Nearly half of paid workers had shifted into informal labor after the lockout, either as self-employed (30%), casual wage (10%), or informal salaried workers (9%). To plan for artificial intelligence in the Indian workforce, the Indian government should collect data on the condition of employment more proactively. The biometric information included in Aadhaar data's unique identification numbers may be utilized to estimate the economy's employed and jobless populations.

With half of the population under the age of 25, preparing the young workforce by exposing them to the tech-enabled future of work with AI interfaces, machine learning, and greater automation would be a critical step. Without a lot of structural change or investment, this may be accomplished through online training programs, the integration of artificial intelligence and automation into current school curricula, and business training programs for recruits. The political leadership would also require a deeper grasp of automation technologies and their consequences for the Indian economy to do this.

The use of artificial intelligence technologies across many areas has increased due to improvements in technology and lower computing resource costs. As a result, commercial companies, academic organizations, and even government agencies began to recognize AI's wide range of benefits and its potential to assist solve some of the most difficult problems in a variety of industries. The following sectors, according to the artificial intelligence task force's recent report to the Government of India, may offer some of the most relevant changes to realize advantages from AI-led developments: Manufacturing and distribution Healthcare, financial services, education, consumer and retail goods, and agriculture are all examples of industries. Jobs in the arts, entertainment, and sports are interpersonal and creative by nature, and may not be subject to automation right away. These industries should be bolstered to resurrect the industry's ability to produce jobs. The ability of artificial intelligence to automate repetitive tasks, increase efficiency and productivity, and decrease mistakes is driving its acceptance and deployment across all of these industries, with the overall goal of serving more people or organizations and helping them perform better.

India has great potential to participate in the growing global market for creative products, which includes cuisine, fashion, jewelry, handicrafts, film, interior design, gaming, animation, and entertainment, thanks to a strong government-backed drive to encourage arts. Increasing the number of young people who start businesses and become entrepreneurs can assist. Universities are increasingly offering entrepreneurship courses, which is helping to foster a startup culture in the country. Increased government purchases of goods and services from domestic companies can also help to spur entrepreneurship. Small businesses, rather than large factories, are more likely to be the future of jobs in India.

The success of artificial intelligence in the Indian workforce as a whole will be determined by how a huge and complicated country like India navigates its way toward being future-ready. It will be a failure for the AI revolution if India fails to ride the AI tsunami that is sweeping the developed world. India needs real actions that go beyond current policy talks to succeed.