NEW DELHI, June 23 — India is facing a significant shortage of artificial intelligence workers, with estimates suggesting a gap of over 1 million professionals by 2027, according to staffing firms and experts. The demand for AI professionals is expected to reach 2.3 million by 2027, while the available talent pool stands at around 1.2 million, highlighting the widening gap between demand and supply. Notably, the shortage is most severe in production and deployment-focused roles, with generative AI deployment talent facing a gap of nearly 83%.
This shortage is increasingly affecting companies’ ability to move AI projects beyond pilot stages and into full-scale deployment. Around 80% of employers are struggling to find the AI talent they need, with hiring timelines for niche AI roles stretching beyond 90 days.
The talent crunch comes at a time when companies across sectors, from information technology services and global capability centres to banks, healthcare firms, and manufacturers, are ramping up investments in AI. Sanketh Chengappa, director at staffing firm Adecco India, noted that “the demand-supply imbalance is becoming more visible as AI adoption moves from experimentation to enterprise-wide deployment.” In generative AI, the firm estimates that there is currently only one qualified engineer available for every ten open roles.
It would seem that the shortage is being felt most acutely in specialised deployment roles rather than research positions. According to staffing firm Quess Corp, GenAI deployment talent faces a shortage of 82.9%.
Kapil Joshi, CEO-IT staffing at Quess Corp, stated that “India is already facing a structural gap of nearly 900,000 AI professionals.” India currently has about 920,000 AI professionals, but demand continues to outpace supply. Nearly 350,000 AI-related jobs were advertised. A significant talent shortage is not just a numbers game, but a constraint on the ability of companies to deploy AI at scale.
For all the efforts in AI adoption, companies are struggling to find the talent they need to move projects forward. As the demand for AI professionals continues to grow, it remains to be seen how companies will address this shortage and what impact it will have on the development of AI projects in India. The situation is likely to become more pressing as companies continue to invest in AI.
With the shortage of AI talent expected to worsen, companies will need to find solutions to address this gap. As the AI landscape continues to evolve, it will be important to watch how companies navigate this talent shortage and what strategies they employ to overcome it.
For now, the focus will be on how India addresses this shortage and what impact it will have on the country’s AI industry.
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