AI learning enrolments spike as India Inc rushes to upskill employees

Even more worrying is the apparent unawareness or worse, lack of concerns of Indian consumers about the risks.

In a dynamic shift toward embracing cutting-edge technologies, artificial intelligence (AI), and its allied courses have emerged as the cornerstone of India Inc's learning and development (L&D) initiatives. Edtech firms have witnessed an unprecedented surge in demand, with enrolments skyrocketing by up to 500 percent over the past year alone.

This surge reflects a strategic pivot among Indian corporations, keen on upskilling their workforce to remain competitive in an increasingly digitised landscape. From multinational corporations to burgeoning start-ups, the imperative to harness AI's transformative potential has become unmistakable.

Edtech firms, quick to capitalise on this burgeoning demand, have curated an extensive array of AI-centric courses tailored to meet diverse professional needs. From beginner-level primers to advanced specialisations, these platforms offer flexible learning pathways designed to accommodate busy schedules and varying skill levels.

“There has been a 500 percent growth in our AI programme portfolio for the Indian market during the last year. This surge isn't merely about numbers, however, it signifies a fundamental shift in how individuals and businesses are adopting AI in order to modernise their business operations and gain a competitive edge in the swiftly evolving business landscape,” Mohan Kannegal, CEO of India and APAC at Emeritus, told Moneycontrol.

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The growth is also backed by findings of the Emeritus Global Workplace Skills Study 2023 which depicts almost one in two respondents expressing fears of being replaced by technology.

Similarly, Simplilearn’s AI-focused commercial business has experienced exponential growth with orders skyrocketing by over 400 percent year-on-year.

Looking at consumer and enterprise enrolments in AI and related courses, Simplilearn has seen a 2.6X times growth in the last year. “A year back, we had a portfolio comprising seven AI courses. In the last year, five additional courses have been added to our AI catalogue, taking the total offerings to 12,” said Kashyap Dalal, Co-founder and COO of Simplilearn.

With demand increasing, Simplilearn’s AI offerings now span five types of areas: AI programmes for developers and data scientists; Applied Gen AI program for practitioners who want to build their own AI models; Gen AI for Business Transformation, which helps non-coders and general managers across domains to understand applications of Gen AI in their function; AI for decision making, which is for Executives and CXOs; and no code Gen AI implementation, focused on data professionals and managers to use the power of Gen AI without getting into deep programming.

Focus remains high

Organisations are moving towards a scientific approach to upskilling their workforce using a common skills framework to identify gaps in their talent capability, according to the second edition of the Deloitte India Talent Outlook report.

While almost three in every four organisations today have a skills framework, almost a quarter of them cannot update it regularly to match their evolving business needs. Although CXOs have better visibility of skill demand and supply across jobs, now 30 percent of companies track and maintain this compared with 19 percent last year.

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Information Technology (IT) major Infosys has a special focus on equipping its employees with AI skills. One important aspect of its vision and purpose in leveraging AI is “Human + AI, and not Human vs AI”.

“We are continuously investing and reskilling our employees and other stakeholders, redesigning our jobs and platforms to allow for seamless career transitions. This will enable all our employees to stay qualified and proficient in an increasingly AI-powered global economy. Our vision is to empower every job role with an AI assistant to help them efficiently navigate their careers,” said Shaji Mathew, Group Head of Human Resource Development at Infosys.

For an AI era, he said the existing talent must be transformed for individuals to become AI-aware, AI- Builders, and AI-Masters.

However, soft skills also remain popular completing the in-demand technical skills.

In 2023, as businesses grappled with a transformative shift as they incorporated AI technologies into their operations, LinkedIn saw a 21x increase in the share of global English-language job postings mentioning new AI technologies such as ChatGPT.

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However, the list of the top five skills hiring managers regard as important features are a combination of both hard and soft skills: problem-solving abilities (31 percent), AI skills (25 percent), critical thinking (22 percent), communication skills (21 percent) and IT & web skills (20 percent).