BENGALURU: Despite Bengaluru being the IT capital of India, industry experts, whose companies are based in the city, are worried over the lack of AI talent among job seekers and youngsters who graduate from premier engineering degrees including Computer Science, Electronics and Communication and others every year.
According to the experts, the industry is facing a severe shortage of blended talent of product managers, analysts and operational leaders who can work as AI translators by merging business logic with technical tools. They say that currently, there is only one qualified candidate for every 10 open GenAI roles in India.
Recently, Dr Sharanprakash R Patil, Minister for Medical Education, Skill Development and Livelihood, had said that only 20,000 engineering graduates out of every one lakh students get jobs in Karnataka. While some experts blame it on curriculum that focuses more on theory than practical learning, others have stated that it is difficult for educational institutions to keep pace with the fast-developing technology and skills required for it.
Soumendra Mohanty, Chief Strategy Officer, Tredence, a data science company, said, “Talent gaps are a result of the mismatch of incremental evolution of education systems, while AI advances at breakneck speed. Institutions continue to emphasise baseline computer science foundations whereas businesses are increasingly looking for specialised, production-ready skills in Agentic AI and Machine Learning Operations (MLOps).”
He says, “This disconnect means many graduates enter the workforce equipped with theory that is already losing relevance by the time they begin their careers. Furthermore, the explosion of Generative AI across every business function has created a Data Darwinism effect, where the speed of adoption simply outruns traditional training cycles.
As a result, companies continue to face a chronic shortage where job demand doubles annually while the supply of day-zero ready professionals, whose capability of handling complex AI stacks from their first day, continues to suffer.”
Bhavesh Goswami, Founder & CEO, Cloud That, a cloud training and consulting services firm, says India might face a shortfall of over one million AI professionals by 2027. “The gap isn’t restricted to highly specialised roles such as AI researchers; it is part of the broader challenge of a shortage of an AI-ready workforce.
We need a shift in perspective to close this gap. Universities need to play their role by prioritising hands-on learning, while organisations need to embed continuous upskilling efforts into their culture by providing a wireframe for their employees to level up from semi-skilled to super-skilled,” says Goswami.
Upskilling and reskilling of workforce
It is not just college graduates who need to develop skills, the existing workforce in companies also need upskilling and reskilling.
There should be a substantial thrust in companies on mid-career reskilling and upskilling. It should become part of the work culture, say experts. Mohanty says, “Companies need to transition to a learning-as-a-workflow model to bridge the gap. Upskilling should be a part of daily operations, rather than an isolated event.
Activities like AI sandboxes enable teams to experiment with challenges without risk and linking learning paths to performance reviews. Data scientists and business leads can co-create solutions by forming cross-functional squads so that learning becomes a part of their daily work lives. The objective is to build co-intelligent teams that can seamlessly orchestrate constellations of AI agents, thereby turning talent shortage into a competitive strength.”
He warns that companies that undermine investment in large-scale reskilling over the next 5-7 years, could face a potential competitive wipeout.
Echoing this, Goswami says, “Partnership between industries gives access to industry-aligned, structured reskilling paths, the inclusion of real-world cases, and support for employees to learn, unlearn, and relearn as AI evolves. Without these, AI might remain a thing of the future instead of a tool in the present.”
No stability in job roles
Dr Basaralu Sudharshan, former head, skilling, Reliance Industries Limited, said there is a lack of skills among students but there is also lag among faculty to update themselves in terms of knowledge and practical skills. “For example, in Germany, there is a dual education system, where students spend two years in training with companies and two years at college to study. This type of integrated learning in India is slowly picking up, but we have a long way to go,” says Sudharshan.
Evolving job roles is another challenge for industry and job seekers, he says. “Job roles in the industry are evolving along with technology. Around 10 or 15 years ago, job roles offered were stable. There used to be a defined level of expected competency. However, now even industries are not able to identify the competency level, and roles are changing quickly. That’s why there will always be a gap between industry and curriculum teaching in colleges.”
Curriculum updation in full speed
RV University Vice-Chancellor Prof Ram Kumar Kakani says there is no dearth of AI talent among graduates and job seekers. He says, “I have heard about the so-called dearth of AI talent, but I beg to differ. I do not completely agree with industry experts who say there is a complete lack of AI talent among college graduates and job seekers, at least in places such as Bengaluru, where private universities work closely with industry and actively capture those inputs in the curriculum.”
Kakani adds, “It might be the case in remotely located colleges, say in regions like Himachal Pradesh, but it is neither a valid nor an appropriate insight. At RV University, we revisit the course curriculum and pedagogy every two years. Nearly one-third of our faculty members come from industry. This directly reflects in our course curriculum and pedagogy. As a result, areas such as AI, ML and related aspects are well integrated in the curriculum.”
It is the same at GoI-funded National Institute of Technology, Suratkal (NITK), which is currently in the process of a major curriculum revision for 2026-27, that will make Data Science and AI a compulsory course for all engineering students.
Prof Annappa B from NITK, says, “This aligns with India’s NEP 2020, which urges universities to adopt flexible, multidisciplinary, practice-oriented curricula. The curriculum is updated through major revisions every three to four years, with continuous elective additions in between, and all stakeholders — including industry and academic experts — participate in the Board of Studies to ensure the syllabus reflects current industrial needs.”
Research projects galore at NITK
At the same time, research internships and project-based learning in AI play a critical role in skill development for students.
Explaining the ongoing projects at NITK, Annappa says, “Collectively, our sponsored projects span across social outreach, explainable AI, environmental and ocean modelling, quantum computing, and healthcare applications. It includes exploration and inventory of seamount fishery resources in the Indian seas with an emphasis on cephalopod assemblages and AI-based automated characterisation;
Quantum cryptanalysis using Grover’s quantum search algorithm; development of deep explainable frameworks for semantically similar legal document retrieval and summarization; AI-based modelling and assessment of saltwater intrusion phenomena; Microsoft-supported AI for Earth projects focused on environmental monitoring; and deep neural network-based early detection of lung cancer from low-dose CT images.”
In addition to private universities and central government-funded universities, public state-funded Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) also updates its curriculum every year.
Dr S Vidyashankar, Vice-Chancellor, VTU, said they update the curriculum every year. “From this academic year itself, we have incorporated technologies like AI and ML into the curriculum. This enables students to learn them at the college level. Not only AI, but we are also adopting Super Intelligence, which is gaining international recognition abroad. We have even entered into an agreement for this. Furthermore, we are providing opportunities for internships for practical training. As a result, after completing college, students will find it easier to get employment,” says Vidyashankar.
TALENT CRUNCH AND AI
2030 AI talent crunch in India will persist at least still 2030, suggest organisations like World Economic Forum
53% Projected demand-supply gap by late 2026, with nearly 1 million unfilled AI roles
1.2 million New roles will be needed by end of next 10 years in India’s GCC ecosystem
Dearth of AI talent: Pai
TV Mohandas Pai, former CFO and board member at Infosys, said there is a dearth of AI talent in India. According to the Stanford University 2025 Global AI Vibrancy Tool, India has emerged as the world’s third-most competitive nation in AI after US and China, with an expanding pool of talent. Whenever companies hire students who are fresh out of college, they are trained. Even faculty at colleges and universities don’t have ready skills.
Colleges as well as faculty have to look for open source materials available in the form of videos these days and upgrade their knowledge. Many students can also go to these open sources so that they have basic understanding of AI, ML, Python etc. It is easy, as they can spend two hours every day on this to enhance their skills. Colleges can refer to the syllabus taught at IITs, which is easily available, and adopt the same at their institutes to bring that standard.
Union Budget focus on AI
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has proposed to set up a high-powered education to employment and enterprise standing committee.
The committee will recommend embedding AI in the curricula from school level, upgrading State Councils of Educational Research and Training for teacher training and proposing frameworks for upskilling and reskilling engineers, technology professionals in AI and emerging technologies.
Steps will be taken to enable AI matching jobs and training workers according to the required skills, make the informal workforce visible and verifiable, and measures to attract skilled workforce from across the globe to India.
