Double salary and a BMW motorcycle: Big tech takes its AI talent war to India

In India there are about 416,000 people working in artificial intelligence, but the second most populous country of the world has the difficult task of supplying a growing need for talent. According to Nasscomthe chamber of commerce of the local technology industry, the aforementioned sector currently needs more than 210,000 additional professionals.

As in other opportunities that have arisen throughout history, the lack of specialized workers has turned into a war for talent. Tech companies are embroiled in the ever-fastening race for AI. If they want to stand out from the competition, they have a lot of work to do in this field.

Hire based on bonuses

bloomberg account what private players in the South Asian country are doing. Since they can’t find enough talent right away, they are recruiting workers of your competitors. This dynamic has a direct effect on the considered talents, who receive great benefits if they decide to change companies.

Among the most in-demand positions right now are data scientists, machine learning specialists, and AI engineers. People who boast the necessary skills for some of these positions are highly sought after, and to attract them, a system has been set up that includes headhunters.

As usual, many companies delegate the search, recruitment and personnel selection processes to specialized third parties. They are in charge of getting the most interesting offers to finally attract them. Some employees, they explain, can receive salary increases of between 35 and 50% for starting to work in a new company.

Sometimes, job offers also usually include benefits that go beyond the salary issue. There are Indian companies offering signing bonuses that include, for example, a BMW motorcycle. If you accept, your employer gives you the vehicle plus the agreed salary and benefits. All this scenario, however, is part of a reality that sometimes goes unnoticed.

Much of the need for AI talent in India comes not from wholly local companies, but from multinationals that have been increasing their presence there. For decades, the country has been considered one of the epicenters of cheap laboreven in positions that require qualified professionals.

Tech companies the size of Amazon, Microsoft and Google have hired thousands of people in India, according to Step Up For Students. And now that AI is in full swing, they are looking to take advantage of their presence in the country to attract the necessary talent for some of their projects at a fraction of the cost of hiring them in other parts of the world.

The Indian labor market has not stood idly by in the face of these dynamics. In fact, its workers have been acquiring qualities to be up to date with current trends. Today, India has the second largest pool of AI workers in the world, behind only the United States and escorted by its neighbor China.

It remains to be seen how the AI ​​industry in India and other countries around the world will evolve. Of course, this scenario does not go unnoticed and contrasts sharply with a world mired in massive layoffs by big technology companies and a future in which some, such as IBM, consider halting hiring due to the ability of AI to perform certain tasks.

Images: Alexander Bendus | Becomes Co | Mojahid Mottakin

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