Bengaluru: As the landscape of work changes rapidly with artificial intelligence playing a pivotal role, companies are moving beyond a one-size-fits-all model of learning to ensure that employees are skilled in the emerging technology.
With about 420,000 employees engaged in AI-related job functions, India has the second largest installed talent base in this segment globally, according to a report earlier this year by IT industry association Nasscom and the Boston Consulting Group.
As demand for AI-skilled people is growing at a fast pace, companies are investing heavily in upskilling and reskilling the existing workforce in the technology.
At IT services firm Infosys, customised upskilling programmes are offered on its learning platform, Lex.
Over the past year and a half, the Bengaluru-based company’s education, training and assessment department has developed more than 50 custom programmes for generative AI, which employees can take anytime, anywhere, said chief technology officer Mohammed Rafee Tarafdar. So far, it has trained around 270,000 employees on AI technologies, he said.
Accenture has equipped more than 600,000 of its people on the fundamentals of generative AI, including how to use AI tools equitably, sustainably and without bias through its global learning programme called Technology Quotient, said Mukesh Chaudhary, lead – data and AI, Advanced Technology Centers in India, Accenture.
„We also continue to steadily increase our global data and AI workforce, reaching approximately 55,000 skilled data and AI practitioners, against our goal of growing to 80,000 practitioners by the end of FY26,“ he said.
Communication equipment maker Ericsson is upskilling employees in AI through its Digital Academy, to help them develop skills essential for driving technologies such as AI/automation through digitalisation and building competence in data science, said Priyanka Anand, head of HR at Ericsson (Southeast Asia, Oceania and India).
Professional services firm Genpact has introduced a GenAI-powered bot, AI Guru, which provides personalised learning recommendations and nano-learning bytes in the flow of work to employees.
Bus ticket booking company RedBus has set up an immersive learning platform using metaverse that uses virtual and augmented reality to aid employees‘ learning. Employees can log in, take self-evaluations and get customised development plans which advise them on areas they need to upskill themselves in, based on their goals and aspirations.
Training Tie-ups
Companies are also exploring partnerships to upskill their workforce. Genpact, for instance, has learning programmes with Udemy and LinkedIn Learning to upskill its top data-tech-AI professionals and create a talent pipeline.
“We’ve also set up an internal “Generative AI Playground” — developed in partnership with Microsoft — which provides a secure environment for employees to test and learn how generative AI can be used to solve client problems,” said Shalini Modi, global leader – employee learning, Genpact.
Wipro is collaborating with academia, tech and education partners, as well as startups to train employees in AI. The IT company has rolled out partnerships with IIT-Delhi, IIT-Patna, IISc-Bengaluru, as well as the Universities of Maryland and South Carolina to advance R&D and nurture the next generation of talent.
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Foto: Representational
