2 mn Indian jobs in AI, cybersecurity to remain unfilled in 2023: Study

Country will need 30 mn digitally skilled professionals by 2026; 50% workforce will have to re-skill

A "significant" skill deficit in India could cause more than two million jobs in artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity and blockchain to remain unfilled in 2023, said a report on Thursday.

Digitisation, automation and AI adoption have intensified but professionals are unable to evolve for these roles because they do not have the skills, said the report by TeamLease, a HT services company. Automation, data analytics and AI require employees to re-skill themselves in the next two years and stay competitive in work.

According to the report called ‘Skills Strategies for a Strong, Sustainable and Balanced World of Work’, India will need 30 million digitally skilled professionals by 2026. As much as 50 per cent of the workforce would need to re-skill in areas of emerging technologies.

“Companies are becoming desperate for a skilled workforce. As they continue to struggle to find the skills they are looking for, their competitiveness and growth prospects are at risk. At the same time, an enormous and continuously growing chunk of unemployed and underemployed remain inaccessible for most companies due to the skill gap,” said the report.

“Today India has about 500 million people of working age and despite that, we continue to face a skill crisis. Industry data suggests that only 49 per cent of total youth (age group of 22-25 years) in the country is employable. In fact, our own survey has indicated that 75 per cent of companies face a skill gap in the industry. Even among people, who can stay in their current jobs, 40 per cent of fundamental abilities are likely to change and thus re-aligning the skill strategy will be crucial for companies,” said Rituparna Chakraborty, co-founder and executive director of TeamLease Services and chief executive officer, TeamLease Digital.

The report recommended that companies have a training strategy, track learning, and make skilling part of their culture.

 “The workplace is evolving so rapidly that 76% of the global workforce is not equipped with the requisite skills to function in the new digitally focused workplaces. As organizations across the globe adopt new pedagogies for skilling, it would serve them well to look upon skill development as an integral step to creating long-term value for the organization,” said Chakraborty.