US technology major IBM, which counts India as an important market for research and development, said a wider acceptance of newer technologies like artificial intelligence and quantum, is critical to develop talent and the company is working towards making these technologies mainstream in the country.
One of the areas, which the company has been working on, is talent development by bringing in the right set of skills, right from the school and college level in the country. “These (AI and quantum) are nascent technologies, they will evolve in phases at their own speeds,” Sandip Patel, managing director at IBM India and South Asia told Fe in an interaction.
Patel said, “Skilling is not a challenge in India but there is a need for the masses to have the right aptitude, which will develop once these technologies become mainstream”.
Currently, one-third of IBM’s total global workforce of 280,000 employees is based in India, according to industry reports. Further, about 80% of IBM’s India research employees are working towards research and development of AI capabilities. Therefore, having invested in creating a talent pool in newer technologies in India, is key for IBM in years to come.
“Every technology has its phases of evolution. The whole Internet took a little time to evolve. AI is actually going a lot faster. Quantum has now started and people are starting to figure out how they can really use it,” Patel said. He added that it is not about going faster in accepting technologies like quantum, but one needs to have meaningful use cases.
Since AI talent is going to be key given IBM’s focus on research and development on complex technologies and tools, the company said for the last few years it has been skilling Indian students and professionals in AI.
According to a report by Nasscom, India has 16% of the world’s AI talent pool. “We are one of the first to infuse AI curriculum into CBSE (central board of secondary education). So today, kids from 9th standard to 12th are learning the curriculum that has been provided by IBM to CBSE,” Patel said.
The next steps are how to scale AI and create a platform where the use cases can be driven for businesses, Patel added.
When asked about IBM’s strategy for India, Patel said, “we have been in India for a long time now and we’ve always invested in India. We are actually making in India, for India, and for the world”.
Apart from quantum and AI, IBM will also be supporting the India semiconductor ecosystem through its upcoming research and development centre.
The company said it will also provide its expertise to the startups who are part of the semiconductor design linked incentive (DLI) scheme, besides providing tools for R&D and innovation.
