India commands the world’s fastest-growing AI engineering talent pool, registering a 33% surge in AI skills in 2025 – 2.5 times the global average in penetration. However, practical realities temper this promise: only 56% of graduates prove employable after retraining, with roughly 20,000 deployed in AI or automation jobs that year. Businesses, facing rising demands, seek specialists to implement AI solutions effectively. LinkedIn data reveals 92% of Indian knowledge workers use AI tools daily, yet just half possess the adaptability for AI-driven roles.
An EY report amplifies the trend: 76% of Indian business leaders are eager to deploy AI for significant impact, and nearly half their companies have already realised benefits. Success demands not hordes of foundational model builders, but “AI translators” – professionals who grasp business problems, select optimal AI tools, and deliver transformative results. Hardcore coding takes a backseat to translational prowess.
Beyond the Code
Consider the applications: fintech and manufacturing firms leverage them for revenue growth and productivity leaps; healthcare improves diagnostic accuracy. MSMEs in manufacturing reduce defects with AI vision systems and fine-tune production schedules. The kirana ecosystem crafts personalised customer offers. Farmers benefit from vernacular advisory on crop cultivation, yield predictions, and pricing. Women entrepreneurs multiply sales via tailored AI tools. Even the stressed healthcare system streamlines patient workflows.
The core workforce who would act as AI translators should be provided with the orientation of business processes, how to redesign them in the context of AI and analytics skills along with the ability to create dashboards. They should have an exposure to emerging AI tools relevant to specific domains or functionalities, prompting and tool chaining.
In addition to these, they should have practical experience or undergo internships with specific domains to understand real business and the problems that could be addressed by AI. Given the vast base of over 150 million MSMEs and micro entrepreneurs, 140 million farmers and around 25 million retail outlets, we have an exciting opportunity to help them adopt AI translators to gear up for transformative impact in their respective domains.
Scaling for the Masses
We are beginning to witness several examples of merchandisers, doctors, manufacturing plant managers, agronomists and fintech product specialists who understand their customers and their pain points, collaborating with AI specialists to create unique solutions leading to transformative outcomes. Various reports indicate AI’s potential to contribute nearly 18% of the economy by 2035 and act as the primary growth engine for sectors such as retail, agriculture and banking.
From India’s current base of AI market accounting for $20 billion to move to $1 trillion market potential, there is a need to leapfrog and bridge the gap between capability and application and by reimagining businesses. By creating a vast pool of AI translators for every domain, this gap can be bridged and the pathway for accessing the real potential from AI deployment that can create outcomes for the masses could be realised.
The writer is chairperson, GTT Foundation.
Disclaimer: The views expressed are the author’s own and do not reflect the official policy or position of Financial Express.