India needs skills-based hiring in the AI era to achieve inclusive growth

As we enter the age of AI, India is facing the formidable task of creating employment for millions of new entrants to the workforce every year. While countries like China have harnessed manufacturing to lift millions out of poverty, India has been more reliant on the IT outsourcing industry. Although smaller in scale, the IT industry has unlocked significant prosperity for many Indians. Many in these roles today are now wondering – what does AI mean for my job? And for all Indians who are doing the work to build inclusive growth that leaves no one behind, they are left wondering – what does AI mean for my effort?

It’s natural, in the early days of a paradigm shift, for there to be a lot of fear and uncertainty about the change underway. It’s important too to see the opportunities that are coming alongside preparing for the challenges. AI is already starting to change how we work, taking on more and more of the tasks we like least in our days, like helping with the first draft of an email or doing the first check for errors in a spreadsheet. But that is just the start. Over the coming years, AI will start to change the very definition of work. At LinkedIn, we’re already starting to see that play out as we look at the new skills that employers are adding to job postings and that members are adding to their profiles.

As you would expect, AI-related skills like machine learning are on the rise, and India is at a great advantage as it has the highest AI skills penetration in the world presently, as per LinkedIn's data. There is also a notable increase in the demand for soft skills - which are the skills we humans can uniquely do. This signals an exciting possibility where, alongside the ability to engage with AI, people skills will become more essential to individual success and people-to-people collaboration will become more essential to company success. That would mean we are in the early days of a world of work that is more human than before, giving us the chance to do more fulfilling work, and to do that work more easily and effectively with others.

We have seen change like this before. As the internet became more mainstream in the 1990s, the conversation was very similar to the one we are having today. This new technology was seen by many as a threat to people, to jobs and to companies. Sound familiar? Jobs were lost, and there were challenges in the early days. But new jobs were also created. Where some companies stalled, others surged, giving way to new sectors and industries and, ultimately, new levels of economic growth all over the world, including in India. And now as we look back at the past three decades, the internet has helped people grow their skills, and created new jobs and companies.

In order to capitalise on the opportunities of AI, while also addressing the employment needs for the world’s largest Gen Z population, India will need to accelerate the shift to skills-first hiring and promoting.

Historically, India's employment market has been plagued with information asymmetry. Employers in various industries need workers with skills, but struggle to find them using conventional hiring practices that over emphasise educational qualifications. Meanwhile, a vast pool of skilled individuals struggle to find jobs that could use their abilities. AI can act as a connector and enabler for employment, by analyzing vast amounts of data to map skills for employers, and surfacing relevant opportunities for many overlooked but skilled job seekers.

The AI revolution can also create new opportunities in completely new sectors. The tech world is currently in a gold rush started by Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, but these models are trained and built primarily in English. Once the battle for supremacy shifts to the non-English world, India enjoys a significant advantage, being home to hundreds of languages as well as the second biggest English speaking population in the world. Pioneering companies like Karya have already offered a glimpse of this future, by creating a business model that pays rural Indians for knowledge of their own languages, and building AI training data sets. India has the potential to take this model to the rest of the world. The employment scenario in rural areas can also be transformed by AI's capacity to simplify access to knowledge and analytics for grassroots entrepreneurs. Tools like KissanAI now let farmers access insights about soil health or predict climate-based sowing patterns, turning themselves into data-driven agripreneurs who can unlock high yields and productivity. Beyond agriculture, we find similar potential in sectors like remote healthcare and education. Telemedicine, bolstered by AI, can bring expert diagnostics to the remotest corners, allowing paramedics and national health workers to deliver quality care with the backing of real-time insights. Similarly, educators in far-off regions can harness AI to curate and organize lesson plans, ensuring the core value of teaching remains untouched while bridging the gaps in other skills.

Perhaps the most profound impact of AI will be to debunk a largely prevelant myth, that lower waged jobs are equivalent to lower skilled jobs. Highly skilled workers, from artisans weaving intricate patterns to home healthcare workers were forced to settle for low wages due to abundant local supply, and the non-exportable nature of their skills.

If India makes the choice to anchor its employment strategies in skills, this paradigm might flip on its head, and unlock prosperity by rewarding the inherent skills of our vast population.

In this industrial revolution, perhaps it's India’s time to show the world how to adapt by tapping into our shared humanity and people skills—attributes that we, as humans, are uniquely equipped with.

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The author of this article is Aneesh Raman, VP and Head of the Opportunity Project, LinkedIn and Atul Satija, Founder & CEO, The/Nudge Institute.