Over 4,000 artificial intelligence job roles vacant on talent shortage as industry grows 30% in last one year, says report

Mumbai: Shortage of qualified talent in the country has left over 4,000 mid and senior-level job positions vacant in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector, a study said on Monday. Also, around 57 percent of firms hiring for AI roles are looking for candidates with over five years of experience, while the average AI experience of Indian professionals stands at a mere three years, the study by Analytics India Magazine, in association with Great Learning, an online education firm for working professionals, said. [caption id=“attachment_4269541” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Repesentational image. Reuters[/caption] “The AI industry has grown by close to 30 percent in the last one year to $230 million. Yet, over 4,000 positions in India remain vacant due to shortage of qualified talent at the mid and senior level,” the study said. These opportunities do not include new jobs that are advertised every month but refers to opportunities that have been vacant for a period of 12 months, it added. “This supply-demand gap indicates huge opportunity for mid and senior-level professionals across industries like IT, finance, healthcare and e-commerce, who are looking to transition into AI, over the next few years,” it said. When it comes to remuneration, according to the study, the median salary of AI professionals in India is Rs 14.3 lakh across all experience level and skill sets. Nearly 40 percent of AI professionals have an entry-level salary of Rs 6 lakh onwards, while around 4 percent command a salary higher than Rs 50 lakh, reflecting the massive demand for mid and senior-level AI talent in the country, it said. The study also points out that the salary trends across various industries like finance, e-commerce and healthcare are improving steadily. A city-wise remuneration comparison reveals that Mumbai is the highest paymaster in AI, at almost Rs 15.6 lakh per annum, followed by Bengaluru at Rs 14.5 lakh, and Chennai, the lowest paymaster, at Rs 10.4 lakh. On the demand side, the 10 leading organisations with the most number of AI openings this year are IBM, Accenture, Amazon, Fractal Analytics, Societe Generale, SAP Labs, 24/7 Customer, Atos, Nvidia and Tech Mahindra, the study said. The top skill sets that AI employers are looking for are machine learning, natural language processing, neural networks, analytics, cloud computing and pattern recognition, according to the study. The study, carried out over a period of six months, collected data through research on leading job portals in India and interactions with over 100 companies and more than 1,000 professionals across all major cities.