Indian IT giants train 775,000 employees in GenAI skills

The top three Indian IT firms — Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and Wipro — collectively trained over 775,000 employees in generative AI (GenAI) capability by the end of 2023-24, according to an analysis of GenAI-trained workforce of leading companies in India in this sector.

This number is significantly higher that the projection made by the IT industry body Nasscom in its Strategic Review of 2023, released in February this year. It said in 2023-2024, over 650,000 employees across the IT industry received training in Gen AI skills.

TCS, India’s largest IT services company, is leading the pack, and has trained around 300,000 employees in GenAI skills, according to the company. Milind Lakkad, chief human resources officer, TCS, in an earlier interview had said: “AI will be the very fabric of the company. We are ensuring that everybody in the organisation has foundational skills and then we build expertise on it.”

Infosys, based on information provided by the company, is second-placed, having trained 250,000 of its staffers in GenAI skills. It is followed by Wipro, which imparted training to over 225,000 employees on AI fundamentals and the responsible use of AI.

Of this, Wipro trained 195,000 in basic GenAI fundamentals, over 18,000 on a foundational level, about 4,000 on an associate level, and 2,200 on an advanced level, according to data from the company. “Over 220,000 of our employees have completed training on AI fundamentals and the responsible use of AI,” Subha Tatavarti, chief technology officer (CTO), Wipro, told Business Standard in a recent interaction.

Noida-based HCLTech said that the company plans to equip 50,000 employees with GenAI skills in FY25. It, however, did not share the number of people it has trained in GenAI skills, so far.

“By this financial year, we’ll have about 50,000 people fully trained to leverage generative AI. We’re also putting a lot of focus on GenAI developers and people who can really do all the architecture and programming,” said C Vijayakumar, CEO and MD, HCLTech, in a post-result interaction with Business Standard last week.

LTIMindtree, the fifth-largest IT services player, has so far trained over 20,000 employees on GenAI capabilities.

The focus on the skilling part is also due to the rising number of work in this GenAI space. Though it has yet to contribute significantly to revenue, GenAI has become the priority for clients. And this is evident in the deal sizes. TCS during its Q4FY24 results said that its GenAI deals were worth $900 million. Similarly, Accenture stated that its total contract value in GenAI had touched the $1.1 billion milestone. Business Standard