Has Indian IT missed the bus | Number Theory

Here is a snapshot of how AI boom is reshaping India’s tech story, why it is challenging old IT services model, & where next wave of opportunities could come

As Delhi hosts the India AI Impact Summit, here is a snapshot of how the AI boom is reshaping India’s tech story, why it is challenging the old IT services model, and where the next wave of opportunities could come from.

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  India IT haven't been able to ride the AI wave

  Global tech stocks have surged on the AI boom, but Indian IT has struggled to ride it. The reason is structural: AI doesn’t just create new demand, it also threatens the labour-heavy outsourcing and BPO engine that has underpinned Indian IT’s margins so far. That fear has weighed on valuations, with the NIFTY IT index down roughly 14% so far this year.
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  And India lags behind in AI research

  Although there is now a push to promote the AI ecosystem in India, it still lags the US and China on the research-and-frontier side—the US dominates “notable” frontier model output, while China leads on volume metrics like AI publications and patents.
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  But AI usage is rising fast, infra is following

  On the other hand, India is already among the biggest AI user markets—estimates show that it is the second biggest market for ChatGPT after the US—and that demand is feeding into the physical buildout too, as the number of data centers in India keep rising.
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  GCCs could bridge IT workforce to AI economy

  Even if AI makes some jobs redundant, it’s also spawning new specialist roles. One answer to India’s AI conundrum could be Global Capability Centers (GCC), which will help multinational corporations who are struggling to hire in this hot AI market to plug their holes using the vast and scalable tech workforce in India. As a result, the number of GCCs in India have surged in recent years, making it the largest global hub for captive centres.