E-Paper
India’s AI Momentum and the Role of the 90-Day Notice Period
For India's AI ecosystem to flourish, a shift towards shorter notice periods and enhanced talent mobility is essential.
India is at a defining moment in the global AI race. As visa hurdles such as U.S. H-1B caps, rising costs, and stricter immigration norms push global organisations to hire talent in India, the country should be emerging as a potential AI advantage. Instead, a structural bottleneck within the ecosystem is holding progress back.
The problem isn’t ideas, ambition, or capital. It is access to the right talent, quickly and efficiently.
AI Emerges in Startups, Not Systems
Every significant AI breakthrough so far has emerged from the startup ecosystem. OpenAI, Anthropic, and other AI pioneers did not come out of traditional consulting firms or legacy enterprises. Established organisations did not anticipate the future and are now following trends set by startups.
Imagine a world where these AI startups were forced to wait three months to onboard talent before rolling out a new feature. The AI ecosystem we know today wouldn’t exist.
AI innovation depends on speed, experimentation, and execution, conditions that employment structures fundamentally undermine.
A Global AI Talent Crunch Meets a Local Bottleneck
Globally, AI talent is in short supply. For every qualified AI professional, there are multiple open roles, and this gap is expected to persist well into the next decade despite continued upskilling efforts. Speed of hiring has therefore become a key competitive advantage.
India, despite being the backend engine of global AI development, struggles on this front due to one long-standing policy: the 90-day notice period.
The Architecture of Delay
The 90-day notice period was designed for a different era, one dominated by long-duration projects, legacy systems, and waterfall methodologies. Consultants were required to stay because they held institutional knowledge and projects moved slowly.
That world no longer exists.
Today’s AI projects are agile, lean, and follow sprints. Technology cycles have shifted in weeks, not years. In such an environment, a three-month waiting period is not protective, it is restrictive. What once made sense has now become an inherited policy that no longer matches industry’s reality.
When Even Big Enterprises Can’t Hire Fast Enough
This challenge is no longer limited to startups. Large enterprises and consulting firms are equally affected. Even they struggle to find suitable talent, often competing for professionals already in the last leg of their notice period. For example, at SCM Champs, a consulting firm focusing on SAP supply chain and logistics solutions, they have encountered the same delays in onboarding domain experts, underscoring how widespread this bottleneck is.
In practice, the few engineers available on shorter notice are expensive, tend to engage in offer shopping, and often drop out at the last moment. The long notice period ends up affecting everyone, startups and enterprises alike.
A Founder’s Reality
At SCM Champs, the company has experienced this hiring friction. Hiring a senior resource in India often takes five to six months when notice periods, interview processes, internal approvals, and formalities are factored in. Even after waiting, there is no guarantee that the candidate will join. Many understandably continue exploring other opportunities until the end.
Startups cannot build AI products with fresh graduates. While fresh talent brings energy, AI innovation requires experienced engineers who can design, deploy, and scale systems quickly. This is especially true in complex enterprise domains like supply chain management, where AI solutions must integrate with platforms such as SAP and advanced automation technologies. The current structure makes such talent inaccessible when it is needed most.
Talent Exists. Access Does Not.
India has no shortage of capable engineers. The ecosystem is split between fresh graduates with limited experience, and mature professionals tied to notice periods. Startups have ideas but no timely access to talent. Enterprises have talent but may struggle to retain and deploy it effectively.
Capital, especially in AI, is no longer the primary constraint. Talent mobility is now the limiting factor. Hiring even generic AI engineers can be a challenge. It becomes nearly impossible when industry-specific knowledge must complement AI skills, where SAP supply chain expertise is essential. For instance, at SCM Champs, delivering AI-driven improvements in supply chain operations requires proficient engineers not just in different tools within AI & Machine learning, but also in SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM), Transportation Management (TM), and warehouse automation integration. Such specialised talent is harder to find on short notice.
Freedom Is the Growth Multiplier
Shorter notice periods would make talent more accessible and encourage organisations, both startups and large enterprises, to take better care of their people. Companies that invest in culture, growth, and meaningful work will retain talent. Those that don’t, may not.
That is how a sustainable, innovation-led ecosystem should function.
It may be time to let go of this outdated mindset and make the Indian IT industry more startup-friendly. Because in AI, speed matters, and unless talent mobility improves, India’s AI moment risks slipping away.
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This article is written by Prabhjot Singh Nayyar (Founder & CEO, SCM Champs).
Note to the Reader: This article is part of Hindustan Times' promotional consumer connect initiative and is independently created by the brand. Hindustan Times assumes no editorial responsibility for the content.
