Microsoft to equip over 2 million people in India with AI skills: Satya Nadella

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, during his visit to India, announced a new initiative aimed at skilling over 2 million people in the country with AI capabilities. He claimed this initiative underscores Microsoft’s commitment to empowering the workforce of the future in India which will even foster job creation in the country.

Nadella stated, “I'm very excited to announce a new initiative around skilling. We are going to equip around 2 million+ people in India with AI skills. At the end of the day, taking the workforce and making sure they have the skills in order to be able to thrive in the new age is the most important thing that any of us can do. It is not just the skills but it is also the jobs that get created.”

He further added that he was inspired by his interaction with the team behind Kaarya, an Indian brand. The local enterprise Kaarya used Microsoft research in India to provide income sources to rural India. He claimed that they are able to provide well-paying jobs to rural India using opportunities created by AI. 

What is Karya?

Karya is a social enterprise that provides data services, annotation, technology, and ethical data solutions to rural Indian workers and companies. They aim to bring digital work to economically disadvantaged Indians.

Karya creates datasets with the help of rural Indians. They label, annotate, and categorize data that is used to train AI, especially those meant for the non-English speaking part of the Indian population. Karya claims that they pay rural Indians 20 times the minimum wage.

Role of AI in India's GDP

Microsoft’s CEO also claimed that Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help India’s economy grow. He mentioned that many Indian companies are already using AI to their advantage, including Microsoft’s own AI tool, Copilot. Nadella believes that technology is only meaningful if it can significantly boost an economy’s growth. He sees a lot of potential in the current market and is excited about the ambitious goals set for 2025, with a significant part of the growth expected to be driven by AI. 

He compared the situation to the Industrial Revolution in the UK, where 10 per cent of the country’s GDP was invested in the railroad system, leading to significant progress. Similarly, investing heavily in new technologies like AI can greatly improve a country’s prospects.

Nadella is excited about the early stages of AI adoption and the speed at which it’s scaling up. He emphasised that AI has the potential to transform economies and stressed the importance of investing in this technology for future growth.

Also read: India’s $500 billion AI GDP by 2025: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella highlights potential of AI in economic growth

Also read: 'There is nothing that cannot be controlled by humankind': Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at Davos