Interviews

How Realising AI Talent Among Non-Techies Will Supplement India’s AI Talent Pool

CXOToday has engaged in an exclusive interview with Mr Krishna Kumar, Founder and CEO of Learnbay

1.    How do you see the future of AI Talent shaping up in India?

 The AI revolution is reshaping the job market, necessitating a critical shortage of trained people capable of designing, developing, and implementing cutting-edge AI technology. Fortunately, the Indian government is taking proactive steps to solve this dilemma by establishing centers of excellence and training initiatives as part of a bilateral strategic relationship through iCET. Last month, there were 45,000 job opportunities in India for artificial intelligence (AI) professions, with data scientists and machine learning (ML) engineers at the top. The emphasis on ML applications is increasing the need for fluent AI workers in scripting languages. Building traditional ML models will be essential for a career in AI.

 

2.    How has Generative AI impacted the demand for an AI-enabled workforce?

A tremor was felt worldwide as OpenAI’s ChatGPT was made available to the general public in November 2022, democratizing the potential of AI. Several businesses are starting to focus more on the benefits that generative AI could offer. The rise of generative AI will drastically change how most people produce content, especially with routine, repetitive, and tedious jobs, even though it may ultimatelyresult in the displacement of some workers. By utilizing AI technologies, knowledgeworkers’ productivity will quadruple by 2030. According to research, generative AI might affect at least 10% of the jobs performed by about 80% of US workers. 19% ofthe workforce could have at least 50% of their jobs affected.

Generative AI helps workers shorten the time it takes to accomplish tasks and improves the quality of their outputs by combining the immense processing power of algorithms with the crowdsourced knowledge and expertise stored within its training data. Every employee can benefit from a personal assistant who can aid with manual duties, brainstorming ideas, proofreading drafts, developing sample designs, and so on. Eventually, generative AI technology will supply workforces withmany specialized AI assistants to aid them with routine activities. Unlike their human counterparts, they are always available, eager to assist, and unconcerned about how you use their recommendations.

 

3.    What are your thoughts on the potential of non-techies to contribute to India’s AI talent pool?

Upskilling with AI skills is becoming more and more crucial for professional progress and employability in today’s ever-changing employment environment. A rudimentary understanding of AI and its applications can give people a competitive edge in the job market as automation and AI revolutionize sectors across theboard. Non-tech or aspiring tech talent are drawn to crucial positions like AnalyticsTranslators, Product Managers, Strategy Consultants, Technical Project Managers, and Technical Writers to advance their careers in the tech industry. Artificial intelligence (AI) offers non- technical job opportunities for those interested in the subject. By creating conversations and guidelines for AI systems, writers can capitalize on the growing need for AI content development. With a rudimentary

understanding of AI solutions, project managers can organize teams involved in their development and deployment. While collecting user feedback, business analysts can link AI solutions to organizational goals.

 

4.    What specific skills or qualities do you believe non-techies can bring to the AI industry that may complement the skill sets of technical professionals?

There are many career opportunities in AI, a vast sector with both tech- and non- tech-focused positions available. This industry has growing prospects for anyone working in writing, sales, business analysis, or project management. You should take upskilling courses to increase your technical skills before transferring into any role connected to AI. Here are the top non-tech skills for an AI profession, which are just as important as technical skills for an AI job.

  • Creativity: Of all the qualities, this is undoubtedly the most obvious. Even if some intelligent AI systems have been able to create “art,” they are still controlled by algorithms, which are ultimately determined by a set of limitations set by people.
  • Communication: Being a competent engineer and getting the most out of oneself or a colleague necessitates properly defining and communicating the problem. Having clear expectations and messaging regarding any issue and knowing how to express that message (even technical communications) does not always imply technical expertise.
  • Deep learning technology is often not an independent product but a component of a larger or broader Grasping the more comprehensive product and how consumers can utilize it necessitates a deeper understanding of the AI problems, which may not be the most challenging engineering problem. Fortunately, it is a skill that can belearned. Being curious beyond your current role is one way to understand a company’s big picture better.

 

5.    What challenges or barriers do non-techies typically face when trying to enter the AI field, and how can these be overcome?

It is pretty challenging to magically transform a non-technical person into an engineer by learning to program; learning a slew of statistics, linear algebra, and calculus; mastering dozens of different machine learning models and training algorithms; and then figuring out how to apply all of that in the real world. All of it is difficult and time-consuming.

It is helpful to remember that the vast majority of employment created by the AI revolution is not technical because every engineer implementing ML or rules-based code will require assistance from managers, product managers, designers, salespeople, customer support, and other essential responsibilities of any business.

Instead of learning how to program, learn more about how AI is altering the world: what it can do, what industries it affects, and what those implications will be. While learning about the space, consider how you want to engage in the wave. It iscritical to determine if you want to work in strategy, engineering, or design and to begin building those abilities through whichever combination of school, freelancing, volunteer, or passive education works best for you. Getting some workexperience, ideally with companies doing highly innovative AI work, will help with the fundamentals.

 

6.    How can the transition to data/AI-led roles be made easier for professionals across industries?

For AI to function without interruption, it needs a wide range of transferable non- tech skills in all professions. These may include curiosity to learn new things, critical thinking, creativity, communication, problem-solving, time management, domain knowledge, and problem-solving skills. Once you know them, you can use the skills you are already proficient in to launch a lucrative AI profession. A fundamental understanding of programming languages like Python, Java, and C++, as well as data analysis, mathematics, and statistics, will also provide you an advantage over competitors if you work in the tech industry.

Transitioning to AI will necessitate ongoing engagement in learning and adapting. This also entails acquiring a diverse set of abilities. Nonetheless, enrolling in short- term courses is a relatively easy task. Nowadays, numerous online platforms, such as Learnbay, provide an abundance of well-tailored courses on AI and its branches, such as data science, analytics, mathematics and statistics, and hands-oncoding.

 

7.    How do you see the relationship between traditional STEM education and AI- centric talent development programs/courses? Should there be more emphasis placed on AI-specific training?

There is no doubt that artificial intelligence (AI) is the most significant next thing in STEM education since it can change the way we teach and study STEM subjects. AI assists educators in developing personalized learning experiences, providing students with real-time feedback, and automating grading and evaluation. It has become a vital component of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) curriculum to guarantee students gain AI skills. It is prepared to meet future employment problems where AI-related occupations replace present ones.

AI in STEM has numerous advantages for both students and teachers. It allows each learner to learn at their speed. It means that students can learn new concepts while focusing on their interests. AI is beneficial since it gives personalized tutoring. It allows all students to acquire ideas at their own pace and significantly enhances their skills. Proper AI implementation assists students in learning challenging concepts by using audio and visual data. It aids in their performance improvement. AI will assist teachers in clearly accessing students’ emotional states, motivating them to learn new things, and making education available everywhere. It means   that children in remote areas can access knowledge without traveling. It is highly advantageous to rural children who may benefit from international learning standards even in distant places.

AI motivates students to learn about the newest trends and develop critical digital skills. Artificial intelligence also improves collaboration across a wide range of STEM subjects. It enables students to gain skills across several disciplines, shine, and enhance their problem-solving and teamwork abilities, allowing them to workin any job. Many career and educational opportunities are available nowadays, but people need more technical skills to take advantage of them. As a result, this new trend will prepare children to face such obstacles.

 

8.    What steps can be taken to encourage and support non-techies who are interested in pursuing careers in AI? How has Learnbay been addressing this gap?

AI is used in almost every primary industry, from e-commerce to healthcare and agriculture. AI plays a role in businesses making personalized suggestions, market analysis, fraud detection, and virtual/augmented reality. To begin, we must collect accurate data, analyze it, feed it to the machine, and then teach it to learn. As a result, possibilities abound for those who enjoy working with data and machine learning. As artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly used in various industries, freshers and mid-career professionals are exploring a move to AI-related professions such as data scientist, AI ethicist, and research analyst. It is important to transition into AI by choosing a specific role, learning about its requirements, assessing transferable skills, and enrolling in short-term courses.

Learnbay aims to help young Indians find lucrative job opportunities in the IT sector by honing their tech and non-tech skills and connecting them with legacy tech companies or startups. The platform offers long- and short-term courses in full-stack web development and data analytics. 96% of the students get placed within four months of graduating from Learnbay. To date, Learnbay has partnered with more than 1000 companies to help them find industry-ready tech talent. Among its B2B partners seeking candidates for various tech roles are big IT companies like TCS, HCL Technologies, The Math Company, etc.

 

9.    How important is it for non-techies to have a basic understanding of technical concepts in AI, and what resources or educational opportunities are available for them to acquire this knowledge?

Although artificial intelligence is not complex, you need to invest some time in learning it. The more tasks you work on, the more proficient you’ll become. You need the will to study AI in addition to the necessary skills. Advanced math and statistics, programming languages, machine learning, and a lot of patience are the fundamentals of artificial intelligence. You should know that artificial intelligence and machine learning encompass various academic fields, including Python programming, computer science, natural language processing, data science, arithmetic, psychology, and neuroscience.

You need skills such as Math, Science, and Computer Science to learn Artificial Intelligence. You can also opt for online tutorials and learn Artificial Intelligence from home. Learnbay’s Artificial Intelligence tutorial provides basic and intermediate information on concepts of Artificial Intelligence. It is designed to help students and working professionals who are complete beginners. You don’t need to be from a specific background before joining the field of AI, as it is possible to learn and attain the necessary skills. While the terms Data Science, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine learning fall in the same domain and are connected, they have specific applications and meanings. Simply put, artificial intelligence aims at enabling machines to execute reasoning by replicating human intelligence. Since the main objective of AI processes is to teach machines from experience, feeding the correct information and self-correction is crucial.

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