In this episode of the State of the Economy year-ender Podcast, KV Kurmanath discusses the challenges and opportunities AI brings to the IT sector with Sangeeta Gupta, Senior VP & Chief Strategy Officer of Nasscom.

“The pace of AI innovation is growing, and in India, there are almost 240 plus generative AI startups,” says Sangeeta, highlighting the rapid evolution of the AI sector in India and the growing prominence of generative AI within the industry.

Gupta also discusses the impact of global macroeconomic uncertainties on India’s IT sector, noting that “almost 70% of the industry revenues are export-led, and hence the global macroeconomic uncertainties impacted decision-making in large global businesses that outsource work to India.”

Addressing the cautious pace of AI adoption, Gupta states, “While we are seeing a lot of action from building out proof of concepts, the real adoption at scale is still lagging, determined by multiple factors including global slowdown and data silos within enterprises.” This reflects the challenges companies face in integrating AI into their operations despite the excitement around the technology. “The real AI opportunity in terms of revenues is probably still 12 to 18 months away, but there is a gradual uptick,” Gupta adds.

On the growing demand for AI-related skills, she stresses the importance of a multi-skilled workforce, saying, “We need multi-skilled professionals as one specific skill will become redundant very quickly in this fast-paced technological environment.” This insight sheds light on how IT companies are evolving their workforce to meet the demands of emerging technologies.

Looking ahead to 2025, Gupta is cautiously optimistic, noting, “While we expect a slow recovery in 2025, we are hopeful that the segmented growth across different sectors will drive positive momentum for the industry.”

Listen in.

(Host: KV Kurmanath; Producer: Siddharth Mathew Cherian.)

About the State of the Economy podcast

India’s economy has been hailed as a bright spot amid the general gloom that seems to have enveloped the rest of the world. But several sectors continue to stutter even as others seem set to fire on all cylinders.