Foreword

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Science (DS) tools and technologies are fundamentally transforming society and impacting how we live and work. These new technologies are driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0 just like the steam engine and electricity powered the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century. The current and future workforce will need to acquire AI and data science knowledge, skills, and competencies to be ready for Industry 4.0 careers.

The Center for Security and Emerging Technology report published in October 2021 estimates the AI workforce in the U.S. to be 14 million, approximately 9 percent of total U.S. employed, and predicts that number will grow exponentially in the coming years. In India, NASSCOM forecasted in 2020 that the demand for digital skills, that includes AI and data science, was likely to grow over 20 times by 2024-25, and more than 4 million professionals were expected to be trained by that time.

Educational institutions and industry have an important responsibility to make this workforce transformation happen. The Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum’s (IUSSTF) U.S. India Artificial Intelligence (USIAI) initiative provides a platform for Indian and U.S. stakeholders from academia, industry and the government, to identify opportunities for bilateral AI R&D collaboration, share ideas for developing an AI Workforce, and recommend modes and mechanisms for catalyzing partnerships.

Under the USIAI “AI Workforce” track, itihaasa Research and Digital is partnering with IUSSTF to identify emerging research areas in AI and data science, define knowledge and skills needed for different AI careers, address program and curriculum development at different levels of higher education, and identify infrastructure and resources required by higher education institutions to offer programs in AI and data science.

We carried out a first-of-its-kind survey on the Indian higher education landscape in AI and data science in partnership with the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) India. A total of 113 institutions, representing a diverse mix of public and private educational institutions in India, responded, and the survey results and analyses are available in this report.

We have also provided an overview of curriculum development initiatives in the U.S. and Europe to provide a benchmark for the AI Workforce track. As next steps, we have identified several action items to engage the broader stakeholder community in these efforts. We are putting the first of these plans into action in the form of an Indo-U.S. Visioning Workshop on “Developing a Diverse, Robust AI Workforce” in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science, to be held in Bengaluru, India on 10-11, Aug 2022.

We hope this report will lead to more substantive conversations, catalyze the community, and lead to successful Indo-U.S. collaborations in AI and data science workforce development.