What you need to know
- Microsoft recently outlined its plans to equip 2 million people in India with AI skills.
- The program is designed to help the country become self-reliant with a skilled AI workforce, allowing it to transform every sector with the technology.
- The tech giant aims to achieve this goal by 2025 through its new ADVANTA(I)GE INDIA initiative.
While at the Microsoft CEO Connection event in Mumbai, India, earlier this week, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced the company's plans to equip up to 2 million people in India with AI skills by 2025. The company aims to achieve this through its new ADVANTA(I)GE INDIA initiative. This will bridge skill gaps and simultaneously support India's transformation into an AI-first nation.
India is uniquely positioned to make the promise of AI a reality. We are committed to partnering broadly across the public and private sectors to help close the nation’s AI skills gap and create new opportunities throughout the country.
Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella
Microsoft's CEO also highlighted how Microsoft Copilot improves organizational productivity by making work easier. He added that research shows that early adopters of Copilot for Microsoft 365 are now "29 percent faster in a series of tasks," including but not limited to writing and summarizing content.
Satya Nadella mentioned that some organizations in India are already leveraging AI capabilities to boost productivity. Aside from accelerating innovation and promoting efficiency, integrating AI into an organization's workflow is profitable.
According to Microsoft:
"Organizations in India are seeing an average US$3.86 return for every US dollar spent on AI projects, and more than 150 organizations are already innovating with Azure OpenAI Service across industries such as agriculture, aviation, e-commerce, and fast-moving consumer goods."
This news comes just a few days after the tech giant announced its plans to work closely with journalists and publications to create the newsrooms of the future with AI. The company hopes to achieve this through AI-baked tools to hasten journalists' research process, a tuition-free hybrid program to help journalists learn how to incorporate AI into their workflows, and more.
Is your job safe with the increased adoption of AI in organizations?
As more companies and organizations hop onto the AI bandwagon, more professionals are getting concerned about the safety of their jobs. Last year, Microsoft released its Work Trend Index Report, which was centered on AI and how it impacts productivity in the workplace.
Interestingly, out of the 31,000 participants who participated in the survey, only 49% highlighted that they were concerned about AI taking over their jobs. In contrast, 70% of the employees were ready to adopt and incorporate the technology into their workflow. The pro-AI employees indicated they were looking forward to leveraging the technology to make work easier and enhance their performance index.
I wrote an article about how AI technology won't steal your job, but I'm having second thoughts. Just the other day, a new study revealed that image creation tools like Image Creator from Designer and Midjourney are already rendering architectural and design jobs obsolete.
On the flip side, it turns out that AI skills are at the top of the recruiter's priority list when making new hires. According to a survey by Resume Builder, 90% out of 1,000 U.S. business leaders indicated that while recruiting for a new position within their organizations, they mostly look for job applicants with versatile AI skills.
Still, it's great to see that Microsoft has elaborate measures in place to address some of the concerns around AI and job security.
