The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has convened an industry consultation in Kochi to examine how India’s IT services sector can transition into an AI-driven services industry, with a strong emphasis on workforce reskilling and policy support. The meeting, held in collaboration with Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) Kochi and chaired by MeitY Secretary S. Krishnan, brought together senior officials from the central government, the Kerala government and representatives from the IT industry.
Participants discussed the current challenges facing the sector, emerging growth opportunities and the nature of government interventions needed to catalyse AI adoption across IT and business process management (BPM) services. The consultation comes against the backdrop of an industry that generates about USD 246 billion in annual exports and employs around six million professionals, underscoring the economic stakes of the AI transition. According to the ministry, generative AI is already gaining traction across IT and BPM workflows, as companies deploy it to improve productivity and reduce costs.
The rise of AI is also changing client expectations, with demand shifting from traditional process management to end-to-end transformation solutions. This shift is driving the need for new skills and domain-specific roles across sectors such as banking and financial services, healthcare, manufacturing and retail. The consultation examined how IT services firms are adapting to these AI-led changes in service delivery and how they can maintain global competitiveness.
A key focus area was large-scale upskilling and reskilling of the Indian IT and BPM workforce in AI and digital technologies. Discussions covered ongoing and planned industry investments in AI, generative AI, agentic AI, automation, analytics and cloud technologies, as well as the development of AI-powered products, copilots and automation platforms. Participants also looked at expanding IT and BPM operations into new and emerging hubs to support job creation and more balanced regional growth.
MeitY used the meeting to assess industry efforts around talent development and technological upgradation, while also seeking feedback on how government policy can better support the sector’s AI transformation. “The development and deployment of AI applications will require a large number of trained human resources. That is what India has to offer to the world,” Krishnan said during the consultation, arguing that the focus should move from job-loss concerns to investment in reskilling, upskilling and technology upgrades.
The initiative is aligned with the IndiaAI Mission approved by the Union Cabinet in March 2024 and complements IndiaAI Application Development and IndiaAI Futureskills programmes. Senior officials including MeitY Joint Secretary K. K. Singh, Kerala’s IT Secretary, STPI Director General Arvind Kumar and other MeitY and STPI executives, along with industry representatives, attended the consultation, which the ministry described as part of its ongoing engagement with the sector to build forward-looking policy support for the IT industry.
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