The demand for AI professionals is increasing world over and there is a huge supply-demand gap, which is going to widen rapidly in the coming years, says Mitra Gupta
Artificial intelligence is the new revolution in our life, a game-changer like electricity that transformed every industry and created huge economic value with the potential to disrupt almost all aspects of human existence. Every industry from manufacturing to IT, education & healthcare to finance has been aggressively investing in it from all over the world. It has been estimated that by 2030, AI, in all its applications, is predicted to contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy.
Every technological advancement comes with its own drawbacks. As the pursuit for AI succeeds, it has the potential to become more intelligent than any human. Till date all the technologies have been developed to assist humans, and not to outsmart us. Designing superior AI programmes, which itself is a cognitive task; would undergo superfast self-improvement, triggering an intelligence explosion leaving human intellect far behind.
The workplace too is changing faster than ever, and acquiring new skills has become far more important than having the right credentials. As AI is being increasingly incorporated into our workplaces and daily lives, it is poised to fundamentally upend the way we live and work. AI will replace a lot of jobs that humans do, as well as create many different job opportunities in related fields. To keep up with everyone, one must have some basic knowledge regarding AI. There is going to be huge demand for AI experts all across the globe. World over the demand of AI professionals is increasing and there is already a huge gap in supply and demand. This gap is going to widen rapidly in the coming years. There is a 60 per cent rise in demand for AI experts in 2019. And 76 per cent of Indian companies feel the shortage of AI skilled professionals.
School going students need to learn about AI to be able to understand the latest development in technology and be motivated to direct their learning in a way which can help them develop AI and related technologies in the future. Our Government has taken a lot of initiatives in the field of AI education, especially at school level. It has already been introduced as a vocational subject for classes VIII and IX in more than 20,000 CBSE schools across the country. Students are already doing a lot of projects and innovations in the field of AI at school level.
There are a lot of online education platforms which provide pre-designed as well as live AI sessions for school and college students. AI sessions help in development of computational thinking and analytical mindset in young ages leads to career opportunities for college students.
The writer is Founder, Robotics Wizards