The fast-paced emergence and development of new-age technologies are creating a skill gap across the industry. Although several professionals are venturing into new career genres, yet the gap prevails. However, the total number of AI professionals doubled from 40K in 2018 to 72K in 2019, yet, a study by Great Learning reveals that 2,500 related positions remain vacant which indicates that the quantity of jobs getting created in AI has outpaced the talent available in the sector. Notably, Great Learning is leading ed-tech company of India. The report stated, around more than 3,000 companies claim to work on AI projects of some or the other kind in 2019 which depicts the growth of 200 percent over 2018. It has been contemplated that some part of the job vacancy could be due to the employers' demand for a combination of skills.

Zairus Master, CEO, Shine.com said, "while tech-based skillsets such as data analytics, machine learning, and AI continued to be in great demand throughout 2019, recruiters also sought softer skillsets such as emotional intelligence, critical thinking, and leadership skills. The growing convergence between technology and business processes continued to redefine job roles."

Here are the significant highlights from Great Learning's report noted by Livemint.

•  AI industry in India has also doubled in size with revenues of US$415 million in 2019 which was around US$230 million in 2018.

•  The majority of this growth has been owing to the experienced professionals who have transitioned into a career in AI by upskilling themselves.

•  Around 65 percent of AI professionals in India have transitioned to their current role from other fields in the last 2 years.

•  The average work experience of AI professionals in India is 7.2 years while 29 percent of AI professionals have more than 10 years of work experience.

•  Moreover, the count of freshers joining the field has also grown 60 percent from 3,700 last year to 6,000 by the end of 2019.

•  According to the report, "large scale adoption of business intelligence, rising AI-based optimization of enterprise processes, improved data management across Indian organizations, increasing use of chatbots & NLP (natural language processing) voice assistants, and bigger AI budgetary allocations from the government are the major factors contributing to this growth."

Hari Krishnan Nair, co-founder, Great Learning quoted, "the momentum is expected to continue in the coming year. The fact that the number of vacancies in AI has again trumped the number of available professionals despite the industry doubling its talent pool shows the immense employment potential that the sector holds for those willing to upskill and learn AI. We expect to see a large number of experienced professionals transitioning to careers in AI in 2020 as well."

•  From 13,000 jobs in 2018 to 23,000 in 2019, Bengaluru has again emerged as the most popular destination for AI professionals. The list is further followed by Delhi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad.

•  Mumbai is the highest paymaster at almost ₹17 lakh per annum, followed by Delhi/NCR at ₹15.6 lakh.

•  Chennai is the lowest paymaster at ₹10.8 lakh.

•  In 2019, almost 39 percent of AI professionals in India are employed with large-sized companies with more than 10,000 employee base, 29 percent with mid-sized organizations with employee base range of 200-10,000 and 32 percent with startups having less than 200 employees.

•  However, the participation of women continues to remain low with only 26 percent of female AI professionals in India.

•  The number of companies of India working on AI increased 3 times from 1000 to 3000.

•  IBM India, Accenture, [24]7.ai, Nvidia Corporation, Hewlett-Packard, Ernst & Young, Genpact, Amazon, eClerx Services, and Capgemini emerged as the top 10 organizations that have contributed to the demand for AI professionals in 2019.

•  Almost 92 percent of job openings in AI are full-time and rest are part-time, internships, or contractual jobs.