Tech double whammy: India's AI talent heads out as patent count slows down

Brain drain comes alongside the country trailing in research and innovation in the technology

India has one of the world’s largest talent pools in artificial intelligence and is ready to lead global innovation in the technology, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the AI Action Summit in Paris. While the country has succeeded in developing AI talent, an analysis of numbers shows it is unable to retain it.

 

India ranks 13th globally in AI talent concentration, with 0.42 per cent of Linkedin members saying they have skills in the technology. The rank positions it behind smaller but technologically advanced nations of Israel, Singapore and South Korea. Despite its vast population and network of science and engineering colleges, India's AI talent pool is not as deep as one might expect.  

 

A report by USA’s Stanford University used LinkedIn, Microsoft's professional networking platform, to gather data on AI talent by considering people who had explicitly said they have skills in the technology or worked in it. The report noted that between 2016 and 2022 several major economies registered substantial increases in their AI talent pools. India had the greatest surge with a 263 per cent increase in AI talent. But the talent is going away, marking another brain drain challenge in technology for the country.

 

India is experiencing the biggest AI talent exodus in the world, with a net migration rate of -0.76 per 10,000 LinkedIn members who have AI skills, according to the Stanford report. In other words, for every 10,000 AI professionals, a significant number is leaving India for opportunities abroad. Israel and South Korea too have AI talent leaving, but India’s situation is far more pronounced.

 

This brain drain raises concerns about India’s ability to establish itself as an AI powerhouse. While government initiatives such as the National AI Strategy and AI Mission Initiative are creating an enabling environment, they are yet to translate into competitive job prospects that can retain top talent.  

 

Adding to the challenge is India’s relatively weak position in AI patents. The country held just 0.23 per cent of global AI patents in 2022, meaning that its workforce is yet to translate into significant intellectual property creation. The figure highlights a gap in research and innovation and suggests that Indian talent is more engaged in implementing AI rather than foundational breakthroughs in the technology. China dominates the field by holding over 60 per cent of global AI patents and the United States follows it with around 20 per cent. This stark contrast highlights India's lag in AI research and innovation, raising concerns about its ability to compete at the highest levels of AI development.  

 

The country has several initiatives to strengthen its AI infrastructure, including investments in computing capacity. However, the capacity is significantly lower than that of the United States and China. This is evident in the development of large language models, the foundation technology of AI tools, where China’s DeepSeek-V2 and the US-based ChatGPT are setting global benchmarks.