India’s Tech Workforce Gives It Edge in AI Race, Cognizant's Hodjat Says
IT firm's AI Chief says scale and digital skills are helping India move faster on adoption.
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[Image source: Chetan Jha/MITSMR India]
India’s strong technology base and large pool of digitally skilled workers give it an advantage in adopting artificial intelligence, Cognizant Inc.’s Chief AI Officer Babak Hodjat told PTI.
The country’s familiarity with digital systems places it ahead of many others as AI adoption accelerates across industries, he said
“India has a unique position because they have a starting point that is ahead of everyone else. Because you have a tech-savvy population and you are building on solid grounds which is the technological foundation and that is what is going to drive AI enablement,” Hodjat said.
He said the rise of AI-generated code is unlikely to reduce the importance of developers, who will instead focus more on structuring systems and evaluating outputs.
“A coder using AI is going to be well ahead of a non-coder using AI,” he said.
Coding remains essential even as AI tools become more capable, Hodjat added, with engineers continuing to play a central role in building and maintaining systems.
“Today we can’t survive without coders. Coders have to be on top of building programs and writing software, of course, augmented with AI,” he said.
“People who understand systems, processes and applications will play a key role in building AI systems and accelerating adoption across industries,” he said, adding “so I do think this is a unique position.”
Cognizant has been incorporating AI into its own operations as well as its client offerings.
At Cognizant, AI-generated code already accounts for about 30% of output and is increasing, he said.
The company is deploying AI tools, including multi-agent systems, across its operations while tracking returns before expanding their use.
Hodjat said Cognizant is also encouraging employees to adopt AI tools in their daily work as part of a broader shift in how tasks are performed.
The transition is expected to change how work is done rather than eliminate the need for technical expertise, he said.
