Bengaluru: Dismissing widespread fears that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will lead to massive job displacements, Deloitte South Asia Chief Operating Officer (COO) Nitin Kini said the consulting giant’s ongoing drive to hire 50,000 professionals across India is heavily focused on upskilling employees to solve “higher-order” business problems.
In an interview with PTI, Kini outlined Deloitte’s aggressive expansion and investment strategy in the country, revealing upcoming plans to launch a Quantum Centre of Excellence (COE).
Addressing concerns that the firm’s massive 50,000 hiring target would be affected by AI automating manual tasks, Kini noted that Deloitte does not view AI as a tool to “disintermediate” layers of the workforce, but rather to unlock efficiencies.
“I do not think job losses are the way. It is about upskilling and making sure that we can solve higher-order value problems with emerging tech,” Kini said.
The firm has already trained nearly 30,000 of its people on AI, with another 20,000 transitioning to work with in-house built platforms, he noted.
India currently hosts almost a third of Deloitte’s global workforce.
Highlighting India’s position as a top-tier priority market, Kini stated that Deloitte consistently invests 9 per cent of its top line into capability and capacity building, as well as innovation.
Addressing the hesitation among Indian Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) and conglomerates to move AI projects past the pilot stage, Kini identified two major hurdles: data security and cost.
“Companies want to ensure that their data, which is essentially IP, does not leave their perimeter. The second thing people ask is how to scale with confidence without ending up with a ‘bill shock’ from paid models where every token counts,” he explained.
On the question of whether India should aspire to be the “AI factory of the world” or its “cyber shield,” Kini said the country must aim for both.
“It is like asking me to choose between the accelerator and the brake. Let us be greedy and want them both… a great car with a great engine, with all the security features keeping you safe,” he said.
Likening this dual ambition to the aspirations of the country’s youth, Kini said, “It is a ‘dil mange more’ approach.”