Global Hr Company Deel said 69% of global businesses already have employees outside of India, and 88% of startups are driving this trend. The US in particular said that employment from India rose 135% in 2024. In fact, Bangalore is the fourth most employed city in the Asia-Pacific region.
“With the world's third largest startup ecosystem, India is at the heart of this employment boom,” said Deal's Summit Sabalwar, India's country leader. “The ability to attract and retain top talent is a key differentiator in securing fundraising. Strong talent AI startups often ensure large early stage valuations despite limited revenues.
Demand for Indian AI talent is expected to exceed 1,250,000 by 2027, from 600,000 in 2022.
Recruitment technology company SuperSourcing said it will work with 35 AI startups and companies to fill positions regularly.
Germany, the US and Singapore have increased remote employment from India by 50% as businesses can maintain their best talent at half the local cost, said Mayank Pratap Singh, co-founder of SuperSourcing.
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The most coveted roles worldwide are AI researchers and data scientists with expertise in computer vision, machine learning, natural language processing, searched generation (RAG), model training, fine-tuning and more. Meanwhile, AI ethicists also address the role of consultants. This shift is also benefiting workers. Remote employees in India earn twice the median salary compared to local roles, with Deel reporting annual compensation of $25,000 for remote workers and $13,000 for non-matches.
Deel's Sabharwal explained that record-breaking employer (EOR) services help businesses hire anywhere and handle all employment liability without setting up multiple local entities. “This approach will help businesses access top talent, expand into new markets and hire in a rapidly growing economy like India.”
ET had reported that remote labor platforms such as Upwork, Appen and Fiverr would be selecting gig-based projects where demand for AI skilled workers is exploding, finding Indians among top-tier workers such as data scientists and providing popular returns compared to salary positions.
“We've seen the best of our efforts to help people understand how we're doing,” said Ted Liu, Economic Research Manager at Upwork.
India has emerged as a talent hub with qualified professionals in the computer science, engineering and STEM fields allied with robust English skills at a quarter of the US market.
“This is comparable to other low-cost countries like the Philippines, but one of the underrated benefits is the huge talent pool that benefits in terms of quality and speed.”
“This is especially important when you have a project that requires more than 1 million rows of data in a week,” he added.
