India leads the world in AI’s skill penetration; lags on investments

At a time when AI is the buzzword on everyone’s lips — from businesses to governments — where does India stand
on adoption of the technology? The Artificial Intelligence Index Report 2024 published by Stanford University sheds some light.

India is number one in the world in terms of relative AI skill penetration, and is in the top four globally when it comes to relative AI hiring rate.

The country’s AI talent concentration remains low but the rate of growth has been the fastest in the world between 2016 and 2023. India is just behind the US when it comes to GitHub AI projects. But it lags way behind the rest of the
world in the number of AI patents, accounting for only 0.2% between 2010 and 2022.

Another area where India falls short is in private investments in AI, with only $9 billion invested between 2013 and 2023, compared to $335 billion in the US.

As of 2023, it also saw only 45 newly-funded AI companies — the US by contrast had 897.