India's BPM industry to see sharp demand for AI-skilled talent over the next 3-5 years

The BPM industry in India is at the cusp of a transformation and the demand for AI-enabled talent is set to surge, redefining workforce needs across the sector.

“My spectrum tells me, in the next 3-5 years, there’s going to be an uptick in AI-enabled workers till the time that models stabilise,” said Nitasha Atreya, the Head of Transformation, Digital Operations and Platforms at Wipro, during a panel discussion on “AI-Ready BPM Industry in India,” hosted by Business Insider India.

While AI has the potential to streamline many business processes, industry experts caution against relying solely on AI. Human intervention is still required, which means skilling new talent and upskilling existing talent is vital to leveraging AI effectively. Investing in these areas allows organisations to better meet evolving demands with a workforce that complements AI-driven solutions.

Why human intervention is critical

As the demand for AI and generative AI models is rising among BPM clients, particularly for model-building capabilities, so is the demand for AI-skilled workers.

“For us to have the right intervention for human-in-the-loop processes, it’s essential that we develop an AI-enabled workforce,” Mythily Ramesh, Co-Founder and Director of NextWealth told Business Insider. Ramesh shared industry projections that estimate AI could create up to 100 million jobs globally.

AI models generate predictions based on historical data and probabilities, but human oversight is essential to ensure accuracy and minimise errors. “AI as an enabler or augmenting the human workforce is probably the way this industry is going to progress. With the risks that are associated with completely leaving AI to replace humans – it’s just not going to work,” explained Sundar Hariharan, Vice President of Digital Business Experience Centre at Alorica IQ.

Shaping the future of AI And BPMs with collaborative intelligence

The panellists emphasised a significant challenge in AI model development: only 1 in every 100 models actually makes it to deployment.

For all of these models, a rigorous process of training and fine-tuning is required, using either synthetic or human-generated data. This process is not just about feeding the model data but also validating the output to ensure it functions as intended.

“There’s a lot of requirements for data training and validation,” said Ramesh, highlighting the substantial demand for data annotators, labelers, and specialists in areas like image and video annotation. These roles are crucial for ensuring that the data used to train models is of high quality and accurately reflects the task at hand.

However, the skills required for these roles go beyond traditional data labelling.

The workforce must move away from rigid Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and understand the context in which data is being used. This requires employees to make judgement calls that help refine the model’s performance, adapting to continuously evolving instruction sets. "It’s collaborative intelligence—human intelligence combined with artificial intelligence," Ramesh noted.

To address this evolving demand for skills, companies like Wipro have implemented comprehensive upskilling programs. These programs are tailored to different business segments, from basic AI awareness (AI 101) to advanced training for developers, engineers, and architects—those working directly on the models.

Atreya shared that over 10,000 developers and engineers at Wipro are currently receiving training across these programs.

AI’s role in transforming BPM operations

According to Suhrid Brahma, the Chief Technology Officer at WNS Global Systems, the core model of the BPM industry is changing. “There is a shift from focus on people, to outcomes and value-add as an industry,” he said.

He outlines a three-part strategy for the upgrades needed in AI-driven BPM, beginning with AI in operations. By building an AI-skilled workforce and maintaining a ‘human in the loop’ approach, organisations can maximise the value of AI while keeping essential human oversight.

The second area is AI for applications and platforms. Each BPM deal has a technological component, which varies from client to client, but AI should be woven directly into these enterprise systems to ensure seamless functionality.

Lastly, he highlights AI’s evolving role in analytics, shifting from retrospective analysis to providing predictive insights that drive proactive decision-making across the organisation.

“This whole industry will grow for sure. But the nature of work we do, the kind of value-add we do for clients and the kind of outcomes we deliver as an industry, will definitely change,” Brahma noted.

Navigating an evolving AI landscape in BPM

As AI continues to reshape BPM, the nature of customer needs is also changing. With AI, businesses now have the potential to drive end-to-end process automation, where one part of the process is handled by the BPM organisation and the other by the client, fostering a more collaborative approach to AI adoption.

Hariharan noted that BPM providers are transitioning into more tech-driven organisations, as AI increasingly becomes a key enabler of business processes.

However, the road to AI integration is not without challenges. Atreya pointed out several challenges like siloed technology limiting the potential of AI to drive meaningful results.

Atreya highlighted that siloed technology often limits the ability of AI to drive results. Organisations must assess whether they are AI-ready, with a mature data infrastructure and robust data availability.

According to her, the most pressing concern remains ensuring ethical and responsible AI deployment, as new regulations continue to evolve.

For sectors like BFSI, tech integration is already advanced, but industries like logistics have an opportunity to leapfrog by integrating systems and running processes end-to-end with AI, according to Brahma. He emphasised the importance of data integration to fully benefit from AI.

Looking ahead, the panellists see huge opportunities in sectors like e-commerce and automotive, where AI-driven services are changing the landscape. The key to success will be collaboration, integration, and a well-trained workforce prepared to drive this AI-enabled transformation.

This article is part of a four-part webinar series in partnership with nasscom. These monthly webinars aim to delve deep and offer insights into the evolving BPM landscape. You can watch the full video of the third session here.

Disclaimer: This article is generated and published by the Insider Studios team. You can get in touch with them on insiderstudios@businessinsider.in