Anupam Mittal cautions against AI hype, urges skilling that reflects India’s job realities

Shaadi.com founder and Shark Tank India judge Anupam Mittal has made a stark warning about India's growing obsession with deep-tech, arguing that the country's current skilling infrastructure is dangerously out of sync with lofty AI ambitions.

In a LinkedIn post, Mittal expressed concern that India is mimicking Western narratives around AI without acknowledging the nation's socio-economic challenges.

Mittal’s post featured a photo of an elderly woman wearing a Blinkit delivery jacket, accompanied by a caption that read:
“Saw this woman the other day, and thought maybe she should learn Python
Perhaps she can fine-tune an LLM too, while delivering your groceries.”

The remark, laced with irony, highlights the disconnect between elite tech discourse and the lived experiences of India’s gig workers.

While acknowledging that automation and AI-led transformation is real — citing that companies like Microsoft, Meta, and Google estimate 40–50% of work processes could be AI-driven in the next 2–3 years — Mittal questioned the relevance of such projections in the Indian context.

“These are economies with lower populations, high formal employment, and deep reskilling budgets,” he noted. “India is not there yet, given most are self-employed.”

The India Employment Report 2024 by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) states than more than 90% of India’s workforce remains in the informal sector — including gig economy workers who depend on platforms like Blinkit, Swiggy, and Ola for daily income. For this segment, AI skilling whitepapers and Python tutorials are far removed from immediate survival needs.

Drawing from his own time working in the U.S., Mittal pointed out how organisations abroad often reskill employees collectively as new technologies emerge. “That’s what real skilling infrastructure looks like,” he wrote, implying India still has a long way to go.

In the absence of such infrastructure, Mittal argued, the gig economy has been a “blessing” — enabling livelihoods for millions in a country that holds nearly 20% of the world’s population. He warned that overemphasis on deep-tech as a blanket solution may marginalise low-skilled workers who have yet to benefit from the digital revolution.

“When we start touting deep-tech as the only solution to all our problems, we endanger the livelihoods of a billion-plus nation,” he wrote. While India does have a growing pool of highly-skilled talent capable of building global tech, Mittal emphasised the importance of bringing the rest of the population along.

“India needs to address both these issues simultaneously, no?” he concluded, inviting reflections from his network.