India is making significant developments in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) landscape, boasting a world-leading 33% year-on-year AI hiring rate and securing its position as the second-largest contributor to GitHub AI projects, trailing only the US, according to a report by The Economic Times, on Tuesday, April 8.

It also ranks second globally in relative AI skill penetration. However, India’s innovation output remains average, contributing just 0.37% of global AI patents granted, which is far behind China’s dominant 70% and the US’s 14%.

The global AI competition is heating up, with China rapidly narrowing the gap with the United States in both model performance and organisational adoption, according to the latest Stanford AI Index Report.

Alongside this technological rivalry, worldwide optimism about AI is on the rise, though not without reservations on the subject.

Approximately 60% of respondents predict AI will reshape their job roles within five years, while 36% fear it could eliminate their positions entirely during that period.

Governments are ramping up their focus on AI. With a 21% increase in legislative references to the technology across 75 countries in 2023, paired with growing investments, this has narrowed the focus, thereby signalling efforts to leverage AI's transformative potential on a global scale.