Industry body Nasscom reports that India's early-career tech professionals risk becoming dependent on AI, potentially stalling deep engineering skill development. Only 23% of junior tech workers are classified as AI-native, highlighting a need for major changes in how colleges and IT companies train new engineers for complex problem-solving.
India’s massive information technology workforce is facing a significant shift as artificial intelligence tools become common in daily coding tasks. While these tools improve speed, industry body Nasscom warns that they may unintentionally hinder the growth of essential engineering skills. The core concern is that junior engineers, who historically built their expertise by manually performing routine coding work, are now relying heavily on automation. This trend risks creating a workforce that is skilled at using AI but lacks the deep understanding of engineering fundamentals necessary to handle complex, non-routine challenges.
Skills Gap in Early-Career Engineers
Nasscom’s latest analysis, titled The State of AI-Native Talent in India, surveyed professionals with up to three years of experience. The findings show that while over 90 percent of these young workers are using AI in their daily operations, they are not necessarily mastering the technology's core logic. The report categorizes about two-thirds of these junior professionals as AI-proficient, meaning they can use the tools effectively. However, only 23 percent are considered AI-native. An AI-native worker possesses the ability to not only use the tools but also understand the underlying architecture and apply engineering judgment when AI suggestions are incorrect or inefficient.
Strategic Changes Required in Training
The automation of basic tasks has removed the traditional training ground for new developers. Previously, solving simple bugs and writing basic code helped junior engineers develop a sense of technical intuition. With AI now performing these tasks, academia and industry leaders must find new ways to teach these skills. Sangeeta Gupta, Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Nasscom, stated that the industry must redesign onboarding and mentorship programs to compensate for this loss of manual training.
For investors monitoring the Indian IT sector, this shift is critical because long-term competitiveness depends on a company’s ability to move toward higher-value, complex projects. If the workforce remains reliant on AI tools without deep engineering capability, IT companies could struggle to maintain profit margins when clients demand innovative, bespoke software solutions that AI cannot fully generate. The next phase for these firms will involve heavy investment in simulation-based learning and multi-layered mentorship to ensure their staff can perform independent verification of AI-generated work. Investors should track how quickly major IT companies adjust their hiring assessments and internal training curriculums to prioritize foundational engineering judgment over simple AI-tool proficiency.