India is uniquely-positioned to become the global hub for AI-native talent: Nasscom report
Nasscom recently launched “The State of AI-Native Talent in India: Decoding the Readiness of India’s Early-Career Technology Workforce,” introducing the Nasscom AI-Native Talent Index, a structured industry benchmark to assess AI-native capability. The inaugural edition focuses on early-career tech talent, defined as tech workforce with upto 3 years’ experience, including final year Computer Science (and related fields) engineering students
The study finds that nearly 70% of India’s early-career technology talent is AI-proficient, while around 23% qualifies as AI-native. This reflects strong functional adoption, with young professionals increasingly integrating AI into their work, learning and decision-making. At the same time, it highlights significant headroom to deepen India’s AI-native talent base by strengthening engineering judgment, AI orchestration skills and technical depth.
The index is based on a multidimensional framework that measures AI-native capability across eleven dimensions covering AI reliance, fluency, orchestration and creation, as well as AI judgment, cognitive independence, technical grounding, learning, foundational capability, AI-augmented productivity and responsible AI use. Based on the score, individuals are classified into four archetypes: AI-Native, AI-Proficient, AI-Enabled and AI-Aware.
The study points out that while AI is demonstrably improving productivity, learning speed and capability, organizations and educational institutions will need to deliberately recreate opportunities for engineers to build deep technical understanding, orchestration skills and independent judgment that were previously developed through hands-on experience.
The study calls on academia and industry to jointly rethink talent development for an AI-Native workplace. Academia must move beyond coding to strengthen engineering judgment, domain learning and reimagine assessment methods, while industry must redesign building foundational capabilities, deepen mentorship, create opportunities for independent problem-solving, embed AI verification into workflows and continuously upskill early-career talent.
Sangeeta Gupta, Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, Nasscom, said: “India is uniquely positioned to emerge as a global hub for AI-native technology talent. It is important to keep in mind that AI skills penetration is not the same as being AI-native. Without a rigorous measurement framework such as the AI-Native Talent Index followed by action, India risks scaling a workforce that is AI-reliant rather than AI-native. Academia must strengthen fundamentals, while industry must redesign onboarding and mentorship to ensure that the decline of routine work does not lead to a decline in deep engineering expertise.”
As per the study, for the industry to move towards an AI-Native workforce, organizations will need to rethink long-established operating models. Hiring assessments for organisations will need to shift from testing coding knowledge to evaluating AI-native capabilities. Capability building will need to include AI-augmented foundational learning, simulation-based learning, structured AI-off exercises, judgment-building experiences and multi-layered mentorship. Organisations will also need robust governance frameworks with clear policies and will have to rethink team structures for AI-native engineering and workflows.