[0:00]July 2025 mein Naukri.com ne World AI Day pe ek report publish kari thi. Basically, they were trying to analyze salary records across industries, across sectors, across experiences, analyze karne ki koshish kar rahe the. And they controlled and made this report. That if they have the same role, same experience, same city, but there is one difference. Does that person use AI or not? Is that person aware of AI or not? Is that person skilled in AI or not? Is there any difference in their salary? And if there is, then how much? What do you think? How much was the difference? Because I hope we all agree that there was a difference. The person who knows, uses and is skilled in AI, is earning more than those without AI. The question is, how much more? Pause the video. Write in the comment section. A number in percentage basis. Let's see how close or far you are. Did you write it? Should I answer the question? You will be shocked. You will be shocked. 53%. Not 5%, not 7%, not 10%, 15%, not 20%. 53%. What does this mean? For example, if you are an IT professional with 5 years of experience, working in India, AmbitionBox is a salary tracking platform. It tells me the average salary I would get is ₹15-18 lakhs a year. And if you add this 53% premium, your salary can be ₹23-27 lakhs. Difference of ₹8-10 lakh per year. And do you know the truth, friends? This difference is not decreasing, it is increasing. In fact, a fresher is getting 56% premium. So, the market is saying that if you have never worked in your life, but you have AI skills, then we are ready to give you 1.5 times more salary. So, for the next 20 minutes, we will try to answer a simple question. What are the AI skills that we should be aware of? Which skills should be an important part of our professional life? Because learning AI is not useful advice. We will have to change it. And the effort will be to bring this 53-56% premium to our job. Before starting the video, an important announcement. This video is sponsored by Simplilearn. Specifically, their Applied Agentic AI program, which is built in collaboration with Microsoft. We will talk about this program when I show you the data, because then you will be able to understand why such a program is important to you. First, I want you to be aware of the reality. One important thing. Watch this video entirely if you're a working professional. I'm not saying that if you're a student, then please stop this video. Because I want everyone to watch this video. If you are a student, then you won't be able to work on this for the first 3 years because this gap between premium, this really comes into play when you come with a certain years of experience. Because that experience and that AI skills come together to create an insane premium. So, if you have 3-10 years of experience, and you're earning ₹12-25 lakhs, then this is the perfect video for you. Because from this video, you'll get an exact playbook on how you can move forward. Secondly, the ₹10 lakhs difference I mentioned won't come from internal appraisal or promotion. The report of Naukri.com was very clear. This is the premium people get, 53% average, when people switch jobs. So, if you want to stay in your job, then this video won't be that helpful. But if you're okay or open to consider, then I think you'll benefit the most. Deloitte and NASSCOM recently published a joint report. They said that in 2022, the AI professional demand in this country was around 6.5 lakhs professionals. And in 2027, it'll be 12.5 lakhs professionals. NASSCOM also said that all the AI jobs available in the market, 25% of them are not getting filled up. Meaning, one out of four jobs is not able to find those people who have the required AI skills for that job. On the demand side, there's a different story going on. Naukri.com has a job speak index. If you look at the report of August 25th, AI-based hiring has increased by 54% year on year. NASSCOM's 2025 report, it said that 62% of all companies now accept and admit that they are using AI in their workflows in a very important way. This is by the way the highest adoption rate in all enterprises, means companies, higher than the UK, higher than the US, higher than Singapore. And this, my friend, explains the premium. What's going on? Companies are using AI. There is a rapid adoption. So, they want people. But, there is a shortage of people. There is a skill shortfall. And because of this, there is a premium. So, if you are familiar with economics, there is a premium when the demand-supply gap is formed. And that is what's happening with AI talent right now. This will not be the same forever. Because around 2000-2005, software engineering, computer science degrees, IT, all of these were in this phase. Demand was high because IT industry was booming. Supply was low, people didn't know how to code. So, companies were saying, it doesn't matter, take them all. We'll teach everyone, we'll give you the price you ask for. At that time, people used to get ₹3.5-4 lakhs. Even today, we're getting the same amount. Why? Because over these last 20 years, people kept taking computer science degrees. Demand was the same, supply was high. So, now, all the companies get the people they need. So, they don't need to give premium. And the same thing is going to happen with AI as well. Right now, demand is higher than supply. At some point, everyone will do AI. Everyone will learn. And demand will be fulfilled easily. So, no premium will remain. Now, how much time is left? I have no idea. I'm not an economist. But if you were to ask me, things are changing so fast, I think 18-36 months is the time we have. 1.5 to 3 years. In this period, you will see demand consistently higher than supply and this premium to be there. After that, this gap will reduce or will end. So, which are those skills? Skill number 1: Generative AI and LLM Application Development. This right now is the highest paid or in-demand skill in the market. But what does this mean? Because it sounds very scary to listen. Basically, this work is, that all the large language models, which are called LLMs, on top of them, a product or production layer has to be made. Let me give you an example. Let's say, a large language model, which is very strong in voice. So, they can interpret voice really well. They can speak back really well. Speak in multiple languages, etc. So, this is a functionality. Using this functionality, if we build a business or a product, what will that do? Let's say the product is, we want to make an automated call center for say, restaurant reservations. So, the guest or customer will feel that they are talking to a person, you are not paying the price of the person. Both are happy. Great. Now what have you done? You have used the functionality or the ability of a large language model and built something on top of it. This, my friend, is a skill that is most in demand because everyone is making this layer. Foundation infrastructure layer of LLMs is getting better every day. But we will not use this at the retail level. But we will not use this at the retail level. We will use this at the company enterprise level. And somebody who can get that done. How are the salaries in this? On AmbitionBox, there are around 15,200 such roles for AI engineers. Average salary of AI engineers ₹15.5 LPA. Coming to the mid-level, ₹18-28 lakh. If you are working in a product company, this number could easily be ₹35-70 lakh. LLM architects with 6 plus years of experience are easily earning upwards of ₹80 lakh. Second skill, Applied Data Science with AI. These are the skills for which you don't need to be an engineer. You can be from any background as long as you like numbers and are comfortable and strong with it. You need to be familiar with Python, statistics, machine learning, fundamentals. You need to have skills in this. Data scientist's role has been going on for years. But data scientist's role with AI specialization is a new phenomenon. Because AI allows you to not just be productive when it comes to data, but also help visualize and elevate the game for you. So, you can work in more complex data structures, you can solve more complex data problems, you can work with big data sets, all because AI gives you that power and that ability. But the question is, how to analyze and slice and dice the data? That is the expertise and experience of a data scientist. So, we won't ignore that, but through AI, we will make it more visible. How are the salaries? If you are a data scientist and you are earning ₹12 lakhs, you can adopt Python, ML, AI. You can bump to about ₹18-20 lakhs. Now, the most interesting thing. You would imagine that these roles are found in the technology industry. But that's not true. When we analyzed growth rates, we saw 48% increase in such jobs in the banking industry. 49% in accounting. 56% in KPOs or knowledge process outsourcing. 39% in BPOs. Banking alone is 29% of all AI hiring when it comes to data science in India. Third skill, Agentic AI and Multi-agent Systems. What is agentic AI? Right now, our experience as a retail customer with AI is that, the prompt we write, it answers. Sometimes, if we ask it to do a very serious or deep work, it takes some time. But if you really want to do something more than that, or if you want to do something for which it has to go in many different directions, for example, I am giving you a retail example. Let's say, you ask an AI model, that for a 5-day Thailand trip, you plan for me. I want these things in that, I don't want these things in that. I want to eat this food in my day, I want to stay like this, etc. Find the best hotel, the best experiences. I have this budget. Find hotels in that. And book it. And book flights according to the dates. Do everything. You have my permission. When the work is done, let me know. This is when you are actually giving work that you would give your assistant or your employee. That do all this work. When it is done, let me know. That is agentic AI. You are basically using AI as an agent to do things which are called workflows. Now, take it to the company level. That any employee of the company, or from anywhere, is getting something like, generate an invoice, send it to the vendor, send them a payment advice, collect the payment, put that entry in our accounting system, and tell us when all this is done. All of this is agentic AI. And somebody has to design this process. Somebody has to make this happen for a company. That is the skill. Now, what are the salaries? Mid-level professionals working in agentic AI or multi-agent systems, they're earning anywhere between ₹19-36 lakhs on an average. Senior level salaries are going ₹50 lakhs or more. Companies are hiring across board and this includes technology companies and non-technology companies as well. Everyone wants to use agentic AI in their workflows. Skill number 4, AI for business/strategy. This is mostly for senior people. So, if you have 8-10 plus years of experience, this is where you can absolutely change the game for yourself when it comes to AI. Because it focuses on functions that usually didn't use technology a lot but they should have. So, think about marketing, think about HR, think about finance, operations, supply chain, logistics. In all these things, how do you use AI? So, if you're a business leader in these domains, let's say you're a senior finance officer, a senior HR manager, or a senior logistics in charge, whatever. You now understand AI. You understand technology. You understand your workflow. You're a senior, you're an expert in that domain. And you understand how to combine these two and make something productive, or economical, or beneficial. Senior managers and directors with documented AI skills are earning ₹30-60 lakh right now, on an average. Vice presidents, heads of digital, AI transformation, all these roles have been released. Anywhere from ₹75 lakhs to ₹1.5 crores per year. And big corporates like Reliance, Mahindra, Adani are recruiting for these roles. Before starting the 5th skill, an important consideration. As I said earlier, this video is for working professionals with 3-10 years of experience. One mistake I have seen in this category is that we understand that we need AI skills. Now what we will do is watch some YouTube videos, do some Udemy courses, and we will come to know about AI skills. And that is a mistake. This might work on a fresher level. Maybe. But it won't work on your level. Why? Because on your level, the expectation of a company is that you will come on day 1 and you will know exactly what to do. And that will only be possible, my friends, when you match your experience with AI skills at a level where you have implemented something. You have done projects. You have solved real-life problems. You have worked on those skills. You have not just watched videos. You have got your hands dirty. And you have devoted time, 3, 6, 9, 12 months in honing that skill to have got to a certain point. Because that is the bare minimum expectation from somebody who is a mid to senior level professional. And that is why the sponsors of this video, Simplilearn. Their program is Applied Agentic AI: Systems, Design and Impact. It has been developed through Simplilearn in collaboration with Microsoft. The best thing about this program is that it will teach you Agentic AI and Multi-agent Systems, which is the fastest growing AI category of 2026. Claude Code, which I use a lot, by the way, I don't even know coding. OpenClaw, which is an incredible experience. I won't even tell you what it is, because only when you see it happening do you realize the power of it. It's a 10-week program. You will get a completion certificate from Microsoft and Simplilearn. You will earn Microsoft Learn badges on the MS Learn portal which is for MS branded courses. There will be peer learning, hands-on real-world projects and advanced tools will be taught to you, which is supremely critical for you to show that you've actually done something. The format is made for working professionals only. It's fully online, classes are live and interactive. There are no pre-recorded videos. So, it's not like you'll get bored or you won't be able to complete. You will be 100% attentive. The most powerful thing is that you will finally make a project where you will build a 4-agent market research and go-to-market system from scratch. So, you will understand how to use it. You will be taught more than 29 tools. To do this program, you will need a basic understanding of programming concepts. Prior AI and ML skills are not mandatory but programming concept fundamentals are required. Anyone can take this course but if you have more than 4 years of experience, they are recommended because that is when you will be able to integrate your experience with these AI skills. In pinned comment and description, there's a link, you can check it out. If you go to the page, there is a number, you can call and talk to a Simplilearn counselor. You can figure out whether this course is for you or not. Because they are the sponsors, it is my duty to make you aware of this course. Ultimately, it is your decision whether this course will work for you or not. Fifth, and the last skill. ML Ops, Machine Learning Operations or Machine Learning Engineering. See what happens. There are engineers, there are data scientists, they make a machine learning model. The model works very well on their laptop, because it is a native model. But now, it has to be deployed on scale, which is basically called, go to production. So, to be able to make a production system from a laptop, is not the job of the person who made this model. This job is of ML Ops or ML Engineer. So the gap between data science and software engineering is what my understanding is, is ML Ops. Middle level ML Ops engineers are earning anywhere between ₹16-18 lakh rupees on an average. But if they have cloud certifications, AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, this now bumps to ₹18-25 lakhs. Senior ML Ops engineers, ₹35-60 lakhs. If it's a product company, then even more. Now when I talk about these skills, some questions come to mind. First of all, I am 32 years old, isn't it too late to learn coding? Isn't it too late to get into AI? Among all these skills, there are 2 skills for which coding is required. The remaining 3 skills, anybody can adopt and do. So, please don't make that an excuse. Number 2, if you think you can't learn anything new at the age of 32, then you are probably right. Your job will be gone. Some people say that they are working in TCS or Infosys or in the services industry. They don't pay that much salary. And you are right. They may not be able to pay. But that's where I said, this is not going to be an internal promotion. This will be a move. This will be a transfer. Product companies are coming. GCCs are massively recruiting. People require industry experience but with AI skills. And that is your moment for the next 1.5-3 years. Some people say that this is short-lived. What if we act and then the market shifts? But that is the reality, my friend. We are living in a world which is constantly changing. Gone are the times when nothing changed for 5, 10, 20 years. Within 5 years, everything is changing. So, if you have this window of 1.5-3 years, why would you not use it? Why would you not act on it and get that premium? Maybe this premium will end after 3-4 years. But at least in that 3-5 years, you would have got an incremental ₹50-60 lakh and you would also have experience that will hopefully get you even more.
[18:08]So, it's your choice. Career is yours. This is Ankur Warikoo's official YouTube careers channel and I am Ankur Warikoo, signing off.
