Satyendra Kumar is unlike most teenagers you meet. At 19, he juggles life as a student and an entrepreneur, dividing his time between undergraduate classes and scouting for the next Sachin Tendulkar hidden in the heart of India’s hinterlands.
Kumar excelled both in sports and academics while at school and successfully integrated both to drive his entrepreneurial journey. A native of Sitamarhi, Bihar, from northern India, he was the topper at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, a government-run residential school for high-performing students from rural India, and also a national-level cricketer.
With several scholarships in hand, Kumar’s heart was set on pursuing higher studies in the US or the UK, but financial constraints and visa hurdles derailed his plans, and for a year, his confidence too. On a whim, he applied to a vocational program and became part of a growing cohort of over 350 students trained in a one-year micro-degree ‘AI Programming Assistant’, offered across 33 National Skill Training Institutes (NSTIs) in India. Delivered by Microsoft in partnership with the Directorate General of Training (DGT) at the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), the program advances India’s mission to prepare its youth for an AI-driven economy.
Earlier this year, Microsoft announced its AI skilling commitment to train 10 million Indians by 2030, an ambition now anchored in the recently announced Microsoft Elevate, which aims to provide education, nonprofit, and workforce organizations with technology solutions, skills, and insights to empower people in the AI economy.
Puneet Chandok, President, Microsoft India and South Asia, says, “India stands at a defining moment in its AI journey and what sets this moment apart is the nation’s resolve to make AI opportunity inclusive. At Microsoft, we see skilling as the cornerstone of this transformation. By combining India’s scale of talent with its strong digital foundation and by partnering with the Government of India, MSDE, and DGT, we are embedding AI learning into vocational institutions and communities nationwide. This is more than a program—it’s a movement to build a future-ready workforce.”
Kumar’s trajectory shows what that commitment can look like at the individual level. Today, he is pursuing bachelor’s in data science and applications from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras. As Founder & CEO of EdgeSphere Sports Intelligence Pvt Ltd, he leads ScoutEdge, an AI-powered platform transforming talent discovery and performance analytics in sports, especially cricket.
Soft spoken and relentlessly driven, Kumar’s mission is to democratize sports intelligence through accessible AI. “I want to bridge the gap between grassroots athletes and international opportunities,” he says. His vision is rooted in his technical foundation — AI micro-degree from NSTI Chennai, earned before joining IIT.
With over 5.6 million Indians already trained by Microsoft since the announcement in January 2025, the scale of transformation is undeniable. The effort is setting a new benchmark and redefining how India builds skills for the AI economy.
In line with the government’s vision of skilling, reskilling, and upskilling, MSDE is integrating emerging technologies like AI, data analytics and cloud computing into vocational education.
The minister is on a mission to modernize skills education in the country. He acknowledges the role of private technology firms like Microsoft and how it is modernizing ITIs (Industrial Training Institutes) and NSTIs. “Collaborations with industry leaders are helping establish AI labs, enhance curriculum and pedagogy as well as create hands-on learning ecosystems aligned with industry needs,” he adds.
Why AI skilling is critical for vocational education
The vocational education system, under the purview of MSDE, is designed to bridge the gap between education and employability. Despite a network of over 15,000 ITIs and other vocational training institutions (both public and private), the Economic Survey 2023-24 states that only 4.4 percent of Indian youth (aged 15-29) have formal vocational or technical training, while 16.6 percent have received training through informal means.
This gap in vocational skilling becomes even more critical when viewed against the backdrop of India’s booming AI market.
The government recognizes the opportunity this demand provides for its demographic dividend. “For our vocational education ecosystem, AI skilling is not merely desirable, it is foundational to realizing our vision to build a future-ready, digitally empowered workforce,” says Swati Sethi, director – Examination & Information Technology, DGT.
Through public-private partnerships, the industry is becoming an integral contributor to realizing the national vision of making India the AI talent capital of the world. “This is already evidenced with India ranking first globally in AI skill penetration, with the AI-skilled workforce experiencing a 14-fold growth from 2016 to 2023,” Sethi adds.
Global work trends, too, underscore the urgency for new skills.
According to the 2024 Work Trend Index (WTI) Annual Report by Microsoft and LinkedIn, 66 percent of leaders say they wouldn’t hire someone without AI skills. Moreover, LinkedIn’s learning analysis shows that the time in which a skill becomes half as marketable has shrunk to two years. So nowhere is this pace more pronounced than in AI, machine learning and data science.
But Sethi is optimistic. DGT, with its digital skilling initiatives, is building a talent pipeline for sectors ranging from manufacturing and logistics to IT-enabled services and healthcare. The partnership with Microsoft is a cornerstone of this change. “This collaboration embodies the ministry’s vision of ‘Skilling for Industry 4.0’,” she says, adding how it brings the best of industry into the classroom with updated curricula, digital tools and hands-on AI labs.
The emerging AI talent pipeline
The AI program at NSTI Bengaluru is a big hit, says Naheeda Nasreen, the institute’s principal. Nearly 60 percent of her students, at the all-women institute, are first generation learners, aspiring to work in the formal sector. The 1600-hour curriculum covers Python programming, data science foundations, computer vision, NLP, Gen AI, and basic database skills, besides communication skills.
At NSTI Indore, almost 90 percent of students secured campus placements having gone to work in varied industries from quick commerce to manufacturing
That skill gaps remain one of the most significant obstacles to business transformation is well documented. It’s no surprise that 71 percent of leaders would rather hire a less experienced candidate with AI skills than a more experienced candidate without them, underscoring why programs like these matter.
And the talent pipeline to meet the numbers is no longer limited to elite engineering colleges, believes Ramesh Babu, assistant director of NSTI Calicut. “It is expanding through AI skilling programs in vocational institutions offering the, often, underserved population an opportunity to meet the demand,” he says. At his institute, the program has attracted nearly twice as many applicants as seats.
Voices of transformation
The growing opportunities in AI are evident in the journey of learners like Elaine Kiruba. Despite being a postgraduate in Computer Systems, she enrolled at NSTI Chennai recognizing that traditional qualifications alone won’t suffice. Today, she works as a Digital Trainer with the Naandi Foundation, teaching young learners computer fundamentals, with AI becoming her constant ally.
“I start my day by asking Copilot to design my to-do-list,” says Kiruba. From lesson plans and classroom activities to emails and reading recommendations, Copilot powers her day. Her students have used it to learn content creation and digital marketing. Some have even secured freelance projects with skills once far beyond their reach.
The AI micro-degree program requires that at least 50 percent of its intake be women. That proved a turning point for Florence Kiki from Wokha, Nagaland, a state tucked away in India’s Northeast. Once at NSTI Kolkata, Kiki discovered how AI opened a whole new world for her.
As part of her project, she developed an app for farmers to detect plant diseases and with local language options. Currently, working with a tech firm in Kolkata, her role involves digitization of the company’s manual data and exploring new apps.
While Kiki dreams of using AI to learn more, staffing companies like Quess Corp are focused on filling roles with candidates who bring hands-on expertise “The students we hire have industry-ready skills and are well-suited for entry-level roles. They earn between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000 (approximately between USD169 and USD225) per month, depending on the city,” says Puneet Sethi, a recruiter with Quess Corp.
According to NITI Aayog’s ‘Roadmap for Job Creation in the AI Economy’, India could create 4 million new AI jobs within five years, turning potential challenges into opportunities. With the National AI Talent Mission on the horizon and Microsoft’s plan to skill 10 million young people in AI by 2030, change feels imminent.
And that change is already evident in classrooms across the country, where curious minds lean into a future once distant, but now unmistakably clear.
Top image: AI skills are empowering young people and unlocking opportunities to thrive in a digital economy. Image Courtesy: Getty Images