Software Engineering is Not Dying

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THE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER OF AIM. Monday, Jun 24, 2024 | Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here By Siddharth Jindal There is a misconception that software engineering jobs will cease to exist in the future. That is certainly not the case. Indian IT firm TCS is currently struggling to fill 80,000 open positions due to a notable skill gap. The issue is not a lack of interest in hiring engineers, but that freshers' skills don't meet the requirements. The time is not far off when India might run out of skilled software engineers. According to a recent report, India barely has about 2,000 senior AI software engineers. “I’m about to graduate with a CS degree and have never used a ‘library’, ‘framework’, or ‘API’.” This was the topic of a Reddit discussion, which soon saw hundreds of reactions pouring in from people who pointed at the sad state of CS degrees worldwide.  Opportunities Galore AIM believes that even with recent challenges in tech employment, opportunities for “10x developers” remain plentiful. Despite global economic uncertainties, the Indian IT sector is projected to see an 8-10% increase in hiring in 2024, with a strong focus on roles in AI, ML, cybersecurity, and full-stack development. Last week alone, LinkedIn showed a whopping 99,000 software engineering internship opportunities in India.  With generative AI on the rise, there is a high demand for engineers with AI and machine learning skills. For instance, Indian AI startup Sarvam AI last month launched a residency program offering salaries as high as INR 1 lakh per month. AI professionals in the country are earning a salary premium of 40-80% compared to traditional IT roles. Apart from AI and ML, the widespread adoption of cloud platforms has created a demand for cloud development and management experts. Moreover, with rising cyber threats, cybersecurity engineers, too, have become indispensable for data and system protection. Similarly, full-stack developers, adept at both front-end and back-end development, are highly sought after. The same goes for DevOps specialists who streamline software development and deployment processes, crucial for modern workflows. Company-Specific Salaries Here’s a snapshot of the average starting salaries for developers offered by some prominent software companies in India: Microsoft: INR 15.9 lakh per annum Google: INR 15.9 lakh per annum Amazon: INR 14.4 lakh per annum IBM: INR 8 lakh per annum TCS: INR 4.5 lakh per annum Infosys: INR 4.21 lakh per annum New Skills Required  As an engineering student, the first programming language one is taught is C++, which may not be of much relevance today. At Databricks’ AI+Data Summit 2024, researcher Yejin Choi said that researchers no longer use the language for AI research. Despite its performance benefits and applications in various AI fields, such as speech recognition and computer vision, C++ is no longer the go-to language for AI development. In contrast, Python’s user-friendly nature, extensive libraries, and large developer community have propelled it to the forefront of AI programming. In the current era, simply learning programming languages isn't adequate since AI systems can now handle coding effortlessly. Tools like GitHub Copilot, Replit, ChatGPT, Code Llama, and Devin are paving the way for automated coding in the future, allowing coding in natural languages like Hindi, Kannada, and others. Generative AI demands new skills, such as proficiency in TensorFlow, PyTorch, Keras, and Theano, for building neural networks. On his recent visit to India, GitHub chief Thomas Dohmke said, “In many ways, this new age of AI has actually created more demand for developers because now someone also has to build all the AI systems.”  He added that both the relative size of a country’s developer population and developers' ability to build AI or work with AI without constraints will be directly correlated to a country’s economic success in the age of AI. Planning to move to the US? Apparently, that may not be a good idea. Tech giants have been replacing their workforce with Indians based in India, rather than Indians working in the US. A Reddit user pointed out that many US citizens are hesitant about getting into the field of computer science as companies outsource a lot of their work to India, taking advantage of the lower wages here.  For instance, Google recently disbanded its entire US-based Python team, which consisted of fewer than ten people. Recently, it also terminated 200 employees from its 'core team' and transferred certain positions abroad, including India and Mexico, for cheaper labour. It's sad that Indians earn much less than their US counterparts. “The average annual salary of developers in India is almost 2.5 times lesser than the average salary of developers all over the world, and almost five times less than the average salary in the US,” said Nitesh Agarwal, the CEO at Curated Connections.  AI Forum for India. Our Discord Community for AI Ecosystem, In collaboration with NVIDIA. Join Today >> TOP STORIES OF THE WEEK >> What Does it Cost to Build an AI Research Startup in India? After leaving OpenAI, Ilya Sutskever started his own venture called Safe Superintelligence. The startup is bound to raise billions of dollars in pursuing its goal of building ASI, but what about Indian startups that are aiming to do fundamental AI research?  Read more to find out. Salesforce India CEO Calls for Global AI Pact Like Nuclear Deterrence Salesforce has made a significant move into the public sector domain in India, as announced at the World Tour Essentials event in Mumbai. Under the leadership of Arundhati Bhattacharya, Salesforce aims to leverage its cloud and AI solutions to enhance government services.  This venture marks a strategic shift for the company, but it also comes with challenges, including adapting to the government's cloud preferences and ensuring data security. Click here to enjoy the full story. PEOPLE & TECH >> ‘In the Next Decade, India will Lead AI Initiatives for World’ On the sidelines of the recently concluded Data + AI Summit, Databricks India and SAARC region vice president Anil Bhasin spoke about India leading AI innovation and building products for the world. “I believe, in the next decade, our country will lead the AI initiatives for the world. I believe in the power of India,” Bhasin told AIM in an exclusive interview. Read the full story here. AIM VIDEOS >> Do watch our latest interview with SiMa.ai CEO and founder Krishna Rangasayee, who discusses the startup's latest chips, fabricated by TSMC on 6nm nodes, designed for multimodal generative AI applications on drones, autonomous vehicles, and humanoid robots.  Rangasayee also addresses the decision to avoid the Chinese market, the impact of semiconductors and AI on geopolitics, AI hype, AGI, and India’s semiconductor goals. Watch the full conversation for more insights. AIM EVENTS >> Cypher 2024 | Early Bird Passes expiring on 5th June The 8th Edition of India's Biggest AI Summit is scheduled 25-27th Sep in Bangalore. Don’t hesitate and buy tickets today – All tickets are at a special price until 05.07.2024. Hope to see you there :) Register Now AIM SHOTS >> In its Q3 FY24 earnings report, Accenture announced over $900 million in new bookings for generative AI, reaching a total of $2 billion fiscal year-to-date. Anthropic has launched Claude 3.5 Sonnet, the first release in the forthcoming Claude 3.5 model family. TCS and Xerox have partnered for a transformative program to simplify operations and shift towards software-enabled services. Salesforce launched its Public Sector division in India, focusing on empowering government agencies and public sector organisations to transform citizen experiences using Salesforce technology. Meta announced the release of four new AI models and additional research artefacts at Meta FAIR, as part of its commitment to fostering an open ecosystem.  Google announced that its AI assistant Gemini is now available as a mobile app in India, with support for nine Indian languages.  On Nikhil Kamath's podcast, Bill Gates advised young entrepreneurs to utilise established AI platforms like Google and Microsoft for building AI applications in India. Andrew Ng, known as the godfather of deep learning, has partnered with Microsoft to launch a new course titled 'Building Your Own Database Agent', focusing on generative AI. SoftBank Corp has partnered with generative AI search startup Perplexity to provide its customers with a complimentary one-year subscription to Perplexity’s premium AI answer engine. upGrad has announced a new certification program in GenAI for Leaders in collaboration with Microsoft and the International Institute of IIIT Bangalore. Download our mobile app Access our stories, video content and events on the go. Stay Connected info@aimmediahouse.com © 2024 AIM Media House LLC and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. For more information, email info@aimmediahouse.com

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