Mint Quick Edit | Code red: India’s software sector must adapt quickly to AI

That artificial intelligence (AI) would start taking over software coding was anticipated. Sundar Pichai, chief of Google’s parent Alphabet, has put out a figure that offers us a sense of its speed. 

“Today, more than a quarter of all new code at Google is generated by AI, then reviewed and accepted by engineers,” Pichai has said in the context of AI’s productivity boost. 

“This helps our engineers do more and move faster.” Other companies in need of coding work would be paying attention. So, too, Indian software exporters, whose reliance on outsourced code generation is no secret and weak performance in recent times has made analysts wonder if their days of double-digit growth are over. 

How they grapple with AI as an inflexion point in their field of business is under watch. In a best-case scenario, AI is more of an opportunity than a threat: an efficiency enhancer and assignment creator, rather than a job killer. 

But evidence of this panning out must go beyond data on “AI contracts” bagged. It needs to show up in their financial results and human resource deployment. Reports of this industry’s shrinking headcount are not reassuring. Indian software majors must adapt fast.

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