India Holds World’s 2nd Largest AI Talent Pool, But Much Of It Is Leaving For Better Opportunities

India has emerged as the world's second-largest hub for artificial intelligence (AI) talent in 2025, according to the Stanford AI Index 2026, published by the Stanford Institute for Human-Centred Artificial Intelligence (HAI). The report mentions that India has 50,460 top AI authors and inventors, which is only behind the United States (US) with 220,520 experts. It is worth noting that Germany trailed India with 48,500 specialists, highlighting increasing global competition for AI-skilled professionals.

Large talent outflows raise concern

Despite India’s overall AI talent depth, the country recorded the largest net outflow of this talent in 2025, standing at -16.9, according to the report. On the other hand, Canada witnessed strong inflows around 2020, which declined to -7.1 by 2025. Germany also showed a negative net flow of -2.4.

In terms of AI adoption at work, India joins China, Nigeria, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia, exceeding 80 per cent employee usage on a semi-regular or regular basis, surpassing the global average of 58 per cent.

India has the highest AI skills penetration globally

Stanford’s report highlights India's AI skill concentration index at 3.0. This means that LinkedIn member profiles with AI skills appear three times more than the global average. India is followed by the US at 2.0 and Germany at 1.8. The report showcases that India has a gender gap that persists within the country, with men listed more than 1.5 times more than women with AI skills. In India, the AI skill concentration index for men is 3.1 and for women is 1.9.

Despite this strong skills base, the report shows India recorded the sharpest rise in AI-related anxiety of any country surveyed. Between 2024 and 2025, concern around AI usage increased by 14 percentage points, while excitement grew by only 2 points. This disconnect reflects the broader public’s uncertainty regarding AI’s rapid advancement.

AI patents, publications, and investments

The number of granted AI patents has grown exponentially in the world. From 3,866 in 2010 to 131,121 AI patents in 2024 showcases an 8.2 per cent increase between 2023 and 2024 alone, highlighted the report.

China dominates with 74.2 per cent of the global total, followed by the United States at 12.1 per cent. India accounts for just 0.4 per cent. In AI publications, China led with 17.8 per cent of global output in 2024, ahead of Europe at 11.1 per cent and India at 7.6 per cent.

In 2025, there were several infrastructure investments, which included the $100–$500 billion Stargate Project announced by OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, and others, Google’s $40 billion commitment to Texas data centres, and Microsoft’s $17.5 billion investment in AI infrastructure in India. Amazon also announced it will invest over $35 billion in India by

2030 to expand AI and logistics, targeting 1 million new jobs and $80 billion in seller exports.

Private AI investment tells a similar story. In 2025, the US attracted $285 billion, dominating China's $12.41 billion, the United Kingdom's $5.90 billion, France’s $4.36 billion, and Canada’s $4.28 billion.

According to the report, India drew $4.09 billion and has accumulated $15.39 billion in total private AI investment since 2013.

Frontier AI grows rapidly

The Stanford AI Index 2026 mentions that the industry produced over 90 per cent of notable frontier AI models in 2025. Performance on key benchmarks has risen sharply, with scores on the SWE-bench coding benchmark climbing from 60 per cent to near 100 per cent in a single year. Organisational AI adoption reached 88 per cent, and four in five university students now use generative AI tools.