56% Indian developers say AI skills boost employment chances: Survey

Nearly all respondents in India (99%) view AI skills as a key factor in improving their attractiveness as job candidates, while 56% of participants believe that AI proficiency improves their employment chances, according to the latest survey conducted by Microsoft-owned GitHub. More than 80% of Indian developers have noticed a perceived improvement in code quality due to AI tools, and more than 66% believe these tools help them better meet customer needs, among other benefits. However, only 40% reported that their companies actively promote the use of AI coding tools.

The survey released today sampled 2,000 software professionals—500 each from India, the US, Brazil, and Germany—working for large organisations with 1,000 or more employees.

This survey is revealed amid ongoing discussions about whether AI and Generative AI are advancing from experimental phases to practical, production-ready solutions.

The majority of respondents expect AI coding tools to enhance code security, with the strongest expectation of ‘significant improvement’ found in India, where 41% of respondents share this view, the survey states.

“The potential of AI-driven software development is undeniable,” said Kyle Daigle, chief operating officer at GitHub. “However, individual AI usage isn’t enough. Organisations need to operationalise AI throughout the software development lifecycle to boost collaboration, creativity, and modernisation. By prioritising a strategic approach that balances innovation, security, and organisational alignment, we can unlock its full potential. This is an exciting time for engineering leaders–in India and globally–to embrace these advancements and propel their teams forward,” Daigle added.

Almost 70% of Indian respondents find AI coding tools "easy" for learning a new programming language or understanding existing code, while the remainder find them "very easy." Additionally, about 75% of the respondents indicated that their organisations use AI tools for test generation at least occasionally.

"In contrast, a much smaller percentage (40%) of respondents in India said their companies actively encourage and promote AI tool adoption. An additional 39% of respondents in India report that their organisations allow the use of these tools but offer limited encouragement,” the survey adds.

It was recently reported in the first week of August that India had become the largest market for Meta AI, the artificial intelligence chatbot assistant introduced by Facebook's parent company, as noted by the company's chief financial officer (CFO), Susan Li, during the second quarter earnings call. Meta introduced its AI chatbot in September 2023, but it only became available in India in June of this year.

Li mentioned that since the launch of Meta AI, it had been used for billions of queries. She observed promising trends in retention and engagement on WhatsApp, which coincided with India emerging as the leading market for Meta AI usage.