Learn to play around with AI tools, get fluent: Microsoft India President advises youth

New Delhi: Microsoft India President Puneet Chandok has urged the youth to build on AI fluency, terming it "super important" and stressing such skills cannot be learnt merely through theory or observation but by hands-on use of tools, as the top honcho drew a light-hearted analogy of fitness gained by actually working out in a gym.

Shrugging-off a recent MIT Media Lab study raising an alarm over AI and its potential cognitive consequences and neural costs, Chandok said he believes AI boosts rather than diminishes cognitive abilities by automating routine drudgery, freeing users to focus on value-adding, judgment-driven work.

In an interview to PTI, Chandok also drew attention to new career avenues emerging with AI, from agent managers to prompt engineers, as he emphasised that job profiles are indeed changing and constant upskilling is vital as organisations adapt to evolving demands.

Terming AI fluency as "super important", he advised youth to "learn to play around with these tools".

"This is not something you can learn in a classroom, not theory. I always joke that you can't get fit by watching others go to the gym. You have to go to the gym yourself. Same with AI tools. You can't learn by watching others use the tools, start using these tools," he advised.

Chandok exhorted professionals to start building with AI tools, stressing that fluency in creating and managing digital agents alongside resilience, adaptability, agility and growth mindset will define future workplace success.

"I think those three things, AI fluency, building AI, and ability to build agents and work with them and digital colleagues. And third, just the basic skills around resilience, agility, speed, growth mindset will be even more important," he said.

Many new roles, that didn't exist 12 months ago, are being created due to AI, Chandok asserted.

"AI orchestrator, AI agent manager, agent boss, prompt engineer... There are many new roles that are coming up and how do we make sure that we create those roles and job opportunities for people across the country. Second, the color of the jobs will change... I think the skills required, if a lot of repetitive grunt work is taken away, drudgery is taken away, how do we constantly upskill our people to going back to build agents, to get agents to work for them, really use AI in the right way," he said.

Here, constant upskilling would be crucial, he said.

"And that's why we are excited both at Microsoft and across the country and across the customers about constant skilling of people on AI. And then the third I'll say is, as organisations, we are super agile. We are constantly readjusting based on the needs of our customers and the countries we operate in.

"Invest in areas where we see a lot more demand for both skills and people in business. So we will constantly readjust based on what our customers and the country we operate in need from us," he said.

India has rapidly emerged as a frontier market for AI adoption, with global tech majors and domestic companies as well as startups sprucing up investments and workforce initiatives in the world's fastest growing major economy, that chugged at 6.5 per cent in 2024-25, and is eyeing similar numbers this fiscal year.

According to a recent report by BCG titled 'India's AI Leap', the country offers a unique launchpad for scalable, cost-efficient AI innovation, with over 700 million internet users, high mobile penetration, and robust digital public platforms like UPI.

"Unlike many past technologies, AI is as much a driver of innovation and growth as it is of enhancing performance and efficiencies, thereby unlocking entirely new growth pathways and redefining how businesses compete and scale," the BCG report had said how AI is transforming sectors by crunching underwriting time by 70 per cent in financial services, boosting retail conversions rates by 10-15 per cent, slashing media production costs by over 80 per cent, and extending healthcare reach through advanced diagnostics and remote consultations.

India's domestic AI market is projected to more than triple to USD 17 billion by 2027, making it one of the fastest-growing AI economies globally.

"This momentum is fuelled by rising enterprise tech investments, a thriving digital ecosystem, and a robust talent base. India already has 600,000-plus AI professionals, with the number expected to double to 1.25 million by 2027," BCG report said.

The country accounts for 16 per cent of the global AI talent pool, second only to the US, a reflection of both its demographic advantage and STEM education pipeline, it added.