‘The AI era places a premium on niche talent’

India's digital economy is expanding rapidly, with a projected need for 30 million digitally skilled professionals by 2026, while 50% of the existing workforce will require reskilling in emerging technologies.

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With a tech talent base exceeding 5.4 million, "India is well-positioned to lead in high-impact domains such as AI, deeptech, semiconductors, and cybersecurity," says Rajesh Nambiar, president, Nasscom. He speaks to Sudhir Chowdhary on the evolving skill demands and measures needed for the Indian IT workforce to remain agile and future-ready. Excerpts:

What are the key skills for engineers to have in 2026?

While GenAI engineering, systems engineering, AI safety, secure-by-design software, and simulation-led engineering will see demand, the single biggest differentiator in the next 12 months will be learnability. AI is collapsing technology cycles dramatically. Tools, models, stacks, and frameworks will continue to evolve every quarter and companies are now prioritising engineers who can continuously learn, unlearn and re-skill at speed.