Andrew Ng, cofounder of Coursera and founder of DeepLearning.AI, has strongly urged India to accelerate its AI upskilling efforts to future-proof its workforce and sustain the growth of its $280 billion IT services industry. Speaking to The Economic Times, Ng highlighted that a rapid enhancement of AI skills is critical to avert significant job disruption. Ng also cautioned against the prevalent hype surrounding Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), clarifying that large language models are not a direct pathway to human-level intelligence and that claims of imminent AGI are misleading. He emphasized that AI is not just for tech specialists; sophisticated AI skills, potentially including coding, are becoming increasingly vital for professionals in diverse fields such as accounting, marketing, and human resources. This call for urgent upskilling is corroborated by multiple reports indicating a severe AI talent gap in India. A Bain & Company report projects that India could face a shortfall of over a million skilled AI professionals by 2027, with job openings potentially surpassing 2.3 million while the talent pool only reaches around 1.2 million. Similarly, a Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report predicts a 53% AI skill gap by 2026 and notes that only 26% of Indian companies have trained their workforce in GenAI/AI tools. Ng advises business leaders to personally invest a few hours in understanding AI technology to effectively guide their teams and allocate resources. Coursera, co-founded by Ng, is actively working to address this skill gap in India, having translated over 4,000 courses into Hindi using generative AI to make high-quality education more accessible to a broader audience. India's robust IT and engineering talent pool is seen as a strong foundation upon which to build the necessary AI skills for future economic growth.