According to the report by ISB study, the total number of AI startups in the country has significantly increased and this has happened due to the rise in the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) across the diverse sector over the last few years. 

The total number of startups in India in AI has gone up from just 0.68% in the year 2000 to 7.50% in the year 2019 as per the AI index 2021 Annual Report. 

The report states that Karnataka tops the list with the maximum number of AI startups at 356, followed by Maharashtra in second place at 215. In the third position stands the Telugu states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana at 111 startups.  

It further says that there are states in the country like Goa, Bihar, J&K, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Puducherry that lack the presence of any AI startups. 

In fact, the funding in AI has also clocked an over 97% CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) from $20 million in the year 2013 to $233 million in 2019. 

There is also a surge in the percentage share of total funding in the AI startups from 0.28% in 2013 to 1.54% in 2019. 

The good news is there also has been a rapid growth in AI-related job postings across the country over the last few years but these numbers are still very less in comparison to the total number of jobs posted in India. 

With the emerging use cases of artificial intelligence (AI) in a wide variety of sectors, the biggest challenge is to obtain skilled resources to meet the ever-growing demand for AI-related jobs. 

The report points out that AI has helped Indian businesses to be resilient to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and helped them in redesigning their model for the future.