MUMBAI: The future of work is getting a new co-worker and it does not need a desk. As artificial intelligence moves from generating answers to reasoning, planning and carrying out complex tasks, the National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT) and Intel India have launched a new initiative to prepare India’s workforce for the Agentic AI era.
The initiative was announced at a National Leadership Dialogue on “Preparing the Future Workforce for the Agentic AI Era” at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi. Organised by NIELIT, under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), in collaboration with Intel India, the event brought together representatives from government, foreign embassies, academia, industry and the skilling ecosystem to discuss how education and employment will change as AI becomes more capable.
The key outcome was the launch of the NIELIT–Intel India Agentic AI Skilling Initiative, which aims to expand access to practical, industry-aligned training and build a workforce capable of working alongside increasingly autonomous AI systems.
The initiative starts with two programmes. Agentic AI for Everyone introduces learners to workflow automation, AI agents and multi-agent systems, with hands-on exposure to designing and governing AI-powered workflows through no-code platforms. The programme is geared towards productivity, business transformation and AI-assisted decision-making.
The second, Engineering Agentic AI Systems, takes a more technical route, covering the design, development and deployment of AI-powered agentic systems. Learners will work with no-code, low-code and code-based frameworks, exploring agent architecture, tool integration, orchestration, memory and deployment to build scalable, production-ready solutions.
The need for such skills is emerging as AI shifts from predictive and generative systems towards Agentic AI, where systems can reason, plan and execute complex tasks under human oversight. The dialogue highlighted the need to equip students, educators and professionals not just with technical skills, but also adaptability and human-centric judgement.
Shashi Shekhar Vempati, Chairperson, Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), who was the chief guest, stressed that skills, employability and continuous learning would become increasingly important as technology reshapes work. He also called for longer-term skilling pathways combining foundational and emerging technology skills with real-world exposure, industry case studies and practical datasets.
Sudeep Shrivastava, COO, IndiaAI Mission and Joint Secretary, MeitY, highlighted the government’s vision of democratising Sovereign AI and building an inclusive AI ecosystem. He pointed to industry-led training, AI-focused educational programmes, digital learning initiatives, AI Data Labs and stronger industry-academia partnerships as important components of the country’s AI talent pipeline.
For NIELIT, the partnership brings together its nationwide skilling reach with Intel’s technology expertise and industry perspective. Director General Madan Mohan Tripathi said the collaboration would help take Agentic AI learning closer to institutions and learners across the country.
Intel’s Shweta Khurana, Senior Director, Asia Pacific & Japan, International Government Affairs, said AI was evolving from assistive tools towards agentic systems and eventually physical intelligence, with implications for education, jobs and industries. She stressed that investing in AI skills would be important for economic resilience, opportunity and technological sovereignty.
The wider discussions also focused on industry-aligned curricula, experiential learning, faculty readiness, AI-enabled learning environments and stronger government-academia-industry collaboration.
The dialogue was attended by senior officials including NIELIT Director General M M Tripathi, IndiaAI Mission COO and MeitY Joint Secretary Sudeep Shrivastava, Intel Head and Global Director Anshul Sonak, Additional Secretary Prabhat and Joint Secretary K K Nirala of MeitY, along with senior officials, academics and industry representatives.
The larger message from the event was clear: if AI is learning to work, India’s workforce will have to learn how to work with AI and preferably before the machines get too far ahead.