ING economist Deepali Bhargava says India’s outsourcing industry shows little
sign of being displaced by AI as it moves into harder-to-automate, higher-value
services. Software services exports’ share of GDP rose from 3.3% pre‑pandemic to
about 5.2%; business services (finance, accounting, engineering, research and
analytics) more than doubled to 3.3%. ING data show India accounts for over half
the global outsourcing market, earns roughly $205bn a year from software
services exports and supports about 5.8 mln workers. Software and business
services exports combined equal about 8.5% of GDP and remain a material source
of foreign exchange, challenging fears that generative AI will hollow out one of
India’s key industries.
