New Delhi, March 11 -- India's rapidly expanding data centre sector could soon face a critical shortage of AI and infrastructure talent, even as demand surges from a digital economy powered by over 950 million internet users and nearly 20 billion monthly UPI transactions.A report released by staffing firm Quess Corp on Wednesday said India's data centre market is projected to grow 136% to $13.11 billion by 2034, up from $5.55 billion in 2025, but warned that shortages of specialised engineers and AI infrastructure professionals could become the industry's biggest growth constraint.
The report, titled India's Data Centre Decade, estimates that India's data centre and cloud infrastructure ecosystem currently employs 86,000-90,000 professionals across more than 50 providers. These roles span facilities engineering, IT operations, network engineering, cloud operations, cybersecurity and infrastructure management.
However, the report warns that the sector is entering what it describes as an "infrastructure-talent mismatch", where the scale of physical capacity expansion is outpacing the availability of skilled professionals required to operate next-generation facilities.
The shortage is particularly acute in AI infrastructure operations, with the report placing the Supply Sufficiency Index (SSI) for AI operations talent at 47, indicating a significant deficit in the workforce needed to manage increasingly AI-driven computing environments.
"India is at a structural inflection point where capacity expansion must be matched by capability depth," said Kapil Joshi, CEO of IT Staffing at Quess Corp. "While reaching a $13-billion market size reflects the country's digital intensity, the resilience of this infrastructure depends on how quickly we bridge the skill gap."
According to the report, AI workloads alone are expected to account for nearly 30% of total data centre capacity by 2026, dramatically increasing demand for specialised technical roles. This shift could drive a 133% rise in demand for advanced skill clusters such as cloud engineering, DevOps, and security and compliance by 2029.
Even traditional data centre roles are under strain. IT operations - the largest job family in the ecosystem - faces a 73% shortage in core operational roles, including monitoring, incident response, infrastructure management and network operations.
The demand for specialised engineering skills is also rising as operators push for more energy-efficient infrastructure. Roles related to cooling technologies and electrical power systems are expected to grow by over 100% through 2029, reflecting the industry's focus on lower power usage effectiveness (PUE) and greener operations.
India's data centre infrastructure remains concentrated across five primary hubs - Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Navi Mumbai - which together host nearly 59% of operational facilities. However, operators are increasingly exploring Tier-2 cities, attracted by 40-60% lower capital expenditure, though these locations will require localised talent development.
The talent shortage comes even as global hyperscalers and domestic conglomerates accelerate investments in India's digital infrastructure. Companies such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft have announced multi-billion-dollar cloud and data centre expansion plans in the country in recent years, while Reliance Industries has outlined ambitions to build large-scale digital and AI infrastructure through its telecom and cloud businesses. The surge in hyperscale facilities to support AI training, inference and enterprise cloud workloads is significantly raising the complexity of data centre operations and intensifying demand for specialised engineering and AI infrastructure skills.
Joshi concludes that India's next decade of data centre expansion will depend not just on megawatts deployed, but on how effectively the industry can align capital investment with specialised workforce development.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from TechCircle.