How cutting-edge AI/ML tech is strengthening the gig ecosystem

How has the Covid crisis impacted the gig economy in India, particularly from a tech workforce perspective?

Covid-19 pandemic has added momentum to the gig economy. Due to lockdown, small to large enterprises have been forced to operate in remote work models. Along with remote working, operating cost or fixed employee cost have been the major concern for all businesses. Hence, they are looking for alternatives to the full-time employees to scale and restore their businesses during the pandemic. Gig economy is solving these problems by offering an on-demand workforce to accelerate the pace to meet business goals.

Tech startups and large tech enterprises also faced similar problems and hence they have started onboarding gig workforce for sales, marketing and other technical roles. New age technology companies like fintech, edtech, logistics, e-commerce, etc., have aggressively experimented with the gig model to meet faster scaling, and customer engagement during pandemic.

Which IT skills are currently the most in demand among the gig talent force?

Gig talents are leveraged for multiple roles ranging from blue collared to grey and white collared. Few technical skills which are in demand with respect to gig workforce are design and web development.

Who are your client organisations from tech space? Do you see a perceptible shift among the traditional industries also?

Our recent engagement with tech based include edtech firms, fintech firms and SaaS product companies. Tech companies have a prominent use case of customer acquisition where they have leveraged gig workers through us. Apart from customer acquisition, customer engagement and product reviews has also been the major area where we have added value to the businesses.

We definitely see the scope of shift among the traditional industries. Core challenges of any business are the same, the cost and scaling up. With legacy organisations also focused on innovation and new ways to market their services to customers, gig workers can play a pivotal role. We have already seen a shift in traditional banking and consumer products companies. Tech companies are also evaluating the scope and we can probably see such a shift soon.

For startups, how has the gig marketplace been a strategic advantage for getting the best tech talent? Can you share a few examples?

For startups, scaling is the key. Gig marketplace offers immense flexibility to scale faster while keeping budget in control. Startups can onboard on-demand workforce for scaling to new geographies without hiring new workforce, they can engage with customers frequently and effectively through gig workforce. Such flexibility encourages the adoption of gig workers in startups. Few tech roles which are sought after through this model are digital marketing, web development, design, etc.

Many UPI portals, e-commerce portals have actively engaged the gig workforce for merchant onboarding, seller onboarding, etc. Quality audits and customer services roles are also in demand with respect to startups.

How are you leveraging AI/ML to meet the job requirements of high growth tech startups?

High growth startups are innovating their solutions to meet customers’ needs more closely and effectively. However, the market strategy of such high growth companies are dependent upon the quick customer adoption with controlled cash outflow. We help these tech clients to reach customers faster, with high conversion rate and close engagements. We have our proprietary tech platform enabled with AI/ML capabilities to ensure quality and minimal turnaround time. Our cutting edge technology automates the process to source gig workers, and drive the project with real time reporting. AI/ML based auditing of gigs makes our delivery super-fast and reduces manual quality check processes.

Your perception of how the gig world will shape up in India in the next five years?

India is a fast growing economy. With the increasing opportunities for organisations to scale their operations, it is critical for them to adopt a fast scaling strategy. Limited resources and distributed target audience has given push to the strategies where maximising reach, innovation and customer satisfaction are pivotal. However, the cost of scaling operations has become the critical area where companies are working. Gig economy provides the opportunity for companies to control their employee expense by converting fixed employee cost to variable. We are expecting more organisations to adopt gig workforce for their business requirements ranging from entry level roles to specialised roles. According to the report by Deloitte, gig economy is expected to grow to $ 455 billion by 2023. In the next five years, we can see more roles to be fulfilled by gig workers. Small to large enterprises are going to adopt gig workforce in their ecosystem at different levels. Gig workforce management platforms are going to play a critical role in providing support to enterprises by ensuring quality business outcomes at planned budget.

Any other significant factor?
Innovation, quality control and ease of adopting gig models are three major factors to drive the gig economy in India. New graduates and professionals are opting this new mode of employment eyeing flexibility and reskilling opportunities. With such momentum, gig platforms like GigIndia who ensure business results with quality driven by AI/ML enabled platforms and curated project delivery processes are going to play a critical role in strengthening gig economy. Gig economy will also be an inclusive transformation to provide employment to the workforce across tier 2-3-4 cities also. Female employment will also get a push with the flexibility of the gig ecosystem. Overall, we can say it is going to bring a huge transformation in our current employment landscape.