New Delhi, Jun 27 (IANS): In India, 94 per cent of tech micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) acknowledge artificial intelligence's (AI) ability to drive business growth while 87 per cent of them showed confidence in AI's potential to improve overall productivity, a Nasscom-Meta report showed on Thursday.

Around 72 per cent of tech MSMEs emphasise the need for AI training programmes for their workforce, according to a white paper by Nasscom supported by Meta.

Meta (formerly Facebook) entered into a strategic partnership with Nasscom to spotlight the current state of the AI adoption journey of tech MSMEs in the country.

"Ecosystem collaboration, coupled with access to user-friendly tools and resources, is essential for tech-enabled MSMEs to harness AI's full potential and for India to maximise its AI dividends," said Sangeeta Gupta, Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Nasscom.

Specifically, 48 per cent of respondents support AI's potential in content creation and marketing, 46 per cent in customer engagement, followed by 68 per cent in developing new products and services.

"With its massive developer base and the third largest startup ecosystem in the world, India is going to be a driving force in the global AI revolution. Meta has been committed to creating an ecosystem for MSMEs to thrive, and our joint efforts with Nasscom focus on equipping MSMEs with the necessary tools and knowledge to unlock the full potential of AI," said Sandhya Devanathan, Vice President (India) at Meta.

The white paper also identified significant challenges faced by tech MSMEs in navigating the benefits of leveraging AI for sustainable business expansion and growth.

The paper called out an awareness gap with 65 per cent of tech MSMEs struggling due to the limited awareness about available tools and resources, while 72 per cent emphasised the necessity for AI training programmes stressing the importance of skill development in facilitating adoption.