Virudhunagar, a peaceful town in southeastern India, is known for temples that have stood for centuries. Yet behind those historic walls, a new kind of work is transforming lives—villagers are training artificial intelligence for the world.
From ancient heritage to digital innovation
Mohan Kumar spends his days teaching machines to think. “I work in AI annotation. I collect data, label it, and train AI models to recognize and predict objects. Over time, these models learn to make their own decisions,” he explains.
India has long been a centre for outsourced IT services, with cities like Bangalore and Chennai leading the field. Now, that digital work is spreading into rural regions, where costs for offices and staff are far lower.
This shift, known as cloud farming, has found new energy thanks to the rise of artificial intelligence. In towns like Virudhunagar, AI projects now sit alongside centuries-old temples.
Bringing opportunity to small towns
Mohan Kumar doesn’t believe he’s missing out by avoiding the city life. “There’s no difference in the work,” he says. “Whether we’re in a metro or a small town, we handle the same international clients from the US and Europe. The training and skills are the same.”
He works for Desicrew, a company founded in 2005 that helped pioneer cloud farming. “We realised we could bring jobs to people rather than force them to migrate to cities,” says chief executive Mannivannan J. K. “For too long, opportunities have stayed in cities. We want to create top-quality careers near home and show that world-class work can come from anywhere.”
Desicrew manages software testing, content moderation, and data preparation for AI. Around 30 to 40% of its work already involves AI. “Soon that number will reach 75 to 100%,” says Mannivannan.
The power of transcription in AI training
A large part of Desicrew’s AI work involves transcription—turning spoken words into written text. “Machines understand text better,” Mannivannan explains. “For AI to respond naturally, it must learn to recognise how people speak across different languages and accents. Transcription builds that foundation.”
He says working from small towns is not a limitation. “People think rural means underdeveloped, but our centres match city IT hubs in every way—secure systems, strong connectivity, and stable power. The only difference is the landscape.”
Women make up about 70% of Desicrew’s employees. “For many, this is their first job with a salary,” Mannivannan says. “It changes families—creating financial independence and improving children’s education.”
Unlocking talent beyond the cities
NextWealth, founded in 2008, also saw potential in rural India. The company, headquartered in Bangalore, employs 5,000 people across 11 offices in smaller towns.
“Sixty percent of India’s graduates come from small towns, but most IT companies hire only from cities,” says co-founder and managing director Mythily Ramesh. “That leaves a huge pool of talented first-generation graduates untapped. Their parents are farmers, tailors, or police officers who often take loans to fund their education.”
NextWealth began with back-office outsourcing for corporations, then shifted into AI five years ago. “Some of the world’s most advanced algorithms are being trained and validated in India’s small towns,” Ramesh says.
Rural India’s role in the global AI chain
About 70% of NextWealth’s clients come from the United States. “Every AI model—from language systems to facial recognition—needs vast amounts of human-labelled data,” Ramesh explains. “That’s the foundation of our work.”
She believes this is only the beginning. “In the next three to five years, AI and generative AI could create around 100 million jobs in training, validation, and real-time monitoring. India’s smaller towns can power that transformation.”
India’s early move into AI outsourcing gives it a strong advantage, she adds. “Countries like the Philippines might compete, but India’s size and head start give us a five to seven-year edge. We need to use it wisely before the world catches up.”
Challenges of trust and technology
Technology expert KS Viswanathan, who previously worked with India’s National Association of Software and Service Companies, believes this growth marks a turning point. “Silicon Valley may design the AI engines, but the ongoing work that keeps them reliable is now done by India’s cloud farming industry,” he says.
He sees both opportunity and caution. “If cloud farming continues to expand, small-town India could become the world’s largest AI hub—just as it became a leader in IT services two decades ago.”
Still, infrastructure remains uneven. “High-speed internet and secure data centres don’t always match city standards,” Viswanathan notes. “That creates ongoing concerns about data protection.”
Even where systems are strong, he says perception remains a challenge. “Many foreign clients still assume small towns can’t guarantee data security. The only solution is to prove reliability through consistent delivery.”
Teaching machines through human insight
At NextWealth, Dhanalakshmi Vijay works on improving AI accuracy. When a model confuses a blue denim jacket with a navy shirt, she steps in. “I correct the system, and those corrections are fed back into the model,” she says. “Each round of feedback helps it perform better, just like software updates improve accuracy.”
Her work has a global reach. “Our team trains AI systems that make online shopping easier for millions,” she says proudly. “We help technology see and understand the world more clearly.”
The digital future rooted in rural soil
Across India’s smaller towns, a quiet revolution is reshaping technology. Behind computer screens in rural homes, people are training the systems that power the world’s smartest machines. This new wave of talent proves that the future of artificial intelligence is not confined to cities—it’s growing, steadily and surely, in the heart of India’s countryside.
