Virudhunagar, a calm town in southeastern India, is known for temples that have stood for thousands of years. Yet behind those ancient walls, a new revolution is taking shape. Locals are training artificial intelligence systems that power global technology.
Where old traditions meet new innovation
Mohan Kumar spends his days teaching machines to think. “I work in AI annotation. I collect and label data to train AI models so they can recognize and predict objects. Over time, they learn to make decisions on their own,” he says.
India has long been a global hub for outsourced technology services, with cities like Bangalore and Chennai leading the way. But in recent years, that work has spread to smaller towns, where space is cheaper and skilled workers are eager for opportunities.
This new trend—known as cloud farming—is turning towns like Virudhunagar into engines of the AI economy.
Jobs that stay close to home
Mohan Kumar doesn’t feel left behind by not living in a big city. “There’s no professional difference,” he says. “We work with the same clients from the US and Europe. The skills and tools are the same.”
He works for Desicrew, one of India’s early cloud farming pioneers, founded in 2005. “We realised we could bring jobs to people instead of forcing them to migrate,” says chief executive Mannivannan J. K. “For too long, cities held all the opportunities. We wanted to prove that world-class work can happen anywhere.”
Desicrew’s projects range from software testing and content moderation to building training datasets for AI. “Right now, 30 to 40% of our work is AI-based,” says Mannivannan. “Soon, that will reach 75 or even 100%.”
Teaching machines to understand human voices
A big part of Desicrew’s AI work involves transcription—turning audio into text. “Machines understand text much better,” Mannivannan explains. “To make AI systems sound natural, they must learn how people speak across dialects and accents. That’s where transcription becomes vital.”
He says working in a rural town doesn’t mean being behind the curve. “People assume rural means outdated, but our centres match city IT hubs. We have secure networks, reliable power, and fast internet. The only difference is geography.”
Seventy percent of Desicrew’s employees are women. “For many, this is their first salaried job,” Mannivannan says. “It brings independence, stability, and better futures for their children.”
Unlocking the talent of small-town India
NextWealth, founded in 2008, shares the same mission. Based in Bangalore, it employs 5,000 people across 11 smaller towns.
“Sixty percent of India’s graduates come from rural areas, but most IT jobs are in metros,” says co-founder and managing director Mythily Ramesh. “That leaves an enormous pool of bright, first-generation graduates untapped. Their parents are farmers, weavers, or tailors who make great sacrifices to support their education.”
NextWealth began with outsourced back-office work before shifting to AI five years ago. “Some of the world’s most advanced algorithms are being trained and validated in India’s small towns,” Ramesh says.
Small towns, global reach
About 70% of NextWealth’s work comes from the United States. “Every AI model—from chat systems to facial recognition—depends on huge amounts of human-labelled data,” Ramesh explains. “That data is the foundation of our business.”
She expects rapid growth ahead. “In the next three to five years, AI and generative AI could create nearly 100 million jobs in training and validation. India’s small towns can lead that change.”
Ramesh believes India has a strong advantage. “Countries like the Philippines may compete, but India’s scale and head start give us a five to seven-year lead. We must use it wisely.”
Challenges on the digital frontier
Technology advisor KS Viswanathan, formerly with India’s National Association of Software and Service Companies, believes rural India’s rise in AI work is just beginning. “Silicon Valley designs the AI engines, but India’s cloud farming industry keeps them running,” he says.
He thinks rural India could soon become the world’s largest AI operations hub. “If growth continues, small-town India will do for AI what it did for IT twenty years ago.”
Still, the path has obstacles. “Internet reliability and secure data centres in smaller towns are not always at metro levels,” Viswanathan says. “That raises concerns about data protection.”
And global clients can be hesitant. “Perception is often the bigger problem. Some clients still believe rural towns can’t meet strict security standards. Trust must be earned through performance,” he explains.
The people behind the algorithms
At NextWealth, Dhanalakshmi Vijay fine-tunes AI systems every day. When an algorithm confuses a blue denim jacket with a navy shirt, she steps in to fix it. “Each correction improves the system,” she says. “It’s like giving the AI new experience—it learns from every mistake.”
Her work affects millions of people. “Our team trains the AI that makes online shopping smarter and faster,” she says proudly. “We help machines understand human behaviour more clearly.”
The future grows beyond the cities
Across India’s countryside, a quiet revolution is underway. From Virudhunagar to dozens of small towns, young professionals and first-generation graduates are shaping the world’s digital future.
Their work proves that innovation doesn’t belong only to skyscrapers and city skylines. It thrives in the classrooms, co-working spaces, and homes of rural India—where tradition and technology now grow side by side.
