Virudhunagar, a small town in southeastern India, is famous for temples that have stood for centuries. But today, it hosts a new kind of innovation: training artificial intelligence systems that serve the world.
Tradition meets technology
Mohan Kumar spends his days teaching machines to understand and predict the world. “I work in AI annotation. I collect and label data to train models that recognize objects and make decisions independently over time,” he explains.
India has long been a hub for outsourced IT work, with cities like Bangalore and Chennai dominating. Recently, companies have shifted operations to smaller towns where talent is plentiful and costs are lower.
This movement, called cloud farming, has turned towns like Virudhunagar into emerging AI centres.
Jobs that stay local
Mohan Kumar says small-town life does not limit his career. “There’s no professional difference. We serve the same international clients and use the same tools and skills as city offices,” he says.
He works for Desicrew, a pioneer in cloud farming founded in 2005. “We realised we could bring jobs to people instead of forcing migration,” says chief executive Mannivannan J. K. “Cities had most opportunities. We wanted to prove high-quality work can come from anywhere.”
Desicrew manages software testing, content moderation, and AI dataset creation. “Right now, 30 to 40% of our work is AI-focused,” Mannivannan says. “That will soon rise to 75 or 100%.”
Teaching AI to understand humans
Much of Desicrew’s work involves transcription—turning audio into text. “Machines understand text better,” Mannivannan says. “To make AI sound natural, it must learn how people speak across dialects and accents. Transcription provides that foundation.”
He insists rural offices can match urban tech hubs. “Our centres have secure systems, reliable power, and fast internet. The only difference is geography.”
About 70% of Desicrew’s workforce are women. “For many, this is their first salaried job,” Mannivannan says. “It transforms families by providing financial stability and better opportunities for children.”
Unlocking small-town potential
NextWealth, founded in 2008, follows the same model. Based in Bangalore, it employs 5,000 people in 11 smaller towns.
“Sixty percent of India’s graduates come from small towns, but most IT jobs are in cities,” says co-founder Mythily Ramesh. “This leaves a huge pool of first-generation graduates untapped. Their parents—farmers, tailors, and small business owners—make great sacrifices to fund their education.”
NextWealth began with back-office work but shifted to AI five years ago. “Some of the world’s most advanced algorithms are trained and tested in India’s smaller towns,” Ramesh says.
Local expertise, global clients
Seventy percent of NextWealth’s business comes from the US. “Every AI model—from chat systems to facial recognition—relies on vast amounts of human-labelled data,” Ramesh explains. “That is the backbone of cloud farming jobs.”
She expects rapid growth. “In three to five years, AI and generative AI could create nearly 100 million jobs. India’s small towns can lead that growth.”
Ramesh believes India has a head start. “Countries like the Philippines may compete, but India’s scale and early adoption give a five to seven-year advantage. We must capitalize on it.”
Challenges in the countryside
Technology advisor KS Viswanathan, formerly with India’s National Association of Software and Service Companies, sees cloud farming as transformative. “Silicon Valley builds AI engines, but India’s small towns keep them running,” he says.
He believes rural India could become the world’s largest AI operations hub. “If growth continues, small-town India could replicate its IT success from two decades ago.”
Yet obstacles remain. “Internet speed and secure data centres are not always at metro standards,” Viswanathan warns. “Data security is a constant concern.”
Perception is another barrier. “Clients sometimes doubt small towns can meet global standards. Trust must be earned through consistent delivery,” he adds.
The people behind smarter machines
At NextWealth, Dhanalakshmi Vijay fine-tunes AI daily. When a model confuses a denim jacket with a navy shirt, she corrects it. “Each correction helps the system learn. It’s like giving the AI experience — it improves with every fix,” she says.
Her work impacts millions of users. “We train AI that makes online shopping faster and more accurate,” she says proudly. “We help machines understand human behavior better.”
A digital future rooted in rural India
Across India’s smaller towns, young professionals and first-generation graduates are quietly powering the global AI industry. From Virudhunagar to countless other towns, innovation thrives outside skyscrapers and city tech parks.
In the shadow of ancient temples, India’s countryside is quietly shaping the future—where tradition and technology grow side by side.
