Virudhunagar, a quiet town in southeastern India, is known for temples that have stood for centuries. Yet today, its residents are building the future, training artificial intelligence systems that influence the world.
From ancient streets to digital hubs
Mohan Kumar spends his days teaching machines to recognize and predict objects. “I work in AI annotation. I collect and label data to train models. Over time, they learn to make independent decisions,” he explains.
India has long been a leader in outsourced IT services, with cities like Bangalore and Chennai dominating. Recently, companies have moved work to smaller towns, where skilled labor is abundant and costs are lower.
This movement, called cloud farming, is turning towns like Virudhunagar into emerging AI centres.
Bringing jobs closer to home
Mohan Kumar says small-town life does not limit his career. “There’s no professional difference. We serve the same global clients and use the same tools and skills as city offices,” he says.
He works for Desicrew, founded in 2005, one of India’s early cloud farming pioneers. “We realised we could bring jobs to people instead of forcing migration,” says chief executive Mannivannan J. K. “Cities held most opportunities. We wanted to prove that world-class work can come from anywhere.”
Desicrew manages software testing, content moderation, and AI dataset creation. “Currently, 30 to 40% of our work involves AI,” Mannivannan says. “That will soon rise to 75 or even 100%.”
Teaching machines to understand people
A large part of Desicrew’s work involves transcription—turning audio into text. “Machines understand text far better,” Mannivannan explains. “For AI to 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. “People assume rural means outdated, but our centres have secure systems, reliable power, and fast internet. Geography is the only difference.”
About 70% of Desicrew’s workforce are women. “For many, this is their first salaried job,” Mannivannan adds. “It transforms families, providing financial security and better opportunities for children.”
Unlocking small-town talent
NextWealth, founded in 2008, follows a similar model. Based in Bangalore, it employs 5,000 people across 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. “That leaves a huge pool of first-generation graduates untapped. Their parents—farmers, tailors, or shopkeepers—make sacrifices to fund 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 validated in India’s smaller towns,” Ramesh says.
Local talent with global reach
Nearly 70% of NextWealth’s business comes from the US. “Every AI model—from chatbots to facial recognition—relies on vast amounts of human-labelled data,” Ramesh explains. “That data 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 wave.”
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 act now to maintain it.”
Challenges in rural AI
Technology advisor KS Viswanathan, formerly with India’s National Association of Software and Service Companies, calls cloud farming 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 may 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 protection is an ongoing challenge.”
Perception is another barrier. “Clients sometimes doubt small towns can meet global standards. Trust must be earned through consistent results,” he adds.
The people behind smarter machines
At NextWealth, Dhanalakshmi Vijay fine-tunes AI models daily. When a system mistakes a denim jacket for a navy shirt, she corrects it. “Each fix teaches the AI. It’s like giving it experience — it improves with every correction,” she says.
Her work impacts millions of users. “We train AI that makes online shopping faster and more accurate,” she says. “We help machines understand human behavior better.”
A digital revolution beyond the cities
Across India’s smaller towns, young professionals and first-generation graduates are quietly shaping global AI. From Virudhunagar to dozens of other towns, innovation thrives outside skyscrapers and city tech parks.
In the shadow of ancient temples, India’s countryside is quietly powering the future, where tradition and technology grow side by side.
