New Delhi– Microsoft will partner with India’s Ministry of Labour and Employment to introduce AI-powered chatbots on key government employment platforms and bring more than 15,000 employers and partners from its global network onto the National Career Service platform, officials announced Wednesday.
The collaboration is intended to strengthen employment linkages, expand AI-led skilling initiatives and prepare India’s workforce for global opportunities. According to the ministry, the partnership will broaden formal job access, support high-growth sectors and help develop a skilled workforce capable of meeting both domestic and international demand.
The e-Shram portal, launched in August 2021 after millions of informal workers lost employment during the Covid lockdowns, is built on Microsoft Azure. The system can process up to 172,000 transactions per second and has handled as many as 8 million registrations in a single day, the company said.
With the addition of AI chatbots, both Microsoft and the government expect workers to more easily access welfare programs, strengthen employability and connect with higher-quality job opportunities.
Under the memorandum of understanding, AI-driven skilling efforts will also expand through DigiSaksham, which aims to train millions of young people in areas such as AI, cloud computing, cybersecurity and productivity tools. Officials say the program will help build a workforce aligned with global standards and emerging industry needs.
Union Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya welcomed the partnership, saying it reflects a shared commitment to leverage India’s demographic strengths and develop a digitally skilled and future-ready labor force. He added that Microsoft’s involvement will accelerate job access, deepen skilling and enhance India’s leadership in global labor mobility.
“India has achieved a historic milestone in social protection, with coverage rising from 19 per cent in 2015 to an impressive 64.3 per cent in 2025, benefiting over 94 crore citizens. By embedding AI into platforms like e-Shram and the National Career Service, we are fortifying social security and moving closer to our goal of social protection to 100 crore citizens by March 2026,” Dr Mandaviya said.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella praised India’s rapid expansion of social protection coverage, noting that the country now covers 64.3 percent of its population, benefiting 940 million people. He credited the e-Shram initiative for bringing millions of unorganized workers into the social safety net and improving India’s ability to design worker-focused policies using real-time data. (Source: IANS)
