Virudhunagar in southeastern India is known for temples that date back thousands of years. But just beyond those ancient walls, people train artificial intelligence for the modern world.
The rise of AI annotation in small towns
Mohan Kumar spends his days teaching machines to think. “My role is in AI annotation. I collect data, label it, and train AI models so they can recognize and predict objects. Over time, these models become semi-supervised and make their own decisions,” he explains.
India has long led the world in outsourced IT support, with cities like Bangalore and Chennai dominating the sector. But companies are now shifting that work to smaller towns where rent and salaries cost less.
This trend, called cloud farming, has gained new strength through the rise of artificial intelligence. Many smaller towns, like Virudhunagar, now host companies focused on AI development.
Bringing global tech work home
Does Mr Kumar miss the buzz of a big city? He shakes his head. “Professionally, there’s no difference. Whether in a metro or a small town, we work with the same global clients from the US and Europe. The skills and training are the same,” he says.
Mohan Kumar works for Desicrew, a company founded in 2005 that helped pioneer cloud farming. “We realised we could bring jobs to where people already live instead of forcing migration to cities,” says chief executive Mannivannan J. K. “For too long, cities held all the opportunities while rural youth were left behind. We wanted to create world-class careers near home and prove that quality work can come from anywhere.”
Desicrew handles everything from software testing to data building for AI and content moderation. Currently, 30 to 40% of its projects involve AI, but “very soon, it will grow to 75 to 100%,” says Mannivannan.
Why transcription matters for AI growth
Much of Desicrew’s AI work involves transcription—turning audio into text. “Machines understand text far better,” Mannivannan explains. “For AI to behave naturally, machines must understand how people speak in different dialects and contexts. That’s why transcription forms the base of AI learning.”
Working from smaller towns is not a drawback, he adds. “People think rural means underdeveloped, but our centres mirror urban IT hubs in every way—secure data access, stable connectivity, and steady power. The only difference is geography.”
Around 70% of Desicrew’s employees are women. “For many, this is their first salaried job,” Mannivannan says. “It changes lives—families gain financial security, and children get better education.”
A new generation of AI workers
NextWealth, founded in 2008, also saw the potential in cloud farming. The company, headquartered in Bangalore, employs 5,000 people in 11 offices spread across smaller Indian towns.
“Sixty percent of India’s graduates come from small towns, yet most IT companies hire from big cities,” says co-founder and managing director Mythily Ramesh. “That leaves a huge pool of smart, first-generation graduates untapped. Their parents are farmers, weavers, tailors, and policemen who often take loans to fund education.”
NextWealth started with outsourced corporate tasks but pivoted to artificial intelligence five years ago. “The world’s most advanced algorithms are being trained and validated in India’s small towns,” Ramesh says.
How rural India powers global AI
About 70% of NextWealth’s clients come from the US. “Every AI model—from conversational systems to facial recognition—depends on massive volumes of human-labelled data,” Ramesh notes. “That’s the backbone of cloud farming jobs.”
She sees enormous potential ahead. “In the next three to five years, AI and generative AI will create nearly 100 million jobs in training, validation, and real-time processing. India’s small towns can form the backbone of that workforce.”
Ramesh believes India has an edge. “Countries like the Philippines may catch up, but India’s scale and early start give us a five to seven-year advantage. We must use it wisely before the gap closes.”
The challenge of infrastructure and trust
Technology advisor KS Viswanathan, formerly with India’s National Association of Software and Service Companies, shares both optimism and caution. “Silicon Valley may build the AI engines, but the daily work that keeps them reliable now comes from India’s cloud farming industry,” he says.
He believes small-town India stands at a turning point. “If cloud farming continues to grow, these towns could become the world’s biggest AI hub, just as they once led in IT services.”
However, not every region has equal infrastructure. “Reliable high-speed internet and secure data centres are still uneven outside the metros,” Viswanathan warns. “That makes data protection a constant concern.”
Even when the technology works, international clients remain wary. “The bigger challenge is perception. Many assume small towns can’t meet data security standards, even when they do. Trust must be earned through results.”
Fine-tuning the intelligence of machines
At NextWealth, Dhanalakshmi Vijay fine-tunes AI systems. When a model confuses a blue denim jacket with a navy shirt, she corrects it. “These corrections feed back into the system,” she explains. “Each update makes the model smarter and more reliable, like software patches improving performance.”
Her work has global impact. “It’s our team that helps AI systems understand what you want when you shop online,” she says proudly. “We make your digital experiences smoother, one correction at a time.”
The digital future grows in rural soil
From Virudhunagar to countless other small towns, India’s rural professionals are shaping the future of artificial intelligence. Their quiet work behind screens is redefining how the world’s most powerful technologies learn, think, and interact—with roots deeply planted in the countryside.
