Virudhunagar, a quiet town in southeastern India, is best known for its ancient temples. But not far from those stone shrines, a new kind of devotion is unfolding — one to technology. Locals here train artificial intelligence systems that shape the modern digital world.
A new kind of work in old surroundings
Mohan Kumar spends his days teaching machines to understand the world. “I work in AI annotation. I collect data, label it, and train models so they can identify and predict objects. With time, they learn to make decisions on their own,” he explains.
India has long been famous for outsourcing IT work, with cities like Bangalore and Chennai leading the way. But companies now look beyond the cities to smaller towns, where costs are lower and talent is plentiful.
This movement, known as cloud farming, has given rise to new AI centres in towns like Virudhunagar.
Bringing jobs home instead of leaving for cities
Mohan Kumar doesn’t feel disadvantaged by working outside a big city. “There’s no real difference,” he says. “We use the same tools and work for global clients from the US and Europe.”
He works for Desicrew, a company founded in 2005 that pioneered the cloud farming model. “We realised people shouldn’t need to leave their homes to find good jobs,” says chief executive Mannivannan J. K. “Cities had all the opportunities. We wanted to change that and prove quality work can come from anywhere.”
Desicrew handles tasks such as software testing, content moderation, and AI dataset creation. “At present, 30 to 40% of our work involves AI,” says Mannivannan. “That will soon reach 75 to 100%.”
Training machines to understand how people speak
A major part of Desicrew’s AI work is transcription — converting audio into text. “Machines read better than they listen,” Mannivannan says. “To make AI sound natural, it must understand how people speak across accents and dialects. Transcription builds that foundation.”
He rejects the idea that rural means outdated. “Our centres are as advanced as those in cities. We have secure systems, strong internet, and steady electricity. The only difference is our location.”
Around 70% of Desicrew’s employees are women. “For many, this is their first salaried job,” Mannivannan adds. “It transforms their families — bringing stability and new educational chances for their children.”
Small towns, big ambitions
NextWealth, founded in 2008, shares this vision. Headquartered in Bangalore, it employs 5,000 people across 11 smaller towns.
“Sixty percent of India’s graduates come from small towns, yet most IT jobs are in metros,” says co-founder and managing director Mythily Ramesh. “That leaves a huge pool of smart, first-generation graduates behind. Their parents — farmers, tailors, and weavers — make big sacrifices to fund their education.”
NextWealth began with back-office work but shifted to AI about five years ago. “Some of the world’s most advanced algorithms are being trained and tested in India’s smaller towns,” Ramesh says.
Global work from local roots
About 70% of NextWealth’s business comes from the US. “Every AI model — from chat systems to facial recognition — depends on human-labelled data,” Ramesh explains. “That’s the backbone of what we do.”
She expects explosive growth. “In the next three to five years, AI and generative AI will create nearly 100 million jobs. India’s small towns can drive that wave.”
Ramesh believes India still holds an edge. “Countries like the Philippines are catching up, but India’s early start gives it a five to seven-year advantage. We must act now to keep it.”
Strengths and struggles of cloud farming
Technology advisor KS Viswanathan, formerly of India’s National Association of Software and Service Companies, says the shift is changing global tech work. “Silicon Valley builds the AI engines, but India’s cloud farming industry keeps them running,” he says.
He sees a new milestone ahead. “If cloud farming continues to expand, small-town India could become the global hub for AI operations — just like it did for IT two decades ago.”
But he warns that challenges remain. “Internet speed and data centre security still lag behind in smaller towns,” Viswanathan says. “Data protection is an ongoing concern.”
Another hurdle is perception. “Clients abroad often assume small towns lack high standards. Even when systems are secure, trust must be earned through performance.”
The people who make AI smarter
At NextWealth, Dhanalakshmi Vijay fine-tunes AI every day. When a model confuses a denim jacket with a navy shirt, she corrects it. “Each correction helps the AI learn,” she says. “It’s like teaching a child — the more it practices, the better it gets.”
Her work touches millions of users. “We train AI that improves online shopping. We make it faster and easier,” she says with pride.
The future grows beyond city limits
Across India’s smaller towns, a quiet revolution is reshaping the workforce. From Virudhunagar to dozens of others, young professionals are proving that world-class tech can thrive far from skyscrapers and tech parks.
In the space between ancient temples and modern fibre cables, a new India is emerging — one where innovation grows from the ground up.
