For years, India’s working professionals followed a familiar formula: earn the right degree, gain experience, and growth would eventually follow. But for many across industries, reality turned out very differently. Capable professionals with strong qualifications found themselves underutilised, stagnant, and increasingly uncertain about their future - especially as artificial intelligence began reshaping the workplace.
This disconnect between potential and progress is something Deven U Pandey noticed long before AI became a mainstream conversation.
Seeing the gap before it became obvious
Deven’s early career as an interior designer gave him a front-row view of the problem. Over four years, he worked closely with engineers, architects, and technically skilled professionals—people with solid educational backgrounds but limited career momentum.
“The pattern was hard to ignore,” Deven recalls. “Talented people, solid degrees—but careers that didn’t reflect their real potential. And this wasn’t limited to one industry. It was everywhere.”
His exposure to this gap was shaped even earlier by his entrepreneurial journey. At just 18, Deven built and scaled his first startup—an interior design business that grew to ₹1.8 crore in revenue within three years. Running the venture sparked a deep interest in automation, systems, and scalable models, gradually shifting his focus from design to applied skill-building.
Turning AI into a career enabler
By the time artificial intelligence entered mainstream discourse, Deven had already identified what he believed was the real issue—not a lack of intelligence or ambition, but a lack of execution-focused skill application.
In 2020, he founded Ira Skills with a clear intent: to bridge the widening gap between education and employability by making AI a practical career enabler, rather than an elite or intimidating concept.
“Most professionals aren’t stuck because they lack intelligence or ambition,” Deven says.
“They’re stuck because they were never shown how to apply the right skills in the real world. When AI is combined with execution-focused learning, it stops being intimidating and starts becoming empowering.”
Making skilling accessible beyond metro cities
A key insight for Deven was recognising that language itself had become a barrier to learning. To address this, programmes were designed primarily in Hindi, enabling learners from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and non-IT backgrounds to understand and apply complex concepts such as Excel automation, data analysis, and AI-driven workflows without hesitation.
This Bharat-first approach helped professionals move faster from learning to implementation—often the missing link in traditional education.
Rebuilding careers, not collecting certificates
Earlier this year, Deven brought together his growing learner community at the ‘Rebuild Your Life – Ira Skills Convocation’, held at The Westin Mumbai Garden City. The full-day event brought together over 140 working professionals from across India, recognising not just course completion but tangible career progress.
Unlike conventional convocations, the focus was on real transformation—celebrating professionals who had transitioned roles, achieved salary growth, or built second-income streams alongside their primary jobs.
Ira Skills delivers its programmes primarily in Hindi, enabling professionals to understand and apply complex concepts such as Excel automation, data analysis and AI-driven workflows without language becoming a barrier. This Bharat-first approach has helped learners move faster from learning to implementation—often the missing link in traditional education.
Beyond jobs: building income resilience
Deven believes that modern careers can no longer depend on a single income stream. As job roles evolve and uncertainty becomes constant, professionals are increasingly exploring freelancing, consulting, and project-based work.
By combining skill mastery with portfolio development, personal branding, and client acquisition strategies, this approach focuses on optionality—giving professionals multiple pathways to earn, grow, and adapt.
Trust built through outcomes
Today, the platform Deven built has trained over five lakh paid learners and maintains a 4.8-star Google rating backed by more than 55,000 reviews. According to Deven, this trust has been built not through aggressive promotion, but through consistent learner outcomes and strong community accountability.
As India’s workforce adapts to an AI-driven future, Deven sees a fundamental shift underway. Careers are no longer linear, and growth is no longer guaranteed by tenure alone.
For professionals willing to embrace lifelong learning and execution-driven skilling, AI is emerging not as a threat—but as a powerful ally in rebuilding careers aligned with their true potential.
