86 percent of employers see rising AI adoption in recruitment, says Deloitte report

Mumbai: Artificial intelligence is increasingly reshaping recruitment, with 86 per cent of employers adopting it in the hiring process amid a growing focus on skills, a report said on Thursday.

India's campus hiring landscape is becoming more strategic and skills-focused, as 86 per cent of organisations said that AI or Agentic AI is transforming their recruitment processes, according to Deloitte India's Campus Workforce Trends 2026.

Deloitte India's Campus Workforce Trends 2026 report is based on insights from 257 organisations and 505 campuses across sectors. The report finds that employers are increasing campus hiring budgets, embedding AI deeper into recruitment and strengthening internship-to-hire programmes as they compete for talent with essential digital and analytical skills.


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Recruitment budgets have increased by 19 per cent as organisations step up investments in early-career talent and build future-ready talent pipelines.

This shift reflects a broader move from a traditional campus hiring model to more structured and skills-focused targeted shortlisting and assessments, said the report.

Organisations are investing earlier in the talent lifecycle, with 80 per cent now maintaining dedicated campus hiring teams.

Internships are also increasingly emerging as a key indicator of long-term career success, with pre-placement offer (PPO) conversion rates improving across degree programmes.

Meanwhile, the growing influence of AI is redefining what it means to be campus-ready, fuelling demand for emerging skills and reshaping job roles and requirements.

The emphasis on better role fit and capability alignment is also translating into stronger retention outcomes, with infant attrition among hires from leading institutes declining from 11 per cent to 15 per cent over the past year.

"The campus market is becoming more selective and more differentiated. Critical roles in AI, data, digital risk and technology are attracting premiums in the range of 20-25 per cent. While compensation has risen moderately (between 2-6 per cent across degrees) with substantial difference basis institute-tier," said Dr Neelesh Gupta, Partner, Deloitte India.

At the same time, he said, gender diversity is now an explicit campus-hiring goal, with women representing 50 per cent of the FY26 target mix.