AI hiring outpaces overall IT recruitment in India: report

Hiring for AI roles within India's IT sector outpaced overall recruitment within the industry last month, a survey showed on Friday, indicating a push from companies to reorient themselves in the face of evolving technology.

The sector's AI hiring rose 16% year-on-year ‌in June, ⁠while overall ⁠IT jobs declined 3%, according to job portal Naukri's monthly JobSpeak report that collated job listings from more than 150,000 firms on its website.

India's $315 billion IT industry has been under pressure with clients holding back on spending on technology due to a weak macroeconomic environment and the ⁠advent of ‌AI that threatens their traditional business model.


"The divergence (between AI and overall IT hiring) is important because it ⁠shows where tech companies are still investing. AI is increasingly becoming a core capability area, especially as demand shifts towards more senior and specialised talent," said Hitesh Oberoi, CEO at Info Edge, which owns Naukri.

The country's top software exporter, Tata Consultancy Services , last month said it expects IT companies to slow ‌down hiring, with the Tata Group firm moving towards having an equal number of employees and AI agents in its workforce.

Last ⁠July, the firm cut more than 12,000 jobs, while headcount fell by more than 23,000 on a net basis in the fiscal year ended March 2026. Across 14 sectors, AI and machine learning jobs increased 25%, the report added. The insurance and consumer goods sector showed the most increase in job hiring during the period, it said.