Nearly 80% India's Chief Tech Officials say AI creating new roles not existing few years ago: Report

Around 79 per cent of Indian Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) say Artificial Intelligence is creating new roles that did not exist a few years ago, according to new research from LinkedIn.

The report highlighted that 84 per cent of tech leaders say their role is being actively redefined in real time as the pace of technology adoption accelerates. Furthermore, 92 per cent of executives state that continuous skill-building is essential to keep pace with these changes.

This evolution shifts their focus heavily toward future readiness, with 93 per cent of leaders indicating that their responsibilities now centre on helping organizations adapt to future ways of working.


Malai Lakshmanan, Head of India Engineering at LinkedIn, said, "With over 9 in 10 Indian CTOs acknowledging that their role has shifted toward helping organisations adapt to the future of work, technology leadership today extends far beyond managing systems and infrastructure."

"As AI adoption moves from experimentation to scale, success depends as much on people as it does on technology," Lakshmanan said. "Employees need the skills and confidence to make AI part of how they work every day, which is why closer collaboration between CTOs and talent leaders has become essential."

To manage this transition, 51 per cent of leaders view a stronger partnership between tech and human resource departments as the most critical factor in building an effective workforce. Currently, 89 per cent of respondents report working closely with their human resource counterparts. This collaboration aims at driving innovation, which 91 per cent of executives identify as the primary outcome of their technology investments.

However, rapid deployment brings strategic difficulties. Nearly 79 per cent of tech leaders state their role is changing faster than their company can make decisions. Meanwhile, 56 per cent identify balancing long-term technological transformation with short-term performance demands as a primary leadership challenge.

Additionally, 81 per cent of executives report facing pressure to move faster on implementation than they can effectively measure its impact. This rapid expansion is reflected in broader talent trends, with roles like Prompt Engineer and AI Engineer emerging as the fastest-growing positions in the country.

Amid these shifting responsibilities, maintaining employee trust has emerged as the most common challenge introduced to executive decision-making.

Lakshmanan noted, "The organisations that create the most value from AI will be those that invest as heavily in workforce readiness and continuous learning as they do in technology."