Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption is prompting firms to slow hiring mainly at the entry level while keeping mid- and senior-level staffing relatively stable, as per a firm-level study by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), supported by OpenAI. The study is based on responses from about 650 IT firms across 10 cities and is among the more comprehensive assessments of GenAI adoption in India’s IT sector.
What exactly is changing in hiring?
The report observes that overall hiring has moderated for many companies, but this does not automatically mean employment is shrinking; rather, the pace of hiring has slowed, as per the study.
On role levels, entry-level jobs appear to be most impacted, with 55% of firms reporting a drop in entry-level employment, whereas 35% reported a surge. Middle-level positions look stronger, with 42% of firms reporting increased employment, whereas senior-level employment remained broadly stable, with 82% reporting no change.
Does AI mean fewer tech jobs overall?
Not necessarily; the report identifies that some moderation in hiring aligns with broader post-pandemic trends in the IT industry and should not be pinned on AI alone.
In fact, the ICRIER study highlights that AI is usually acting as a productivity tool rather than a direct replacement. It is allowing teams to produce more output with the same or fewer people. Across the affected business division, productivity gains outnumbered declines by 3:5:1 ratio, and about 31% of the division reported higher output with lower costs.
What skills are firms paying a premium for?
The study points to a clear shift toward hybrid profiles, people who combine domain understanding with AI/data skills. About 63% of firms stated that they now prefer candidates with both domain expertise and AI/data skills.
On specific capabilities, demand is strongest for prompt engineering and generative AI skills (68%), followed by data analytics (36%) and data science/machine learning (35%).
What are firms doing about reskilling, and what is holding them back?
Most of the firms stated that they are supporting AI adoption through awareness or training initiatives, but the depth remains limited. Only 4% reported training more than half their workforce in AI-related skills in the past year.
Key barriers include difficulty in finding qualified trainers and high costs with uncertain returns.