As artificial intelligence (AI) adoption picks up pace, India’s job market is clearly changing. Senior and highly skilled roles are seeing strong demand, but it’s a different story for entry-level hiring—especially in sectors like IT and business process outsourcing (BPO.
“AI is definitely impacting jobs, particularly in sectors like IT, BPO, education, media, and entertainment,” said Ramani Dathi, Chief Financial Officer at Teamlease Services. The pressure is most visible for those with zero to four years of experience, where companies are slowing hiring and salary growth is under pressure.
That said, the impact is not the same across the board. AI and machine learning roles are booming. “In Global Capability Centres (GCCs), AI-related job growth has been phenomenal—anywhere between 30% and 50%,” said Pavan Goyal, Chief Business Officer at Naukri.com. The GCC sector itself has grown 10% over the past year, driven by AI-focused roles.
Surprisingly, BPO—often seen as vulnerable to automation—has held up well. “BPO jobs in the sub-₹5 lakh bracket are still in high demand, outstripping supply,” said Goyal, challenging the idea that automation would immediately wipe out customer support roles.
The job market is splitting into two tracks. Senior professionals and those with niche skills like AI, machine learning (ML), cloud computing, and cybersecurity are commanding a premium, while routine roles and fresher hiring are under scrutiny. “If you have AI skills, the probability of getting a job is very high,” Goyal added, stating that the pay gap between AI engineers and regular software engineers is substantial.
Still, the big question remains: Is AI creating more jobs or cutting them? Goyal sums it up well: “Will companies do more with less or more with more?”
While some roles will shrink as productivity rises, new opportunities are also emerging.
Large IT firms haven’t yet announced any big campus hiring cuts or AI-related job losses. Most are investing on upskilling their workforce to be AI-ready.
But both experts warn that entry-level hiring could remain slow for now, even if AI ends up creating new roles over time.
TeamLease Services currently has a market capitalisation of around ₹3,345 crore. Its shares have shed nearly 33% over the past year. In contrast, Info Edge (India) — the parent company of Naukri.com — has a market cap of ₹97,003 crore, and its shares have gained about 12% in the same period.