Artificial intelligence (AI) roles are seeing strong and steady traction, especially among experienced professionals in higher salary brackets. “We see a significant demand for AI jobs. It’s up in the 40% kind of a range, and it has sustained in that range for a long, long period,” said Pawan Goyal, Executive Director and Chief Business Officer of Naukri.com.
This demand is translating into a preference for experienced professionals earning upwards of ₹20 lakh annually, he said.
Interestingly, much of this hiring is emerging from tier-two and tier-three cities, hinting at the industry’s search for cost-effective yet capable talent pools.
Despite concerns around automation and AI disrupting jobs, the data so far doesn’t suggest any broad impact. “It continues to remain a question on everybody’s mind… but while it may happen in future, it is yet to materialise in our numbers,” he said.
The Information Technology Enabled Services (ITeS) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sectors grew by 9% during the quarter, with June alone seeing an unusual spike of 19%.
Overall hiring activity gained momentum in June, with the Naukri JobSpeak Index recording an 11% increase. This follows a 9% rise in May, while April remained largely flat. IT hiring also saw a turnaround after several months of subdued activity.
Hiring in the advertising, PR, and events sector rose by 22% during the same period, while the media and entertainment industry saw a 16% increase in recruitment in June.
Goyal observed that IT hiring showed some improvement in June with a 5% rise, following a relatively flat trend in April and a decline in May. While this indicates a slight turnaround, the overall growth for the quarter remains flat when averaged out.
Within the broader IT sector, he pointed out that hiring trends vary across sub-segments. IT services continue to see negative growth, though exact figures weren’t specified. In contrast, software and technology companies are showing more positive hiring momentum.
Another trend emerging in the IT sector is stronger demand in tier-two and tier-three cities, possibly indicating better talent availability at more competitive price points.
Abhishek Kumar, IT Services Research Analyst at JM Financial Institutional Securities, observed that hiring among large-cap IT firms remains muted due to multiple factors beyond just automation. Demand continues to be sluggish, and companies are focusing on improving operational efficiency by strengthening their employee pyramid structure.
Most IT firms are operating at high utilisation levels and are not looking to expand capacity. Instead, they are largely addressing attrition by hiring freshers, rather than adding headcount for growth. With limited visibility on demand recovery, net hiring is expected to stay subdued, with any recruitment primarily focused on niche skill sets or maintaining workforce balance.