India’s technology hiring market in 2025 settled into a phase of disciplined recalibration. After the post-pandemic surge and the slowdown that followed, companies returned to hiring with clearer intent—but tighter filters. Enterprises prioritised AI-led delivery, automation and specialised digital capabilities, pushing hiring towards fewer but more complex roles. As GCCs expanded their mandate and IT services firms tightened cost discipline, the hiring market shifted decisively toward skills depth, productivity and faster time-to-impact.
Data from staffing firm Quess Corp shows IT hiring touching about 1.8 million roles during the year, up 16% from 2024 and nearly a third higher than 2022 levels. While demand concentrated around AI, cloud, cybersecurity and data roles, overall headcount growth remained constrained.
AI rewrites the hiring playbook
Artificial intelligence was the defining force in 2025’s hiring narrative. Demand surged for AI engineers, GenAI specialists, machine learning architects and AI product leaders as enterprises raced to embed intelligence across operations. The shortage of experienced talent pushed salaries sharply higher, particularly for candidates with real-world deployment experience rather than theoretical exposure.
As per various industry reports, cloud and DevOps roles remained resilient, driven by ongoing infrastructure modernisation and cloud-native adoption. Cloud architects, site reliability engineers and platform specialists stayed in demand, with pay varying widely by hyperscaler expertise and scale of projects handled. Cybersecurity hiring also accelerated amid rising cyber risks and tighter compliance norms, boosting prospects for security analysts, ethical hackers and cyber risk professionals.
Data and analytics roles continued to expand across sectors, cementing their position as core business functions rather than support roles. Importantly, this skills shift also fuelled leadership hiring, especially at GCCs, where companies sought senior executives to lead AI, digital engineering and global operations from India.
Source – https://www.techcircle.in/2025/12/26/coforge-to-buy-us-based-ai-native-firm-encora-for-2-35b