Fresh graduates entering India's IT sector will need AI skills from day one, as companies cut back on training and hire fewer people in measured numbers. According to NDTV Profit, Neeti Sharma, chief executive of TeamLease Digital, stated that "Every entrant into the labour workforce, into the IT sector, has to become an AI-first person." She warned that without these skills, roles will be few and far between. The headcount in the IT sector grew by roughly 2-4% year-on-year in the first half of this year, with about 20-25% of that requirement being for freshers with AI skills.
The training that freshers receive is being compressed significantly. As reported by NDTV Profit, "Now, those six months are going down to maybe about three to four weeks." This leaves less time for companies to teach basics, with more burden falling on candidates to arrive with relevant skills. IT companies are hiring freshers for AI, machine learning, data and security roles, but they are putting them through training before deployment. They are also bringing in lateral hires who combine AI talent with domain knowledge and customer-facing skills.
The quantum of hiring is much lower than it was three or four years ago, with IT sector headcount expected to rise by only about 8-10% over the next two to three years. According to Sharma, companies are asking for 1,500 to 2,000 people with specific skills, not 5,000 to 10,000. Lateral hiring is also growing, but only in single digits. The workforce mix at IT firms will change over the next few years, as conventional tech skills sit alongside AI-build skills.
Employers want people who are agile, quick to learn and able to upskill, so that they can be moved across newer projects. As reported by NDTV Profit, companies are also stretching bench timelines after shrinking to two or three weeks, with the period returning to about 45 days and could reach 60 days. This would leave skilled staff ready for deployment as demand arrives. Investment in people continues, hiring continues, albeit in lower numbers, according to Sharma.
