India's IT firms face a new dilemma: How to train tomorrow's engineers in the age of AI
India’s IT firms are rethinking how to train new engineers as AI reshapes entry-level roles, balancing foundational skills, productivity tools and a fast-changing tech landscape.
(Updated: 27 Oct 2026 09:38AM)
India’s biggest IT firms are hiring far fewer fresh graduates, as AI changes the skills employers seek. Industry experts tell CNA this could create a shortage of experienced workers in the future unless companies and universities do more to develop young talent.
NEW DELHI: Arpita Dayama, 22, a final-year engineering student, is preparing for campus recruitment knowing that strong grades from a premier institute like the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay may no longer be enough to stand out.
Dayama- who hopes to work in product management or analytics- says she is now expected to demonstrate practical skills, from data science projects to work involving agentic artificial intelligence.
“You have to show what you have actually worked on, explain it in simple terms and still be able to go into the technical details when they(recruiters) ask questions,”she said.
AI is reshaping how young engineers enter India’s technology industry, one of the country’s biggest private-sector job creators, which employs an estimated 5.95 million people in 2026, experts told CNA.
“The old model(at Indian IT companies) was to hire graduates in bulk and develop them over time,”said Mansee Singhal, country leader at Marsh Workforce & Rewards, which advises Indian and multinational companies on hiring and talent management.
Increasingly,she said,employers want fresh graduates to“arrive with greater technical depth and a better understanding of real business problems from the outset”.
For instance, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), one of India's biggest IT firms, hired more than 110,000 engineering graduates four years ago, according to its annual report.
But hiring has since fallen sharply.TCS’s intake in financial year 2026 was less than half its level four years ago, while Infosys recruited about 80 per cent fewer fresh graduates in financial year 2025 than three years earlier, according to company reports.
Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in New Delhi on Oct 13, Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani said AI was increasingly taking over coding tasks traditionally handled by junior engineers.
He said “new skills” would be needed around client needs, business transformation and managing the technology.
Workforce advisers told CNA that companies are adapting by offering in-house training and working more closely with universities.
Academics said universities must also prepare students earlier by developing problem-solving, decision-making and broader technical skills that were traditionally learnt on the job.
RAISING THE BAR
Source: CNA https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/india-it-ai-reshapes-entry-level-jobs-6485426
