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.
"Every entrant into the labour workforce, into the IT sector, has to become an AI-first person," Neeti Sharma, chief executive of TeamLease Digital, told NDTV Profit.
Otherwise, she warned, the roles will be few and far between.
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According to Sharma, headcount in the IT sector grew by roughly 2-4% at most year-on-year in the first half of this year.
About 20-25% of that requirement was for freshers with AI skills, she said, a sign of how much entry-level hiring now depends on them.
IT companies are hiring freshers for AI, machine learning, data and security roles, Sharma said, 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 workforce mix at IT firms will change over the next few years, she said, as conventional tech skills sit alongside AI-build skills.
The training that freshers receive is being compressed. Traditionally, IT companies put new hires through boot camps of two to three months, and sometimes six months, before placing them on projects. "Now, those six months are going down to maybe about three to four weeks," Sharma said.
In practice, that leaves less time for companies to teach the basics, and more of the burden falls on candidates to arrive with relevant skills.
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Employers also want people who are agile, quick to learn and able to upskill, so that they can be moved across newer projects, she said.
The pressure on entry-level candidates comes against a backdrop of slower hiring. Sharma said the quantum of hiring is much lower than it was three or four years ago, and she expects IT sector headcount to rise by only about 8-10% over the next two to three years, even as revenue grows faster.
Companies are asking for 1,500 to 2,000 people with specific skills, not 5,000 to 10,000, she said. Lateral hiring is also growing, but only in single digits.
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Even so, Sharma said investment in people continues. "Investments continue, hiring continues," she said, "albeit in lower numbers."
Companies are also stretching bench timelines. After shrinking to two or three weeks, the period is returning to about 45 days and could reach 60, she said, which would leave skilled staff ready for deployment as demand arrives.
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