India IT: AI Hiring Up 16% YoY as Overall Recruitment Falls 3%

AI-related hiring in India's IT industry rose 16% year-on-year in June 2026, even as overall recruitment across the sector fell 3%, widening the gap between the two. The trend, based on the monthly "JobSpeak" report from job portal Naukri.com, was reported by Reuters and others on July 3. The report, which aggregates job listings from more than 150,000 companies, shows demand for specialized roles such as machine learning engineers, data scientists and generative AI positions rising faster than the broader decline in hiring.