India adds 2.6 AI jobs for every role lost, but a widening skills gap threatens freshers: Report

Nomura economists Sonal Varma and Si Ying Toh analyzed 69 employment-related cases across Asia between 2022 and August 2026. Their findings place India as the single largest contributor to both AI-driven hiring and job displacements in the region.

The economists describe India as “ground zero” for understanding AI’s impact on employment.

That status stems from India’s vast workforce and its heavy reliance on technology services and business-process outsourcing (BPO). For decades, India’s global competitive edge rested on its massive pool of educated workers managing software testing, data processing, and customer support. Today, AI is rewriting that economic model.

Nomura’s findings reveal that automated chatbots are replacing customer support teams, while IT services firms are simultaneously recruiting engineering graduates specifically to meet growing AI demands.

However, the report highlights a critical disconnect: a displaced customer-support representative cannot seamlessly step into an AI engineering role. The new positions demand specialised degrees, advanced technical skill sets, and years of experience.

This shift threatens to disrupt the traditional entry-level ladder for Indian graduates, where basic roles historically served as training grounds to learn company operations before moving up into higher-paying positions.

As automated tools take over routine tasks, businesses are shifting away from mass hiring and POST-onboarding training, prioritising candidates who already possess specialised AI expertise. Nomura warns this is creating a two-tier labor market — one where demand skyrockets for experienced professionals while shrinking for entry-level workers.

The trend reflects a broader regional dynamic across Asia, where Nomura tracked 1,30,758 AI-related hires compared with 60,654 job losses. Over 90% of those hires occurred in the technology sector, while financial services absorbed roughly 60% of the cuts, with countries like India, China, and the Philippines seeing the highest exposure due to their large BPO hubs.

While Nomura notes its data represents reported corporate cases rather than an exhaustive census of the entire labor market, the underlying trajectory is clear. For India, AI is not simply erasing jobs — it is altering the skills required to stay employed at a speed that risks leaving entry-level workers behind.