Artificial intelligence (AI) is generating more jobs than it is eliminating in India, but the benefits are not being evenly distributed. The biggest impact is being felt at the entry level, where companies are cutting back on fresher recruitment even as demand for experienced professionals continues to grow, according to a Nomura report.
India is emerging as one of the main centres of AI-driven changes in Asia’s labour market. Its large workforce and status as a global hub for IT services and back-office operations make it particularly exposed to the technology’s rapid adoption.
Nomura’s report, Beyond the Headlines: AI Has Added Jobs in Asia – So Far, examined 69 company announcements across Asia, mostly made between 2022 and August 2026.
The analysis found that companies had announced around 131,000 AI-related jobs, compared with about 61,000 job losses linked to AI.
India, China and the Philippines have so far recorded a net increase in AI-related employment.
However, the figures do not necessarily mean that the jobs being created are replacing the ones being lost. For younger workers, in particular, the changing nature of recruitment could create a bigger problem.
Nomura describes the emerging employment landscape as a K-shaped market, where opportunities are diverging between junior and experienced workers.
Companies are increasingly looking for senior employees who bring industry knowledge, management skills and the ability to work with people, while reducing their reliance on entry-level staff.
In India, a survey of 651 IT companies conducted by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations found that 55% had reduced entry-level hiring. By comparison, only 14% reported a decline in recruitment for senior positions.
A similar pattern has emerged in South Korea. Youth employment among people aged 15 to 29 dropped by 211,000, with almost the entire decline occurring in sectors heavily exposed to AI, according to Bank of Korea research.
Meanwhile, employment among people in their 50s increased by 209,000, with more than two-thirds of those additional jobs coming from industries with high AI exposure.
The shift towards AI is not always resulting in large-scale job cuts. Instead, many companies are reducing the number of new employees they hire.
Staffing firm Xpheno estimates that net IT-sector hiring in India fell from around 600,000 in FY22 to 140,000 in FY26. Much of the reduction has come from fewer campus placements and slower recruitment rather than widespread layoffs.
Nomura refers to this trend as “silent firing”. While it attracts less attention than mass redundancies, it could have a major effect on young people attempting to secure their first jobs.
Nomura found that financial services and technology accounted for the majority of documented AI-related layoffs.
