A new Nomura analysis reveals that AI-related recruitment in India is outpacing job losses, signalling a significant shift in the country’s labour market as automation and AI tools reshape employment.
India is emerging as one of the clearest tests of how artificial intelligence is reshaping work, and a new Nomura analysis suggests the balance still favours hiring over redundancy. According to the Japanese financial group, AI-linked recruitment in India has outpaced job losses by a wide margin, even as automation begins to change the shape of the country’s labour market.
The report, cited by Bloomberg and released on Friday, said companies in India added 83,100 AI-related jobs between 2022 and August 2026, while 31,921 workers were laid off or left roles because of AI. Nomura economists Sonal Varma and C. Y. Toh said they reviewed 69 cases across Asia and argued that India’s large IT and back-office sector makes it a key place to watch as firms adopt chatbots, generative AI and other tools.
Most of the job losses were concentrated in support functions, where automated systems have replaced some tasks once handled by staff. At the same time, IT services firms have kept hiring graduates to meet demand for new AI work. Nomura said this is creating a two-tier labour market in India and South Korea, with weaker demand for entry-level workers but stronger demand for experienced professionals who combine technical skills with business judgement.
Across Asia, the picture is similar for now. Nomura said more than 130,000 AI-linked jobs were created during the study period, with over 90% in technology, compared with about 60,654 losses, nearly 60% of them in financial services. The bank cautioned that the headline numbers do not tell the full story: workers leaving support roles may not be able to move easily into AI engineering or other new positions, even if total hiring still exceeds layoffs. Nomura also stressed that its analysis is based on news reports and is meant to show broad trends rather than official employment data.
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