Specialised AI roles rise as routine technology work faces automation

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Suchat longthara

India’s technology job market is experiencing a sharp shift as AI moves from experimentation to wider enterprise use. According to CIEL HR’s analysis of technology workforce demand, the demand for Agentic AI Engineers grew by 260 per cent in 2026 compared with 2025, representing the highest growth among the emerging roles tracked.GenAI Solutions Architects and AI Product Owners recorded 120 per cent growth each, while LLM Engineers and MLOps Engineers saw demand rise by 86.5 per cent and 82.2 per cent, respectively.While routine, rules-based activities are increasingly becoming candidates for automation, demand is rising for specialised talent that can build, deploy, manage and govern AI systems.“AI is changing the value attached to different technology skills. We are seeing routine activities become increasingly automated, while demand is growing for people who can build, integrate and govern AI in real business environments. The opportunity for organisations is to view this as a workforce transition, identifying where technology can take on repetitive work while building the skills needed for the next phase of growth,” said Aditya Narayan Mishra, MD & CEO, CIEL HR.The changing demand for technology is also prompting organisations to strengthen their internal talent pipelines. Generative AI Engineering, AI/ML, Cloud Engineering, Cloud Transformation, Cybersecurity, Data Engineering and Automation are emerging as key capability areas where organisations are looking to build talent.Market-level skill gaps across AI, cloud and cybersecurity range from 38–61%, increasing the need for organisations to develop talent alongside external hiring.IT services organisations are responding through AI-focused training programmes, role-based reskilling, cloud academies, hyperscaler certification pathways, enterprise AI programmes and structured early-career talent programmes. These programmes increasingly bring in existing delivery, infrastructure, support and engineering talent to build capabilities aligned with changing business demand.Published on September 9, 2026