Mumbai, Feb 3 (PTI) As hiring gets more challenging in India, recruiters are increasingly turning to Artificial Intelligence (AI), with 71 per cent saying it helps match roles with the right skills or ‘hidden talent’, a report said on Tuesday.
Amid these pressures, recruiters are seeing AI as part of the solution, as 71 per cent in India say AI has helped them uncover candidates with skills they would have previously missed, while 80 per cent report it makes gaining insight into a candidate’s skills easier, according to a report by LinkedIn.
The report has revealed that more than three-quarters (76 per cent) believe AI is already speeding up hiring.
The LinkedIn report is based on a survey conducted by Censuswide in November 2025 among 19,113 consumer respondents between November 13 and November 28, 2025, and among 6,554 global HR professionals between November 10 and November 27, 2025.
Further, the report found that India’s hiring market is moving fast, but finding the right talent is getting harder with 74 per cent of recruiters struggling to find qualified candidates, even as hiring activity runs 40 per cent above pre-pandemic levels.
This is because recruiters are facing a volume-quality mismatch and among recruiters who say hiring has become more difficult, over half point to a surge in AI-generated applications (53 per cent), while many cite continued shortages in in-demand skills (47 per cent).
Nearly half also say distinguishing genuine applications from low-quality or misleading ones is adding friction to the process (48 per cent).
Looking ahead, AI adoption while recruiting is only set to rise as around 8 in 10 Indian employers said they plan to expand their use of AI to support hiring goals, evaluate applicants, and source top talent.
A majority also plan to increase AI use for pre-screening interviews in 2026, believing it will lead to more valuable recruiter-candidate conversations (83 per cent), faster hiring experience (83 per cent), and better candidate insights (82 per cent).
“We’re seeing a structural shift in hiring from pedigree and past titles to demonstrated skills and capability. This shift is hard to execute at scale without AI. Used responsibly, AI helps recruiters detect the right skills earlier, reduce screening friction and create a more consistent and fair evaluation process,” LinkedIn Talent Solutions APAC VP Ruchee Anand added. PTI SM MR
