New Delhi: Hiring pressure in India is growing rapidly, and recruiters are turning to AI to keep pace. According to newer statistics released by LinkedIn, three in every four recruiters are currently finding it difficult to identify qualified employees, despite the fact that overall recruiting activity is much greater than before the pandemic.
The issue does not lie in the inability to use apps. It is a discrepancy between quantity and quality. Recruiters complain of receiving AI-generated resumes and a shortage of critical skills. Applications per job have increased over twofold, and even though most professionals claim to be seeking employment in 2026, many of them note that they are not ready to face the current competitive hiring environment.
Recruiters turn to AI to find ‘Hidden Talent’
Recruiters are resorting to AI as a viable option to enable them to filter through the noise. In India, most of the recruiters who have adopted AI acknowledge that it has assisted them in identifying candidates that they would not have identified otherwise. Others also claim that the process will be faster in shortlisting and better understanding of the skills possessed by the applicants and help the teams go beyond the CV scanning process to skill-based evaluation.
This, according to Ruchee Anand, is part of a wider change, but not on pedigree and job titles, but on demonstrated ability. According to her, AI is emerging as a decision-support layer that allows recruiters to identify the most appropriate skills at earlier stages, minimise the screening friction, and create a more just and uniform process of hiring without compromising the experience of the candidate.
Faster hiring, better conversations
The usage of AI is bound to increase. Approximately eight out of ten Indian recruiters intend to increase their adoption of AI in 2026 to assess applicants and pre-screen the interview. They think this will result in faster hirings, better recruiter/candidate interactions and better understanding of talent.
Those who have used the AI tools offered by LinkedIn already have seen results. AMD, Aurecon, Chewy, Expedia Group, Fabletics, Jacobs, Siemens, and Wipro companies note that they reviewed fewer profiles, saved hours per position, and received more applications.
LinkedIn claims that Hiring Assistant and Hiring Pro products make it possible to shortlist more, conduct initial screenings that are AI-assisted, and make personalised outreach at scale in order to allow both small businesses and big organisations to find interview-ready people in days rather than weeks.
With the integration of AI in the hiring process, job seekers are posing harder questions. Fifty percent of Indian recruiters are now under pressure to articulate the use of AI in the screening and shortlisting. The need to be transparent is transforming recruiter-job seeker relationships, compelling companies to be more transparent regarding automated decisions.
In order to merge speed and quality, LinkedIn may keep on rolling out things like salary and notice-period filters, AI-based interviews, and conversational hiring interfaces. The idea is quite straightforward: minimise the number of unsolicited applications in the initial stages of development, bring true skills to the surface more quickly, and guide both recruiters and applicants through a narrowing job market with ease.