Only three cities dominate AI job demand in India: CBRE report

India’s artificial intelligence hiring remains heavily concentrated in just three metropolitan regions, with Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR and Mumbai accounting for nearly 70% of AI-related job openings, according to a new report by property consultant CBRE.

The analysis, based on more than 64,500 active job listings on Naukri.com as of December 2025, underscores how AI talent demand continues to cluster around the country’s largest technology and business hubs.

Bengaluru emerged as the leading centre for AI recruitment, representing 25.4% of openings tagged with AI on the portal. Delhi-NCR followed closely with 24.8%, while Mumbai accounted for 19.2%.

CBRE noted that the data does not capture the full AI labour market in India, but it provides a clear indication that the bulk of demand across sectors is concentrated in these three cities.

Other locations trail significantly. Hyderabad accounted for 12.5% of AI jobs, followed by Pune at 9.6%, Chennai at 6.4% and Kolkata at 2.1%, the report said.

The strongest demand is currently being driven by engineering roles, including software development and quality assurance, alongside data science and analytics positions. Customer success, service and operations functions also feature prominently, reflecting broader adoption of AI-enabled solutions across industries.

CBRE Chairman and CEO Anshuman Magazine said AI has moved beyond being a topic of experimentation and is becoming a core part of India’s economic and infrastructure growth story.

He added that rising demand for AI talent signals more than a hiring cycle, suggesting that global companies increasingly see India not only as a service delivery base but as a hub for end-to-end innovation. This shift, he said, is likely to reshape India’s role in the global digital value chain.

The report attributed Bengaluru’s continued dominance to the deep presence of Global Capability Centres (GCCs). In 2025, the city accounted for more than one-third of India’s total office space leasing by GCCs, reinforcing its position as the country’s primary technology employment engine.

Delhi-NCR, meanwhile, is seeing rising AI hiring demand driven by consulting, fintech, healthcare and public sector initiatives, highlighting the region’s expanding role beyond traditional corporate services.

The concentration of AI opportunities in a handful of cities points to both India’s growing strength in advanced digital skills and the uneven geographic distribution of high-value technology work. As AI adoption accelerates, the next phase of growth may depend on whether talent ecosystems can expand beyond the established metro centres.