Three out of four Indian recruiters investing up to 70% hiring budgets in AI

Three out of four (75%) recruiters in India are investing up to 70% of their hiring budgets in recruitment tech and AI tools, a new report showed on Thursday. 

Top three recruitment priorities are finding high-quality candidates with transferable skills (57%), adopting smarter hiring tech (52%), and proving the return on investment (ROI) of hiring investments to C-suite leaders (46%), according to new research from LinkedIn.

Nearly three years into adopting AI at work, Indian recruiters are moving from ‘quick hiring’ to ‘quality hiring’.

However, challenges persist, from ensuring the right mix of soft and technical skills (64%) to hiring fast (58%) and finding candidates who are the right culture fit (54%).

To meet these shifting demands, 69% of Indian recruiters are now using data analytics to make informed hiring decisions and 63% are using AI tools to improve hiring speed and accuracy, said the report.

“With the pressure to hire quickly, many recruiters cast the net wide but not deep, choosing volume over precision. But hiring today demands more. Recruiters need tools that help them find skilled talent who can drive real business outcomes,” said Ruchee Anand, Head of LinkedIn Talent Solutions in India.

The opportunity lies in using AI and data to shift from quick-fill roles to high-impact hires.

“Our latest research shows that over half (53%) of recruiters in India already see stronger returns from platforms like LinkedIn, as they shift focus to skills like problem-solving, creativity, and leadership,” Anand added.

The quality of hire has become the most important measure of success, cited by 72% of recruiters, followed by time to hire (60%) and revenue per employee (59%).

Recruiters say delays in the process result in losing top candidates to faster competitors (58%), higher workload pressure on teams (64%), and reduced productivity and morale (63%).

The most common causes of delay are structural: lengthy approval processes (58%) and indecision among hiring managers (56%), the report found.

As AI adoption grows, 90% percent of recruiters in India expect to step up as ‘strategic career advisors’ in their roles, and 92% plan to use personalised content and data insights to engage candidates more effectively, it noted.

(This story was taken from a syndicated feed and was only edited for style by Gujarat Samachar Digital team)