AI, data and cybersecurity made up 30.3% of technology hiring demand at India’s Global Capability Centres in July to September 2026, according to a Quess report. The report also estimates sizeable skills shortages, and points to reskilling as one route to filling them.
Watch Desk analysis
What happened
Quess Corp’s India GCC Tech Talent Landscape report says those three fields accounted for 30.3% of technology hiring demand in the quarter, up 4.5 percentage points on the preceding quarter. It estimates a 38% to 42% supply gap in AI, data and analytics, and a 30% to 35% gap in cybersecurity and risk management.
The report says 87% to 88% of advanced-skill hiring remained concentrated in tier one cities. Coimbatore stood out, with GCC technology hiring demand up around 30% quarter on quarter; overall tier two demand grew 13%. The Economic Times reports that the Quess analysis draws on job postings and other publicly available secondary data.
Why it matters
These figures suggest that AI adoption is competing for talent with data and cybersecurity work, while advanced hiring remains concentrated in major cities. That is useful context for employers weighing up whether to recruit from a limited pool or build skills within their existing teams.
Quess also identifies possible transitions between adjacent roles: data scientists into model operations, data engineers into applied AI, and cybersecurity analysts into cloud security. The figures describe hiring demand and estimated supply gaps, not confirmed vacancies or a census of every employer. Still, they make the reskilling question more concrete than the usual instruction to simply find more specialists.
Our read
The standout detail is not just that demand is growing, but that the report describes practical routes from neighbouring technical roles into AI work. Employers may not be able to hire their way out of every skills gap, particularly when most advanced hiring is clustered in tier one cities. Whether these suggested pathways lead to real training and better access beyond the biggest metros is the part worth watching.
What to watch
- Whether later reports show AI, data and cybersecurity gaining a further share of hiring demand.
- Whether employers invest in the role transitions identified by Quess.
- Whether tier two hiring growth continues beyond Coimbatore.
Discussion spark: Can employers close AI and cybersecurity skills gaps by retraining existing staff, or will hiring remain concentrated in the biggest cities?
Sources and evidence
- Source update (5 November 2026, 13:12 UTC)
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