Bengaluru Leads India's AI Talent Race as Smaller Cities Catch Up

Bengaluru has solidified its position as India’s undisputed leader in artificial intelligence (AI) talent, boasting a tech workforce exceeding one million professionals.

This makes it the largest tech talent market in the Asia-Pacific region, according to the CBRE Global Tech Talent Guidebook 2025.

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Key Developments

The city’s deep pool of AI professionals is now being likened to established US clusters such as the San Francisco Bay Area and New

York. Read also: World Cup 2026 Golden Boot Race: Messi Leads.

Background and Context

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However, this dominance is not without a significant shift in India’s broader AI landscape.

What Experts Are Saying

While Bengaluru continues to set benchmarks, a notable trend shows smaller, Tier 2 cities are rapidly emerging as crucial hubs for AI hiring, driven

by factors like strong local colleges and remote-first work models. See also: US Open Golf 2026: Wyndham Clark Leads at Shinnecock Hills.

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This decentralization offers companies new opportunities to tap into overlooked talent pools and reduce operational costs, addressing the persistent challenge of finding project-ready AI engineers.

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Bengaluru’s tech workforce has surpassed the one million mark, securing its place among the top 12 global tech hubs.

The CBRE Guidebook, which assesses 115 global markets on talent availability, quality, and cost, categorized Bengaluru as a Powerhouse market alongside cities like London, Paris, and Singapore.

The city leads India in AI-related talent, a proof to its robust startup ecosystem, which hosts 28 unicorns.

Progressive business regulations and institutional backing further bolster this environment, fostering innovation and growth.

Leading universities and a high concentration of Global Capability Centres (GCCs) consistently supply talent skilled in data science, engineering, product development, and AI.

Between 2018 and 2023, Bengaluru experienced a 12 percent increase in tech employment, aligning closely with global growth trends.

Venture capital inflows have also remained strong, with the city attracting 140 VC deals totaling 3.3 billion USD in 2024, 34 of which were specifically in AI.

This financial backing underscores the city’s appeal to investors in the burgeoning AI sector, contributing to India’s Newest AI Unicorn success stories.

Despite the rapid expansion of India’s AI sector, a significant talent gap persists.

In 2025, AI job roles saw over 36 percent growth, yet less than half of these positions are being filled.

Only one in ten AI/ML openings successfully closes with the right-fit talent.

This challenge stems not from a lack of hiring activity, but from the difficulty in finding professionals who possess practical experience in shipping models,

solving real-world problems, and working at production scale.

The demand for verified, project-ready engineers who can deliver from day one is pushing startups, enterprise tech teams, and global capability centers to rethink their recruitment strategies.

Concerns about job risks are still real, as Anthropic CEO Warns AI leaders about the evolving nature of work.

Other major Indian cities are also contributing to the AI investment landscape. Delhi-NCR recorded 183 VC deals worth 1.9 billion USD in 2024, with 42 focused on AI.

Mumbai followed with 167 deals totaling 4.9 billion USD, including 26 in AI.

These figures highlight a nationwide surge in AI-related investment and development, even as the talent acquisition remains a bottleneck.

A significant shift in India’s AI/ML hiring landscape is the increasing contribution from Tier 2 cities.

Approximately 15 percent of AI hiring now originates from these smaller urban centers, including Coimbatore, Indore, and Jaipur.

Coimbatore, in particular, demonstrated remarkable growth, with a 58 percent year-over-year increase in AI roles.

This emergence is largely attributed to several factors: the presence of strong local colleges providing a steady stream of graduates, improved internet access facilitating

remote work, and the adoption of remote-first hiring models by companies.

These elements create a substantial opportunity for organizations to tap into previously overlooked AI talent pools, potentially reduce operational costs, and build more geographically distributed engineering teams.

This trend aligns with broader discussions around Confused Corporate AI Strategies, where companies seek diverse talent sources to meet their AI objectives.

The diversification of AI talent hubs beyond traditional metros signifies a maturing ecosystem.

It indicates that the foundational infrastructure and educational capabilities required for AI development are spreading, making India’s AI revolution more inclusive and resilient.

This distributed growth is critical for sustaining the momentum of initiatives like the IndiaAI Mission Accelerates, which aims to boost the country’s AI capabilities.

The current state of AI hiring in India often feels inefficient, characterized by slow processes and ineffective outcomes.

Traditional methods, which heavily rely on resumes and generic assessments, frequently fail to identify candidates with the practical, production-scale experience needed for complex AI projects.

This leads to issues like ghosting, wrong hires, and delayed project timelines.

Leading teams are now adopting a signal-first hiring approach to overcome these challenges.

This method prioritizes identifying engineers who have a proven track record of shipping products, publishing research, or solving real-world problems, rather than just focusing on their resume.

This approach streamlines the recruitment process, making it faster and more precise, which is crucial for deep tech hiring.

Looking ahead, five key trends are expected to shape AI hiring in India over the next 12 months.

These include a continued expansion of the talent map to include more diverse geographies, a modernization of hiring engines to focus on practical skills,

an increased emphasis on specialized AI roles, a growing focus on ethical AI considerations, and significant investment in upskilling existing workforces.

These shifts are essential for India to maintain its competitive edge in the global AI race and potentially even in areas like Quantum Computing in 2026.

Bengaluru leads due to its large tech workforce exceeding one million, its classification as a global Powerhouse tech market by CBRE, a robust startup

ecosystem with 28 unicorns, strong university programs, and a high concentration of Global Capability Centres (GCCs) that consistently produce skilled AI professionals.

Tier 2 cities like Coimbatore, Indore, and Jaipur are gaining importance because of strong local colleges, improved internet infrastructure, and the adoption of remote-first hiring models.

This allows companies to access new talent pools, potentially reduce costs, and build more geographically diverse engineering teams.

The primary challenge is finding professionals with practical, production-scale experience in shipping AI models and solving real-world problems, despite a 36 percent growth in AI job roles.

Traditional hiring methods often fall short, leading to a low fill rate of only one in ten suitable candidates.

India’s AI talent landscape is undergoing a dynamic transformation, with Bengaluru firmly established as its primary hub, drawing comparisons to global tech giants.

The city’s extensive talent pool, vibrant startup ecosystem, and significant venture capital inflows underscore its critical role in the global innovation network.

This leadership, however, is increasingly complemented by the rise of Tier 2 cities, which are rapidly becoming vital contributors to the national AI talent pool.

This dual trajectory – concentrated excellence in Bengaluru and distributed growth across smaller cities – is crucial for India’s sustained leadership in AI.

Addressing the persistent talent gap through modernized, signal-first hiring strategies will be paramount.

As the demand for specialized AI skills continues to outpace supply, the ability to effectively identify, attract, and integrate talent from both established and

emerging hubs will define the next phase of India’s AI revolution, ensuring the country remains a central node in the global innovation network.

Sources: TechCrunch – AI News | Reuters – Technology | The Verge – Tech News