Nagarro has planned to add about 1,000 professionals to its workforce in India over the next 12-18 months.
With this move, Nagarro aims to strengthen its capabilities across key hubs like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune. With around 13,000 employees in India, the global digital engineering company is looking forward to closing the supply gap.
“We have about 700 open positions in India, but those profiles are not that easy to fill. One of the metrics I am tracking closely is hiring effectiveness because, right now, ironically, we are facing a backlog in terms of a supply crunch,” Nagarro’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Manas Human, said.
Human elaborated that with the increased hiring by startups and GCCs, there has been a shortage of hirable skilled talent in the market. Employees, too, he explained, are now wary of switching jobs amidst global uncertainties, adopting a “stay-where-you-are” approach.
According to the Nagarro CEO, the surge of investments after COVID-19 has left some residual “overhang in investment,” which, combined with rapidly changing geopolitical and macroeconomic conditions, is shaping the global landscape today.
Additionally, Human shared that the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has also introduced uncertainty within the minds of employees, making them wary about what is in store for them in the future. Though AI’s capabilities are widely acknowledged, he pointed out that its precise implications are still being absorbed, something that is being rectified at a considerable pace.
These factors, Human stated, have contributed to a period of relatively slow growth over the past couple of years. However, he believes that the initial hesitation about spending has diminished somewhat, and discussions have shifted toward a more stable and balanced outlook instead of fear around it.
“Things were panicked (state) a year or two ago. Now, the conversations are all good. There is a kind of feeling that we are past the bottom and it’s quite stable,” Human said. He stated that industries are now gearing up for AI-powered transformation, building on the foundation of digital transformation.
“Once people clearly see what they need to do, I think we are going to have a smart recovery. But we are not there just yet,” Human explained. He also drew a clear distinction between AI investments that are made on the periphery of company operations (which are relatively simpler and less costly) and transformational ones directed at the core operations (that tend to be more complex and impactful).
According to Human, the next significant wave of AI spending will come from investments targeting the core business processes. Upgrading core systems, he emphasised, is significantly more complex, as it affects key business processes and requires extensive consulting, systems integration, governance, and quality-related work, all of which demand infrastructural changes.
Human added that though most companies are yet to begin moving in this direction, the transformation is inevitable with the rise of ‘agentic AI.’ The next major wave of spending, as per the Nagarro CEO, will likely focus on overhauling the core of business operations to adapt to this new technology regime.
