'ChatGPT Alone Not Enough': TCS To Hire 80% Freshers With These AI Skills

Around 80 per cent of new hires at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will have digital and AI skills, a senior company official has said. Of the 4,500 employees added in the July-September quarter, around 25 to 30 per cent had specialised AI skills, while nearly 80 per cent had broader new-age technology skills, Chief Operating Officer Arathi Subramanian told Press Trust of India.

Asked whether this hiring mix would continue, Subramanian said yes, adding that the required talent was available in the market.

The growing focus on AI has raised questions about whether fresh graduates have an advantage over experienced employees. Younger workers may be more familiar with new tools, while companies may also find them less expensive to hire.

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However, TCS Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director K Krithivasan said the advantage would depend on a person's willingness to learn and adapt. "If a mid-level engineer is willing to learn, it gives a huge advantage because he or she understands what is the technology landscape, what is the domain," Krithivasan said, adding that a junior engineer may not have the same understanding.

AI Business Could Improve TCS Profit Margins

The hiring shift comes as TCS looks to expand its AI business and improve profitability. Its share of overall revenue rose to 10 per cent in the September quarter. TCS expects this business to support profitability as AI deals grow in scale. "As these (AI) deals increase in volume, you would see that there will be margin (benefit)," Krithivasan said.

Meanwhile, Subramanian said customers often begin with AI projects in a specific business area. Once they see evidence that the investment is working, they may expand the engagement to other functions.

Krithivasan added that TCS takes a conservative approach when classifying contracts as AI deals. While the company did not disclose the AI component of its $9.6 billion in total contract value for the September quarter, he said some aspect of AI was present in virtually all the work it currently does.

Is Learning AI Enough To Make Employees Job-Ready?

Nikhar Arora, Director & Builder of Bots.ai by HR Anexi, told NDTV that companies risk mistaking the use of AI tools for genuine organisational capability. "More than nine in ten Indian employees already use these tools. On a dashboard, that looks like an AI-ready organisation. It almost never is," Arora said.

He argued that employees may be using AI in different ways without clear standards, links to business processes or checks on the quality of their output. "Usage went up. Capability did not. Those are not the same number," he said.

According to Arora, asking employees to learn AI on their own is not enough. Companies must identify which skills matter, define what good work looks like and decide where AI should make a measurable difference. "The real question for any leader is not whether your people are learning AI. Almost all of them are. It is whether you have decided what they should build, to what standard, for which part of your business," he said.

For employees, the implications go beyond learning how to use ChatGPT or another AI tool. Understanding a company's business, applying technology to real problems and producing reliable results could become just as important as familiarity with AI itself.