India's AI engineering hiring jumps 59.5%: LinkedIn

LinkedIn’s AI Labor Market Report 2026 said AI engineering hiring in India rose 59.5% year on year, the fastest pace among the markets it studied, released on April 24.

The growth was driven by demand spreading beyond Bengaluru and Hyderabad to cities including Vijayawada.

The report said large companies still employ the biggest share of AI talent.

Meanwhile smaller businesses are also adding roles, with the fastest-growing skills among SMBs including AI agents, AI productivity tools, and Azure AI Studio.

LinkedIn also said AI engineering talent in India’s manufacturing sector expanded fourfold to 2% in 2025, based on member profiles and job posts it classified as requiring AI skills.

🔗 Source: LinkedIn

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Vijayawada’s AI rise comes from years of state support

Vijayawada’s place in AI grew over many years through steady government backing.
The Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), a government-backed organization under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), opened a center in Vijayawada in 2001 to grow software exports 1.
STPI also lists Vijayawada among the smaller-city locations covered by its Next Generation Incubation Scheme (NGIS), a startup support program 1.
That base now connects with plans for Amaravati, the nearby state capital region, to grow into an AI-focused city with AI research centers. The plan also includes an AI university in Visakhapatnam, according to the AI City Amaravati website 2.

Amaravati’s AI City plan serves as a policy and investment trial ground

The spread of AI talent beyond established centers like Bengaluru is part of a broader economic plan.
The AI City Amaravati initiative aims to bring in more than 100,000 rupees (US$1,100) crore (US$12 billion) in AI investment by 2030 and add 10% to India’s AI gross domestic product (GDP), according to the AI City Amaravati website 2.
The same website says the project is meant to compete with existing tech hubs 2.
Amaravati is also framed as India’s first regulatory sandbox, a controlled setting for testing rules. The plan would examine AI ethics, automation laws, and governance frameworks before wider use across the country, according to the AI City Amaravati website 2.