Human + AI is reshaping work, skills and hiring: Study

All work will be shaped by humans and AI working together rather than engaging with it only intermittently by 2027 said 97% HR leaders, according to a study by Nasscom and Indeed.

 ‘Work Reimagined: The Rise of Human – AI Collaboration’, an annual Future of Work report 2025 maps how organizations are embedding AI into day-to-day work, and what it means for employers and job seekers, as AI is becoming an integral part of everyday roles, workflows, and decision-making processes.

Re-shaping The Job Industry

The findings indicate that around 20% to 40% of work across tech organizations is being done through AI across functions. The report said that that AI is not independent, highlighting that more than half of respondents showed incomplete and low-quality outputs, reinforcing the need for human oversight to remain critical. As many as 45% of the respondents highlighted that over 40% of the software development is done by AI, followed by 39% and 37% in intelligent automation and Business Process Management (BPM), respectively.

The next phase of digital transformation will be defined by how well organisations combine human expertise with AI, with success hinging on AI’s ability to augment human decision-making rather than replace it.

According to the report, the strongest human–AI collaboration is already emerging in high-value activities such as defining project scope, designing system architecture, and shaping data models, where human judgement remains critical.

It also pointed out that routine and repetitive tasks like boilerplate code writing and unit test generation, are expected to be increasingly automated by AI over the next two to three years, allowing employees to focus on more strategic and creative work.

Ketaki Karnik, Head of Research, Nasscom, said, “AI is no longer a future consideration for the technology industry and is already shaping how work gets done…As AI adoption deepens, skilling and capability building will be central to ensuring that talent continues to move up the value chain and delivers meaningful outcomes for businesses.”

Shift In Hiring

As AI reshapes day-to-day work, the report said companies are shifting how they hire, moving away from focusing on degrees and job titles, and instead judging candidates on their actual skills, results, and real-world impact.

“What’s changing isn’t the number of jobs, it’s what those jobs expect from people,” said Sashi Kumar, Managing Director, Indeed India. We’re seeing roles evolve internally long before hiring signals catch up, he added.

The Nasscom-Indeed report shows a clear shift in hiring priorities, with 85% of hiring managers seeing a rise in skills-based hiring and 98% saying candidates now need hybrid, multidisciplinary skills. Employers increasingly want people who can apply knowledge across roles, not just specialize in one area.

For entry-level roles, companies are looking for job-ready candidates, using live projects, hackathons, case studies, and portfolios instead of traditional tests. For mid- and senior-level positions, hiring decisions are more focused on end-to-end ownership, decision-making in uncertain situations, and the real impact of past work, rather than just years of experience or job titles.

AI agent adoption and impact on job marketplace

The report points to strong momentum around Agentic AI, with over 95% of respondents already using or planning to adopt AI agents. More than 65% believe AI agents can outperform humans in certain tasks due to their ability to handle large volumes of data and deliver consistent quality, signaling growing pressure on some job roles.

To remain relevant in a Human-plus-AI workplace, the report urges individuals to focus on continuous learning and adaptability. For employers, key hurdles to AI adoption include security and privacy risks, legacy system integration, ethical concerns, and resistance to change, while workforce readiness remains a challenge, with many HR leaders flagging gaps in AI-ready skills despite rising upskilling efforts.

AI-driven challenges: Now, Then, And Future

The Nasscom study shows that organizations are actively responding to AI-driven challenges, with around 70% of HR leaders prioritizing upskilling and over half working on modernizing systems. Internal reskilling is the top AI adoption strategy for 79% of organizations, while job redesign is gaining importance, shifting humans toward judgement, creativity, and accountability as AI takes on speed- and scale-driven tasks. HR teams are central to this shift, with 83% already redesigning roles and introducing AI-focused positions.

Work models are also changing. More than 55% of organizations report AI-led changes in organizational structures, and hybrid work has become the norm, adopted by 80% of companies, with most employees working from office three or more days a week.

While awareness of trust, quality, and accountability issues in AI-enabled work is growing, the Future of Work report 2025 notes that roles are evolving faster than hiring frameworks, highlighting the need for clearer role definitions and better alignment between how work changes internally and how jobs are communicated externally.