AI Skill Index of India • Press and media
Quotable findings, charts you can embed and data you can download on AI hiring, skills and pay in India. Free to use with attribution. Every figure names its source, its date and the group it was measured on.
July 2026 edition • Data reviewed 30 July 2026 • Press kit published 13 October 2026
The AI Skill Index of India is a sourced review of what published research says about AI skills, hiring and pay in India, maintained by Fireblaze AI School in Nagpur. It publishes no composite score, separates measured data from projections, and lists the 10 things it could not measure instead of estimating them. Journalists, educators and analysts may quote, embed and download from it, free, with attribution.
For journalists
Each finding is read straight from the index data. The copy button adds the source and a link. Caveats are part of the finding, so please keep them when you can.
Measured
AI and machine learning roles were the fastest-growing hiring segment on Naukri in June 2026, up 25% year on year, while overall white-collar hiring rose 6% and IT services hiring fell 3%.
IT and software services hiring fell in the same month, so AI growth is a narrow band inside a flat sector.
Source: Naukri (Info Edge) (3 Jul 2026)
Measured
The share of Indian job postings that mention AI rose from 8.2% in Sep 2024 to 14% in Jan 2026.
The clearest trend line available for India. Indeed's analysts caution that Indeed's India data skews toward the tech sector, so these shares are higher than the whole labour market.
Source: Indeed Hiring Lab (25 Oct 2025), Indeed and NASSCOM (22 May 2026)
Measured
In September 2025, 38.6% of data and analytics postings in India mentioned AI, against 22.8% of software development postings.
Healthcare and retail are not broken out by this source.
Source: Indeed Hiring Lab (25 Oct 2025)
Measured
In December 2025, Bengaluru (25.4%), Delhi NCR (24.8%) and Mumbai (19.2%) held the largest shares of India's AI job postings, together about 70% of all AI openings.
Nagpur, Indore and Ahmedabad do not appear in this data. They fall below the source's reporting threshold, which means their share is small, not that it is zero.
Source: CBRE (19 Feb 2026)
Measured
Nagpur's all-role hiring grew 9% year on year in Jun 2026, per the Naukri JobSpeak index. This is all roles, not AI-specific.
This is all-role hiring, not AI hiring. No source publishes AI-specific hiring growth by city.
Source: Info Edge / Naukri (Jun 2026)
Measured
PayScale reports average total compensation for a Data Scientist in India of ₹5.95 lakh under one year of experience and ₹10.05 lakh at one to four years, from 1,267 self-reported salaries.
Average total compensation, self-reported. Not the same measure as base salary.
Source: PayScale (Jul 2026)
Measured
LinkedIn ranks Prompt Engineer as the number 1 fastest-growing job in India for 2026, a new entry. Only three AI roles appear in the top 25.
Only three AI roles appear in India's top 25. Data Scientist, Data Engineer, Data Analyst and Machine Learning Engineer do not appear on India's list at all. A fast-growing job title is not the same as a high-volume one.
Source: LinkedIn News India (8 Jan 2026)
Published gap
No survey-grade source exists for Prompt Engineer salary in India. The only platform figure had a sample of 11 people, which is too small to publish.
Published as a gap, not filled with an estimate.
Source: Fireblaze AI School research review
Story angles
Three cities hold about 70% of India's AI job postings, and Nagpur does not appear in any serious city ranking we reviewed. The index separates what is verifiable about Nagpur (MIHAN units, all-role hiring growth, state GCC policy) from what is missing. See the data →
AI and machine learning roles grew 25% year on year in June 2026 while IT and software services fell 3%. The growth is a narrow band, not a general IT boom. See the data →
LinkedIn ranks Prompt Engineer first in India for 2026, but we found no survey-grade pay figure for it. The only platform number had a sample of 11, so it is published as a gap. See the data →
The index lists the claims it chose not to publish, and why. For a reporter, that is a checklist of widely repeated figures that could not be traced to a primary source. See the data →
Embed
Copy the code under a chart and paste it into your page. The code includes a visible link back to this index. The charts are responsive and load no tracking scripts.
Open data
Every row carries its source, date and type. Empty cells mean the source did not publish a figure.
Licence: our compilation is CC BY 4.0, so use it freely, including commercially, with attribution and a link. The underlying figures belong to the publishers named in each row. See README.txt for the full terms and what to read before using the numbers.
Cite
When you rely on a single figure, cite its original publisher as well. Each figure on the index links to its source.
Fireblaze AI School. (2026). AI Skill Index of India, July 2026 edition [Data set]. https://fireblazeaischool.in/ai-skill-index/. Data reviewed 30 July 2026.
Source: AI Skill Index of India, Fireblaze AI School (fireblazeaischool.in/ai-skill-index/)
<a href="https://fireblazeaischool.in/ai-skill-index/">AI Skill Index of India</a>, Fireblaze AI School
Method
Read the full editorial policy, or go straight to what we could not measure and every source in full.
Boilerplate
Fireblaze AI School is an AI education institute in Nagpur, founded on 31 October 2017. It trains students and working professionals in data science, AI and full-stack development across three centres in Nagpur and online, and is a NASSCOM partner for its PGP in Data Science and Analytics.
Fireblaze AI School is an AI education institute in Nagpur, founded on 31 October 2017. It trains students and working professionals in data science, AI and full-stack development across three centres in Nagpur and online, and is a NASSCOM partner for its PGP in Data Science and Analytics. It is a unit of Fireblaze Technologies Private Limited. The AI Skill Index of India is its public research project: a sourced review of published data on AI hiring, skills and pay, which names the source, date and sample behind every figure and publishes the gaps it could not fill. Fireblaze AI School sells training, so it has a commercial interest in people learning these skills. The index therefore publishes sources and caveats rather than a score.
Logo files and colours are on the brand guidelines page. Please do not alter the logo.
| Interviews, custom cuts of the data | info@fireblazeaischool.in |
|---|---|
| Corrections | corrections@fireblazeaischool.in |
| Source | The AI Skill Index of India |
FAQ
It is a sourced review of published research on AI skills, hiring and pay in India, maintained by Fireblaze AI School. Every figure names its source, date and the group it was measured on, and the index publishes a list of what it could not measure instead of estimating.
Yes. Embed the charts or download the data with attribution and a link to https://fireblazeaischool.in/ai-skill-index/. Our compilation is licensed CC BY 4.0. The underlying figures belong to the publishers named in each row, so cite the original source as well when you rely on a single number.
Copy the embed code under any chart on this page and paste it into your page. The code includes a visible attribution link. Charts are responsive and load no tracking scripts.
No. The figures come from surveys, job-posting indices and platform data measured on different populations at different dates, and there is no principled way to weight them into one number.
No source publishes AI or data-science hiring figures for Nagpur, and the index does not estimate one. It publishes what is verifiable, such as all-role hiring growth, and states what is missing.
Fireblaze AI School teaches AI and data skills, so it benefits when people want to learn them. That is why every figure is sourced, vendor-announced numbers are labelled as self-reported, and gaps are published.
Email info@fireblazeaischool.in. Please include the page or figure you mean. A confirmed factual error is corrected under the policy on the editorial policy page.
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