India’s top consulting and audit firms hit by AI and war; job cuts, hiring freeze loom

selective need

“India’s consultancy recruitment market is going through a structural reset rather than a downturn,” said Monica Agrawal, India head of executive search firm Sheffield Haworth. “Across the Big Four as well as global consulting firms, the need for talent has become more selective, increasingly concentrated in AI, data, risk and application roles as automation reduces the need for traditional business analyst roles.”