bengaluru, Nov. 21 -- Automation is beginning to reshape India's tech-hiring landscape, with global capability centres (GCCs) pulling back on routine recruitment-intensifying the slowdown already hitting large staffing firms dependent on IT hiring. This trend raises concerns for staffing and job-hunting firms including TeamLease Services Ltd, Quess Corp, and Info Edge (India) Ltd, as IT-related hiring by GCCs and IT services companies is among their biggest sources of business, fetching them up to 44% of their revenue. "Most large scale GCCs that had expanded majorly over the past few years are now focussing on transforming their processes in areas of people management, technology, and shared services (IT and customer support functions). Hence, currently their hiring volumes are not in line with their previous years' hiring," said Neeti Sharma, chief executive of TeamLease Digital, in an emailed response to Mint's queries. GCCs, which traditionally hire specialized talent at higher salaries than IT outsourcers, are looking to reduce their intake of people, according to a Mint report on 1 September. Lower hiring by these tech centres has started to show its impact on staffing firms, which get between 4-10% of their revenue from such centres. For two years, staffing firms have flagged muted hiring by IT outsourcers because of weak global demand. This year, GCC hiring has also begun slipping, forcing staffing companies to trim growth expectations. Still, Sharma added that GCCs are hiring in areas of AI/ML (machine learning), cybersecurity, cloud, and data roles. TeamLease ended July-September 2025 with Rs.3,032 crore in revenue, up 4.9% sequentially. A similar trend was highlighted by Quess Corp. "Certain traditional IT and support roles (for GCCs) have plateaued due to automation - but the slowdown is not uniform," said Kapil Joshi, CEO of IT Staffing at Quess Corp, in an emailed response to Mint's queries. "The decline is concentrated in entry-level, repeatable roles. Specialized talent demand remains resilient." Quess ended last quarter with Rs.3,832 crore in revenue, up 5% sequentially. To be sure, Quess is the only large staffing and recruitment firm that shares revenue from GCCs. The Bengaluru-based firm earned 4% of its total revenue-Rs.155 crore-from GCCs last quarter, down 13% sequentially. The decline signals weakening demand from captives and highlights the risk of over-reliance on IT-linked hiring. Most other staffing and job-hunting platforms, including Info Edge, club GCC income with IT or specialized staffing categories. For now, there is a shift to specialized hiring, according to a third staffing and job-hunting firm, which added that GCCs are not hiring as they used to in the past....