New Delhi, June 30 -- Bengaluru: "At some point," Ajit Isaac asked in a meeting, "will we need an HR manager for AI (artificial intelligence) agents?"

The question might have sounded abstract-if it weren't coming from the founder of one of India's largest staffing companies.

Quess Corp, which Isaac built from the ground up, now places more than 630,000 people in jobs across the country: factory workers, security guards, hospital staff, telecom technicians. It's a company that's defined employment in its most literal sense-shift rosters, salary slips, onboarding kiosks.

And yet, here was its founder, in a Bengaluru boardroom earlier this year, asking who should take care of the company's newest hires.

No one in the room laughed. Not be...