New Delhi, Dec. 5 -- In this season's race for top brains at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), artificial intelligence (AI) startups-both domestic and Silicon Valley-based-are pulling away from traditional recruiters, offering far higher compensation packages, plus bonuses and employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs). The caveat: these startups will hire far less people compared to the traditional industries.

A Mint review of more than 300 job descriptions showed that startups such as Javis, Abacus AI, Auxo AI, and others are extending annual packages in the Rs.39-60 lakh range-with some US-based positions touching Rs.2.6 crore+ for roles spanning voice AI, multimodal engineering, and core machine language (ML) development.

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