Artificial intelligence (AI) has made deep inroads into India’s technology sector, but a significant talent gap persists in emerging skills such as GenAI and cloud, with only about 16% of IT professionals possessing AI skills, according to a report. TeamLease Digital, in its latest report, Digital Skills & Salary Primer FY2026–27, said demand for AI-ready talent continues to outpace supply. Cloud has the widest supply gap among the four skill families, at 55–60%, followed by GenAI at about 53%. Demand for GenAI talent is expected to cross 10 lakh roles by 2026. The gap in cybersecurity stands at 25–30%, which is narrowing but remains significant. TeamLease Digital’s assessment of the AI talent landscape categorises roles into three tiers. AI-Core roles build and develop intelligent systems, including GenAI and machine learning engineers. AI-Adjacent roles apply AI within established workflows and include data, cloud and cybersecurity engineers. AI-Support roles help maintain AI-enabled operations through monitoring, validation and first-line resolution. The tiers show that “AI-skilled” is not one category, and that demand, pay and growth differ sharply across them. Of the sixteen premium roles identified across the AI, Data, Cloud & Platform and Cybersecurity skill families, four are AI-Core and twelve are AI-Adjacent. None is AI-Support, indicating that the entry layer in tech firms is compressing rather than being repriced. The skills base is also thin: only about 16% of IT professionals hold AI skills, and while 20 lakh professionals have been upskilled, only about three lakh have advanced AI skills. With skills in short supply, salary premiums are moving toward AI-Core and product-critical engineering roles from the early stages of a career. A GenAI Developer (AI-Core) earns Rs 11.2 lakh per annum (LPA) at 0–2 years, rising to Rs 34.5 LPA at 6–8 years. A Data Engineer (AI-Adjacent) moves from Rs 9.1 LPA to Rs 29.6 LPA, while a Technical Support Engineer (AI-Support) moves from Rs 5.2 LPA to Rs 14.6 LPA. By 6–8 years, GenAI, ML and Data Science roles reach ₹31–35 LPA, nearly 2X of AI-Support roles, and the gap is set to widen, with projected FY27–28 growth of 16.2% for GenAI Developers, 12.0% for Data Engineers and 6.6% for Technical Support Engineers. On the findings, TeamLease Digital CEO Neeti Sharma said, "AI is changing what it means to be capable. Using AI tools is now the baseline; what the market rewards is the ability to build, run and govern AI in production.”