2022 to see rise in adoption of chatbots, hiring in data analytics: Report

With 2021 being the year of recovery, hiring demand in tech-enabled sectors such as IT, banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), AI and machine learning will continue to grow in 2022.

With the rapid tech adoption across industries and entirely tech-enabled sectors such as IT and BFSI, the role of AI and machine learning will only continue to grow in 2022, with a significant increase in the demand for related roles, according to a report by Monster.com, a Quess company.

While 2021 has been the year of revival for several industries amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it was also a year of many firsts, said the report.

Adoption of technology across sectors re-doubled while more and more companies transformed their organisational strategies and goals to accommodate the new normal.

The need for skilling and up-skilling reached a new high, with an increasing number of recruiters on the hunt for skilled professionals, in the wake of the Great Shuffle and the employment crisis in India.

"The year 2021 was definitely a year of recovery. As we step into the new year, we are optimistic about paving the way for better employment opportunities in 2022.

"The future of work is location-agnostic and hybrid, with increased skilling initiatives being undertaken by both employers and employees," Monster.com CEO Sekhar Garisa said.

Further, leading tech-enabled industries such as IT, fintech, BFSI, and crypto will continue to flourish with talent demand spikes, he noted.

"Employee flexibility will be critical towards retaining talent in the future, and the Great Shuffle is a reinforcement of how the huge demand in the jobs market is opening the door for employees to select a career of their choice," he added.

The data is for the time period of December 2021 as against December 2020. The salary trends data is as of December 2021.

The report further showed that AI and machine learning job demand is estimated to grow and industry reports further suggest that AI/machine learning investments in India will continue to grow annually at 33.49 per cent till 2023.

Chatbots are expected to empower customer support services in order to enhance customer engagement and more and more organisations are adopting chatbots, which are forecast to empower about 45 per cent of organisations' customer support services by 2022, said the report.

Roles in learning and development, travel, consumer analysis and lead nurturing will witness a spike in demand in this regard, it observed.

It also forecast that in 2022, the rapidly expanding Indian fintech market is estimated to become the third-largest market in the world by 2025.

The future holds increased digitisation and digital adoption opportunities across the industry, with a positive outlook for talent demand in the sector, it noted.

Further, it said Indian IT has continued to hire through the course of the pandemic and will exhibit similar trends in 2022.

The IT industry is forecast to grow seven per cent in the current year, and is likely to see a gross employee addition of around 4,50,000 in the second half of FY22, it added.

Big data analytics' roles are most likely going to be the most in-demand role in 2022, as data science, cloud computing and machine learning roles captured the most of the e-recruitment market, it stated.

The demand for skilled manpower or professionals adept in digital skills is likely to witness a surge in industries such as BFSI and new sectors such as crypto, the report said.

The top skills organisations are on the lookout for in 2022 are data science, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, blockchain and machine learning, it added.

The demand for sales professionals is also estimated to increase especially in industries such as fintech, retail, e-commerce and social commerce, it said.

Further, it observed that with a number of employees preferring remote working and staying in their hometowns, more and more organisations are considering setting up smaller offices in tier-II cities or utilising co-working spaces to provide employees with better resources and access to technology.

This will, in turn, lead to an increased demand to hire across tier-II cities in the coming months, it added.

The report stated that the continuing emergence of start-ups will further contribute to the demand for entry-level professionals across industries.

Hiring for freshers has picked up over the past three months of the year, and is estimated to increase considerably in 2022, it added.