While some global companies have already reached advanced levels of AI maturity in recruitment – highlighted in our analysis of Leading AI Recruiting Organizations 2026: Top 10 Companies – many large enterprises are now actively building intelligent hiring systems that combine automation, data insights, and predictive technologies.
The Top 25 Emerging AI-Driven Hiring Organizations – 2026 report highlights organizations that are making meaningful progress in adopting AI across their hiring workflows.
These companies may not yet be the most mature AI adopters globally, but they are clearly demonstrating strong momentum by integrating AI into candidate sourcing, screening, assessments, and decision-making processes.
What distinguishes these organizations is their ability to move beyond experimentation and deliver tangible outcomes.
Many have already reported improvements in hiring speed, recruiter productivity, candidate experience, and hiring quality. Their leadership teams are also actively investing in scaling AI further across recruitment and HR operations.
The report is based on Zappyhire’s 2026 AI Hiring Research, which evaluates organizations on multiple indicators including AI implementation depth, operational outcomes, hiring scale, and leadership intent to expand AI adoption.
Together, these companies represent a growing group of AI-forward employers shaping the next phase of recruitment transformation.
Emerging AI-Driven Hiring Organizations – 2026 Accelerating Adopters*
| S. no | Company | Industry | Notable AI capabilities |
| 1 | Larsen & Toubro | Infra | AI-based candidate matchmaking and hiring automation |
| 2 | Mahindra Group | Conglomerate | Predictive hiring analysis and HR AI chatbots |
| 3 | Adani Group | Conglomerate | AI resume screening and interview assessment tools |
| 4 | Flipkart | E-commerce | AI resume screening and candidate sourcing automation |
| 5 | OLA Electric | EV | AI-enabled workflows |
| 6 | Maruti Suzuki | Automotive | Agentic AI recruitment automation and large-scale hiring |
| 7 | HDB Financial Services | NBFC | Agentic AI-powered ATS for recruitment automation |
| 8 | Federal Bank | BFSI | AI chatbots and automated video interview screening |
| 9 | Upgrad | EdTech | AI-driven candidate discovery and screening |
| 10 | HDFC Bank | BFSI | AI-powered candidate screening assistants and chatbots |
| 11 | Kotak Mahindra Bank | BFSI | AI-powered onboarding and tech hiring. |
| 12 | Tata Communications | Telecom | AI talent discovery scanning large resume databases |
| 13 | Shaadi.com | Internet | Unified AI recruitment platform and automated video interviews |
| 14 | NeST Digital | IT Services | AI-powered ATS and recruitment analytics dashboards |
| 15 | ESAF Bank | BFSI | AI candidate evaluation across 16+ parameters |
| 16 | Bajaj Capital | BFSI | AI-driven resume screening, candidate sourcing, JD creation, candidate matching, skills assessments, and interview scheduling |
| 17 | ICICI Bank | BFSI | Chatbots and automated recruitment workflows |
| 18 | Axis Bank | BFSI | Automated candidate screening and digital hiring workflows |
| 19 | Biocon | Pharma | AI-powered sourcing and candidate shortlisting |
| 20 | NoBroker | PropTech | AI across sourcing, screening, onboarding, skills assessment, and interview scheduling |
| 21 | Swiggy | Consumer Tech | AI resume screening and hiring analytics tools |
| 22 | Domino’s | QSR / Food Service | Automated interviews and AI-driven high-volume hiring workflows |
| 23 | Paytm | FinTech | AI calling agents and automated candidate screening |
| 24 | Electrolux Group | Consumer Durables | AI-powered fit scoring, candidate matching, video assessments, and automated scheduling |
| 25 | Razorpay | FinTech | AI-powered video interviews with hybrid evaluation model |
*The AI maturity information come from Zappyhire’s 2026 research. They represent how deeply each employer has embedded AI into its recruiting processes relative to its industry peers.
Top 25 Emerging AI-Driven Hiring Organizations – 2026
1. Larsen & Toubro (L&T)
Larsen & Toubro (L&T), a major Indian engineering conglomerate, has integrated AI into its recruitment processes primarily through partnerships with HR tech platforms that enable AI- driven matchmaking, automation, and efficiency gains in talent acquisition across multiple entities and locations.
“The biggest ‘aha’ for my team has been the reduction in time-to-hire. With AI-based matchmaking, the quality of hires has improved significantly, and we’ve been able to onboard new joiners with a truly delightful experience. I’m absolutely looking forward to the next phase of the HR tech revolution.”
– Dr. C Jayakumar, EVP & Head – Corporate HR at Larsen & Toubro
The results are significant with 4.7/5 candidate satisfaction, 3-minute offer creation, and
$800K in quarterly savings from reduced vendor dependency.
2. Mahindra Group
Mahindra Group, particularly through its IT arm Tech Mahindra, leverages AI in recruitment to automate routine tasks and uses predictive fit analysis for their roles.
Apart from that, Tech Mahindra also deploys AI-powered chatbots and humanoids like K2 for handling HR queries.
“In today’s digital era, the changing talent landscape is making it imperative for organizations to not just be customer focused, but more ‘human experience’ centric. At Tech Mahindra, we are focused on leveraging technology to further enhance human experiences by making them more personalized and meaningful.”
– Harshvendra Soin, Chief People Officer, Tech Mahindra
3. Adani Group
Adani Group employs AI in recruitment through custom tools like Sarcham for internal talent mapping and external AI systems for resume scanning, predictive success modeling, and interview analytics to enhance hiring accuracy and speed.
CHRO Vikram Tandon has highlighted AI’s revolutionary role in HR, including talent enablement, while the group builds India-specific AI solutions to address scale challenges in sourcing and retention.
“I’ve noticed significant automation in assessments, whether for existing employees or applicants. Automated technologies are increasingly prevalent in various processes. For instance, we’re exploring video interviews that conduct assessments based on various criteria.”
– Vikram Tandon, CHRO, Adani Group
4. Flipkart
Flipkart integrates AI for recruitment through tools that automate resume screening, candidate sourcing, video interview assessments, and talent pipelining, enabling proactive hiring and data-driven insights into sourcing effectiveness.
CHRO Seema Nair positions HR as AI’s “strategic co-pilot,” using it for personalized employee engagement at scale while predicting exits via models analyzing work patterns like 1:1 frequency and performance dips.
“Think back to why you chose to be in HR. Was it to do paperwork? Or was it to help shape organizations and people? If AI can remove the repetitive work, let it. Use that space to do what really matters,”
– Seema Nair, CHRO at Flipkart
5. OLA Electric
Ola Electric has indicated that AI-enabled recruitment workflows are already part of their hiring process.
While the extent of implementation may still be evolving, the presence of AI-driven workflows signals a clear move toward more automated, data-informed hiring practices.
This positions Ola Electric among organizations that are actively exploring and integrating AI to improve efficiency, scalability, and decision-making within recruitment.
6. Maruti Suzuki
Maruti Suzuki uses Zappyhire’s agentic AI-powered automation for end-to-end recruitment digitization, streamlining candidate experience and operations for India’s largest carmaker.
They hire AI specialists like Agentic AI Engineers for LLM integration, RAG, and agent development, signaling internal AI adoption in HR and digital products.
Within a year of implementation, Maruti Suzuki scaled hiring operations across 31 hubs in 12 states, screening 1,00,000+ candidates, deploying 26,000+ hires, conducting 100+ recruitment drives, and onboarding 100+ employees every day through a fully digitized recruitment process.
7. HDB Financial Services
HDB Financial Services Ltd. is emerging as a strong enabler of AI-driven recruitment in India.
With operations spanning 1,770+ cities and a workforce of over 80,000 employees, the organization is adopting agentic AI powered ATS technology to bring greater consistency, speed, and data-driven decision-making into hiring.
HDBFS is demonstrating how large NBFCs can scale talent acquisition efficiently while building a more structured and technology-led hiring ecosystem by modernizing recruitment processes across its large branch network.
8. Federal Bank
Founded in 1917 and headquartered in India, Federal Bank is one of the country’s leading
private sector banks with over 7,000 employees.
Federal Bank has been able to streamline early-stage hiring and evaluate candidates more efficiently by using AI-powered recruiting chatbots for candidate screening and automated video interviews to assess applicants.
These AI-driven initiatives have delivered measurable outcomes, helping the bank hire 1,100+ candidates quickly while achieving 75% savings in recruitment costs and 72% improvement in hiring quality.
As Assistant Vice President – HR, Raj Gopal, notes: “Over 80 per cent of the workforce will be millennials by 2025, and this means a digitally empowered jobseeker ecosystem that thrives on technologies like AI, machine learning, blockchain, internet of things, big data, and natural language processing.”
9. upGrad
upGrad is emerging as a leader in AI-driven recruitment by combining talent acquisition, skilling, and workforce deployment into a single intelligent hiring ecosystem.
As the Hire-Train-Deploy and staffing arm of the upGrad Group, upGrad Rekrut platform uses AI to streamline candidate discovery, screening, and engagement while building talent pipelines that are agile and future-ready.
Founded in 2020, upGrad Rekrut operates across 650+ cities with a team of more than 500 specialists and access to a network of over 10 million candidates.
As Hussain Tinwala, President of upGrad Rekrut, explains: “AI helps automate repetitive tasks like profile screening, follow-ups, and communication, but its real impact is shifting recruitment from reactive to predictive hiring. Recruiters can then focus on connecting with candidates and delivering a true ‘wow’ experience while AI uncovers deeper narratives behind every candidate’s journey.”
10. HDFC Bank
HDFC Bank employs AI in early recruitment stages like candidate screening via assistants for first-level interviewers, chatbots, predictive analytics, and AI-powered ATS, as part of a phased “AI-first” roadmap without layoffs.
“We are attempting a lot of use cases across various functions. In the HR space, we have used AI for initial screening of candidates in the hiring process. We have a roadmap which captures what we want to achieve across multiple functions within the bank.”
– Nitin Chugh, Country Head – Digital Banking, HDFC Bank.
11. Kotak Mahindra Bank
Kotak Mahindra Bank and its group companies are gradually adopting automation and AI- enabled systems to modernize HR and recruitment.
Within the Kotak ecosystem, Kotak Securities has begun introducing AI-driven evaluation tools for technical hiring.
Using automated coding assessments with AI-based proctoring and trust scores, the team can verify candidates’ real coding ability before interviews and reduce reliance on manual screening.
“I had spent countless hours interviewing candidates who weren’t technically qualified, which was frustrating and inefficient. I now share custom test links with candidates, and the platform provides detailed test scores along with a reliable trust score that helps me quickly filter out unsuitable applicants. The time savings have been significant, and the quality of candidates reaching the interview stage has improved dramatically.”
– Amogh U, Senior Manager, Kotak Securities
12. Tata Communications
Powered by machine learning and natural language processing, Tata Communications scans nearly 500 million publicly available resumes to identify candidates whose experience matches specific job requirements.
“The problem with the existing model was that you only get the resumes of people who are actively job hunting or through head hunters. This algorithm understands the job description and looks through resumes like a human.”
– Aadesh Goyal, Chief Human Resource Officer at Tata Communications,
This approach allows hiring teams to identify passive candidates based on skills and experience rather than only relying on applicants who are actively job hunting, significantly improving the quality of shortlisted candidates.
The AI-driven approach has also produced measurable improvements in hiring outcomes and diversity. About 62% of hires are now driven by AI-based talent discovery, and 91% of discovered candidates are qualified, reducing the average number of resumes needed to make an offer from 12 to just 6.
Recruiters save 4–6 hours per week that would otherwise be spent on resume research, while hiring teams require 50% fewer internal meetings to fill roles.
13. Shaadi.com
Shaadi.com is emerging as a forward-thinking leader in AI-driven recruitment by adopting technology to modernize its hiring processes. Through its partnership with Zappyhire, the company replaced three disconnected manual platforms with a unified AI-powered recruitment system that manages the entire hiring lifecycle.
“We were using three different platforms for hiring. With Zappyhire, we now use a single platform for screening, sourcing, interviewing, pipeline management, offer release, and onboarding. Employee referral and vendor platforms are also part of it.”
– Head of Talent Acquisition, Shaadi.com
Today, Shaadi.com runs sourcing, resume screening, interviewing, pipeline management, offer releases, and onboarding on a single platform. By integrating automated video interviews and AI-powered chatbots, the company has significantly improved efficiency in handling high- volume hiring.
14. NeST Digital
NeST Digital has emerged as a leader in adopting AI-driven recruitment practices by transforming its traditionally manual hiring processes into an end-to-end automated, data- driven system.
Earlier, the organization relied heavily on offline workflows and manual trackers for screening candidates, managing interviews, and tracking recruitment data, which caused delays and inefficiencies across the hiring pipeline.
By implementing an agentic AI-powered recruitment automation platform, NeST Digital centralized its entire hiring process into a unified system that streamlined requisition creation, candidate screening, interview scheduling, and offer management.
“Zappyhire not only streamlined our requisition process but also transformed our hiring process with efficient candidate management and interview scheduling.The Next-Gen ATS’ ease of use, combined with Zappyhire team’s commitment to flexibility and configuration, has been a game- changer for us.”
– Lead Talent Acquisition, NeST Digital
15. ESAF Bank
ESAF Bank is actively integrating intelligent automation across critical stages of its hiring process.
With AI-powered insights, ESAF gains a 360° view of candidates across 16+ evaluation parameters, including communication ability and behavioral indicators, helping hiring teams make faster and more objective decisions.
This transformation has translated into measurable outcomes. ESAF Bank has achieved up to 4× reduction in time-to-hire, 2× improvement in quality of hire, and significantly lower candidate drop-offs, demonstrating how AI can strengthen both efficiency and candidate experience.
Combined with a highly configurable recruitment stack and automated pre-screening capabilities, ESAF is setting the benchmark for how forward-thinking financial institutions can scale hiring while maintaining quality and fairness.
16. Bajaj Capital
Bajaj Capital is steadily expanding the use of AI across key stages of its recruitment process. The organization is applying AI in areas such as resume screening, candidate sourcing, JD creation, candidate matching, skills assessments, and interview scheduling.
This allows hiring teams to manage large candidate volumes more efficiently while bringing greater consistency to how candidates are evaluated and shortlisted.
Bajaj Capital is moving toward a more structured and scalable hiring model by embedding AI across both early-stage screening and later evaluation steps.
The approach reflects a clear effort to reduce manual workload for recruiters while improving the speed and quality of hiring decisions, positioning the company as an emerging adopter of AI-driven recruitment within the BFSI sector.
17. ICICI Bank
ICICI Bank is transforming its hiring process through advanced automation and integrated HR technology.
As Abhijit Bhattacharya, Head – HR, TDG, Talent Acquisition and Business HR – RBG at ICICI Bank noted while accepting an award for Best HR Technology Implementation at the Financial Technology Innovation Awards, “This is only going to motivate us further to look for more possibilities in enhancing online experience of job applicants and employees.”
Beyond speed, ICICI Bank’s approach demonstrates how intelligent automation can improve both recruiter productivity and candidate experience at scale.
“The digitization of our recruitment process helped us improve the applicant experience. It also helped the bank and HR team by simplifying processes and enabling much more efficiency
– Harshal Setalvad, Technology Head – Corporate Centre, ICICI Bank
18. Axis Bank
Axis Bank is increasingly adopting AI and digital systems to modernize recruitment and handle large-scale hiring more efficiently across its ecosystem.
One example is Axis Securities, its subsidiary, which transformed its talent acquisition process by implementing a technology-driven recruitment platform that digitizes requisition creation, candidate screening, interview coordination, and offer management.
The impact of this transformation has been significant. Interview processing time reduced to 7 minutes, hiring manager feedback is captured within 10 minutes, and offer generation now takes around 30 minutes.
Real-time candidate status updates and automated shortlisting have also improved transparency and candidate experience, reflected in a 4.8/5 candidate satisfaction rating.
Hence, Axis Bank has been identified as an emerging leader in AI-enabled recruitment within India’s banking sector by combining automation, data-driven evaluation, and scalable hiring infrastructure across entities like Axis Securities.
19. Biocon
Biocon Biologics is emerging as a strong adopter of AI in recruitment by integrating AI-powered sourcing tools to support its global and highly specialized hiring needs.
As the company expands across multiple regions and hires for niche biosimilars and scientific roles, its talent acquisition team has adopted AI tools that analyze job descriptions, map competitor talent pools, and generate curated candidate shortlists within minutes, helping recruiters navigate complex talent markets more efficiently.
The adoption has delivered measurable improvements in recruitment efficiency and hiring quality. Recruiters report saving 3–5 hours per role search, enabling them to focus more on interviews, candidate engagement, and strategic hiring decisions.
“With Hiring Assistant, we save three to four hours on every leadership role search. I personally upload the JD, come back to a sharp shortlist with clear summaries, and spend that time where it matters—speaking with candidates and aligning with hiring managers.”
— Nivedita Tomar, Talent Acquisition Director, Biocon Biologics
20. NoBroker
NoBroker is also showing strong momentum in adopting AI across its recruitment operations. The company is implementing AI across sourcing, screening, onboarding, skills assessment, and interview scheduling, helping streamline several traditionally manual stages of hiring. This enables recruiters to move faster while keeping the process more organized and consistent.
The company is also moving toward a more skills-focused hiring approach supported by GenAI capabilities. As one of the few PropTech organizations actively applying AI across multiple hiring stages, it stands out as an emerging leader in AI adoption within its industry.
21. Swiggy
Swiggy is combining data analytics, automation, and large-scale hiring strategies to support its rapid expansion.
Founded in 2014, the company now operates across 250+ cities, partners with 50,000+ restaurants, and processes around 25 million orders monthly, requiring continuous large-scale hiring across operations, supply chain, and technology roles.
To support this growth, Swiggy adopted AI-enabled recruitment tools including AI matchmaking for automated resume screening, integrated sourcing systems, and analytics dashboards that help hiring teams organize, filter, and manage talent pipelines more efficiently.
These initiatives have delivered measurable results.
During a major hiring push, Swiggy closed 377 roles across 35+ locations within four months and ran 75+ hiring drives nationwide. The digitized approach also improved outcomes, with a 45% increase in offer rollouts, 31% higher joining conversions, a 10% reduction in time-to-fill, 25% lower cost per hire, and 20% lower sourcing costs.
22. Domino’s
Domino’s has been actively using automation and AI-driven technologies to handle large-scale hiring needs across its restaurant operations.
In one campaign, automated interviews with hundreds of candidates were completed within an hour – a task that would normally require around 40 hours of recruiter effort. This allowed the HR team to quickly identify interested and suitable candidates while keeping the hiring pipeline moving at scale.
Beyond early-stage automation, Domino’s has also modernized its broader recruitment technology stack to improve the candidate experience and streamline hiring workflows across its global franchise network.
These efforts have helped simplify applications, improve mobile accessibility, and increase applicant flow, enabling Domino’s to manage high-volume hiring more efficiently.
As one company representative noted, “The tool not only saved recruiter weeks of work but also helped candidates better understand the job before the next interview stage.”
23. Paytm
Paytm is increasingly positioning itself as an AI-first organization, integrating artificial intelligence across operations, including recruitment and HR transformation.
As the company scales across fintech, payments, and digital services, it is leveraging AI calling agents and automated screening tools to streamline candidate interactions and reduce delays in early hiring stages.
This AI-driven approach reflects Paytm’s broader strategy of using intelligent automation to improve recruitment efficiency and candidate engagement.
“In recruitment, AI’s speeding things up in ways that blow your mind. Think about platforms that scan thousands of resumes in seconds, picking out the perfect fits for a cybersecurity role or a data analyst gig. It’s not just faster—some say it cuts hiring time in half—it’s smarter, spotting patterns humans might miss, like a candidate’s hidden potential.”
– Gaurav Chopra, Head – HR Operations and Transformation at Paytm
24. Electrolux Group
Electrolux improved how candidates discover jobs, interact with recruiters, and move through the hiring process by introducing an intelligent talent experience platform integrated with its existing ATS.
AI-powered fit scoring, candidate matching, video assessments, and automated scheduling help recruiters and hiring managers evaluate candidates faster while creating a smoother experience for applicants.
The impact has been significant. Electrolux recorded an 84% increase in application conversion rates and a 51% reduction in incomplete applications, indicating stronger candidate engagement. Automation also reduced manual workload—automated scheduling alone saved 78% of recruiters’ time, while overall time-to-hire dropped by 9%.
Reflecting on the transformation, the company noted that the platform “serves as a valuable collaboration tool in the hiring process and builds the foundation for a holistic internal and external talent experience.”
25. Razorpay
Razorpay is adopting AI to modernize hiring while keeping human judgment central. As the fintech company scales its engineering, product, and operations teams, it has integrated AI- powered video interviews into its recruitment workflow.
Razorpay follows a hybrid AI-human model where about 40% of interview rounds are AI-led and 60% remain human-led, ensuring efficiency without compromising judgment and cultural fit.
AI video interviews help screen large applicant pools quickly and identify promising candidates, while human interviewers focus on deeper evaluations such as problem-solving ability, team fit, and leadership potential.
This balanced approach helps Razorpay maintain hiring quality while reducing repetitive screening work, making recruitment faster, more scalable, and aligned with the pace of fintech growth.
Why AI Adoption in Recruitment Matters for Big Corporations
The shift toward AI in recruitment is happening step by step. Many organizations start with small implementations like automating candidate pre-screening, introducing structured video interviews, or using an AI-enabled ATS to manage hiring workflows.
These early initiatives gradually build the foundation for a more data-driven hiring process.
Solutions such as agentic AI-powered applicant tracking systems, recruitment automation platforms, and automated video interview software are helping hiring teams reduce manual work, evaluate candidates more consistently, and move faster when hiring at scale.
As we have seen, for companies exploring AI in hiring, the right way to go about is introducing the right tools at the right stages of the recruitment funnel and allowing automation to support better decision-making.
