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India’s ambition to become a global talent magnet will depend not only on the talent it creates, but on how open it is to talent, ideas and innovation from across the world. Day 2 of #NasscomPeopleSummit2026 began with Constantino Xavier, Senior Fellow, Centre for Social and Economic Progress, setting the stage with his keynote, Innovation Through Openness: Making India a Global Talent Magnet. He highlighted the need to look beyond programmes that connect global organisations with Indian talent and focus equally on retaining talent within the country. The conversation also challenged the disproportionate value often placed on Indian talent working for global companies, underscoring the need to create stronger pathways for talent to contribute to India’s own growth and innovation. The message was clear: becoming a global talent magnet is not only about supplying talent to the world, but creating an ecosystem where the world’s opportunities can meet talent in India. #Nasscom #PeopleSummit26 #NasscomPeopleSummit2026 #TalentIntelligenceWorkredefined #LeadingTalentintheAgeofAI @ConstantinoX @CSEP_Org @NasscomEvents

As AI becomes increasingly embedded in how technology professionals learn, build and solve problems, the definition of future-ready talent is evolving. Nasscom has launched “The State of AI-Native Talent in India: Decoding the Readiness of India’s Early-Career Technology Workforce”, introducing a one-of-its-kind - Nasscom AI-Native Talent Index to assess AI-native capability and examine how AI is reshaping engineering talent. The report highlights a critical shift ahead: building an AI-native workforce will require more than AI proficiency, it will require strong technical judgment, systems thinking and the ability to work effectively with AI. Read the report: nasscom.in/knowledge-cent… #AI #AINativeTalent #FutureOfWork #TechTalent #Nasscom #PeopleSummit26 #NasscomPeopleSummit2026 #TalentIntelligenceWorkRedefined #LeadingTalentInTheAgeOfAI @RNamb @sangeetagupta29 @NasscomR

AI-first leadership starts with firsthand understanding, not delegated adoption. At #NasscomPeopleSummit2026, Nisha Gopinath, VP & Head of HR, IBM India & South Asia, sat down with Rahul Kothari, COO, Razorpay, and Kishor Patil, Vice Chairperson, Nasscom & Co-founder, CEO & MD, KPIT Technologies, to discuss how leaders are rethinking their own role as AI changes the rules of business. Rahul highlighted that AI may require leaders to revisit not only strategy, but also the mission, competitive position and boundaries of the business. He also spoke about the importance of leaders using and building with AI themselves, so they can set more realistic expectations around outcomes, timelines and costs. Kishor shared how experimentation can help organisations move beyond the hype, including comparing the same work done through traditional methods and with AI to understand where it genuinely adds value. The conversation also brought out a practical leadership challenge: creating room for early attempts to fail and improve, without turning AI adoption into a target that encourages shortcuts or superficial use. #Nasscom #PeopleSummit26 #NasscomPeopleSummit2026 #TalentIntelligenceWorkRedefined #LeadingTalentInTheAgeOfAI @IBM @KPITKishorPatil @KPIT @rahul_kothari @Razorpay @NasscomEvents

At #NasscomPeopleSummit2026, Isabelle Isnard, CHRO, AXA, and Sandhya Varanasi, VP, India Hub CTO & Chair of India R&D Council, Schneider Electric, joined Dr. Abhilasha Gaur, CEO, SSC Nasscom, for a fireside chat on building India's skill-first "builder" talent pool. From redefining the operator vs. builder mindset to reimagining middle management as "sensors" of strategy, the conversation unpacked what it really takes to shift India's workforce from executing ideas to architecting them. Swipe through for the key moments from the session 👉 #Nasscom #PeopleSummit26 #NasscomPeopleSummit26 #TalentIntelligenceWorkredefined #LeadingTalentintheAgeofAI @Cognizant @sscnasscom @AXA @NasscomEvents

AI is changing the nature of work, making context, judgment and real-world application increasingly important. At #NasscomPeopleSummit2026, Sujit John, Deputy Resident Editor and Editor, Times Techies, The Times of India, led a conversation with Dr. Abhilasha Gaur, CEO, SSC Nasscom; Richard Lobo, Chief People Officer, Tech Mahindra; Sushanth Tharappan, EVP & Head – HR, Infosys Limited; and Sachin Khurana, Chief People Officer, Happiest Minds, on how organisations can prepare talent for an AI-first world. Key takeaways: • AI is making routine execution easier while increasing the value of domain knowledge, business context and human judgment. • Skilling will need to move beyond periodic reskilling towards continuous learning, practical application and hands-on experience. • Mid-career professionals will remain critical because they carry the organisational context needed to connect AI with business outcomes. • For fresh graduates, project work, portfolios and demonstrated capability will increasingly matter alongside academic credentials. • Preparing an AI-ready workforce will require stronger collaboration between industry, academia and government, with greater focus on employability, adaptability and lifelong learning. #Nasscom #PeopleSummit26 #NasscomPeopleSummit26 #TalentIntelligenceWorkredefined #LeadingTalentintheAgeofAI @sujitjohn @timesofindia @tech_mahindra @sscnasscom @STharappan @Infosys @HappiestMinds

Technology alone does not drive transformation, technology and people do. That was the throughline of Kathy Diaz, Chief People Officer, Cognizant's keynote at #NasscomPeopleSummit2026, where she unpacked what a fluid, distributed, and augmented workforce actually demands of leaders. She noted that the AI era requires greater fluidity across roles, skills, learning and career structures. Static job descriptions are giving way to dynamic capability profiles, while deep domain expertise must increasingly be combined with interdisciplinary and distinctly human skills. Predictable skilling programmes are also making way for continuous, adaptive learning. As work becomes more distributed and human and AI agents increasingly operate within the same workflows, HR will need to move from administrator to workforce architect; building its own AI fluency, staying closely connected to the business and its people, and leading the reinvention of the function. #Nasscom #PeopleSummit26 #NasscomPeopleSummit26 #TalentIntelligenceWorkredefined #LeadingTalentintheAgeofAI @Cognizant @NasscomEvents

The real test of AI-led productivity is how organisations redeploy the capacity it creates. At #NasscomPeopleSummit2026, Rajesh Nambiar, President, Nasscom, and Ajay Vij, Senior Country Managing Director, Accenture Solutions Pvt. Ltd discussed how AI is changing the value proposition of the technology services industry. Key takeaways: • Clients now expect productivity gains and measurable business outcomes at the same time. • Tech services firms are moving from being delivery partners to playing a larger role in enterprise value creation. • The real test is redeployment: whether organisations can reskill people and direct released capacity towards new services and growth opportunities. • For entry-level talent, AI fluency will become a baseline, while judgment, empathy and client-facing capabilities will create differentiation. • India’s human-capital advantage must now be strengthened by deeper investment in compute and R&D. #Nasscom #PeopleSummit26 #NasscomPeopleSummit26 #TalentIntelligenceWorkredefined #LeadingTalentintheAgeofAI @RNamb @Accenture @NasscomEvents

Everyone sees a different part of the AI transformation. The real value lies in connecting the dots. At #NasscomPeopleSummit2026, Lakshmi Chandrasekharan, Senior Managing Director & CHRO, Accenture, India noted that technologists see capability, business leaders see growth, HR leaders see talent and skills, while policymakers see regulation. Each view is valid, but incomplete on its own. As the conversation shifts from AI adoption to enterprise reinvention, organisations must rethink work, workflows and the workforce together. Traditional pyramids and linear careers are already being challenged, making it critical to question assumptions, learn from what is not working and identify the right questions to solve collectively. #Nasscom #PeopleSummit26 #NasscomPeopleSummit26 #TalentIntelligenceWorkredefined #LeadingTalentintheAgeofAI @Accenture @NasscomEvents

The challenge is no longer forecasting the future. It is building organisations that can thrive through constant change. Opening the #NasscomPeopleSummit2026, Rajesh Nambiar, President, Nasscom, outlined how organisations must prepare people for a future they cannot yet define. For decades, organisations prepared talent for relatively predictable careers. Today, the future is no longer linear, shaped by: • Changing business models • Rapid technology cycles • AI becoming ubiquitous • Demographic shifts • Geopolitical uncertainty Tomorrow’s jobs may not yet exist, cannot be fully described, cannot be trained for today, and traditional entry-level roles are evolving. The question is therefore shifting from “What skills will people need?” to: • How do we build people who can continuously learn whatever comes next? • How do we manage and govern humans and AI agents working together? In a future we cannot yet define, learning agility will become more valuable than any individual skill. #Nasscom #PeopleSummit26 #NasscomPeopleSummit2026 #TalentIntelligenceWorkRedefined #LeadingTalentInTheAgeOfAI @RNamb @NasscomEvents

Leading Talent in the Age of AI requires more than adopting new technology, it demands new leadership approaches and talent strategies to navigate a rapidly changing world of work. The conversations at Nasscom People Summit 2026 bring these interconnected shifts into focus. Through keynotes, fireside chats, leaders' discussions, deep-dive tracks and masterclasses, the Summit will explore how organisations can rethink work, the workforce and the workplace—and build the leadership needed for what's next. See you there! 📅 14–15 July 2026 📍 Hotel Conrad, Bengaluru #nasscom #PeopleSummit26 #NasscomPeopleSummit26 #TalentIntelligenceWorkredefined #LeadingTalentintheAgeofAI @RNamb @KPITKishorPatil @Cognizant @KPIT @Razorpay @IBM @SchneiderElec @AXA @sscnasscom @NasscomEvents