AI Boom Shrinks H-1B Opportunities for Indian Tech Talent in the U.S.

The quickening of the adoption and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the United States is a significant factor in the tech job market — with Indian talent appearing to be the first people to stop feeling the impact. Nonetheless, while U.S. tech giants hire people in large numbers to support and scale their AI operations, the demand for Indian H-1B professionals has fallen to the lowest level in ten years.

Recent reports show a remarkable change: the three largest IT companies from India that are based in the U.S. got only 4,573 H-1B approvals for new employment in the fiscal year 2025. That represents an enormous decline of 70% compared to 2015, and 37% lower than in 2024, according to the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP).

Analysts say there are two main reasons behind this trend:

First, Indian IT companies are reducing their H-1B hiring, and rather than hiring people, they are investing in AI and automation to operate more efficiently.

Secondly, U.S. companies are hiring from a more diverse global talent pool which also includes the fresh graduates explicitly trained in AI — thus, lowering their reliance on Indian tech workers.

On the other hand, the H-1B denial rate for continuing jobs has been quite stable and low — 1.9% in the fiscal year 2025, almost the same as 1.8% in 2024, and even lower than 2.4% in 2023. This means that if an Indian tech worker is employed in the U.S., he/she is mostly able to keep his/her visa status.

TCS is the only one among the Indian tech giants that figures in the top five companies for continuing-employment approvals. Nevertheless, even TCS was not able to avoid the tightening landscape. The company faced an extension rejection rate of 7% in 2025, up from 4% in 2024. TCS managed to have 5,293 approvals for continued employment but initial approvals have dropped dramatically to 846, down from 1,452 last year.

With AI technology being adopted in various global industries, the traditional route for Indian professionals to get into the U.S. tech market via H-1B visas seems to be closing off. The experts are of the view that the Indian tech talent's future in the U.S. will be very much reliant on the upgradation of skills in AI, machine learning, and advanced computing—which are the very professions where the next war for talent is already happening.