Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Talent Acquisition and Employee Selection: A Study of Recruitment Agencies in Bengaluru, India

Abstract

The world's technology hub, Bengaluru, India, has seen the incorporation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the recruitment industry move from a luxury to a necessity. This study examines the influence of AI tools in talent acquisition and employee selection, particularly with the stories of the recruitment agencies in Bengaluru's booming business landscape. The main goal is to assess the impact of AI on operational efficiency, candidate quality, and algorithmic bias, from automated resumes harsher engines to NLP-powered screening and predictive candidate-matching systems. A mixed methods research design was employed, collecting data via a structured questionnaire from a sample of 250 recruitment professionals (consultants, team leads, and partners) from different staffing companies in Bengaluru from late 2024 to early 2026. The results show a high positive correlation between the AI’s maturity and a decrease in "time-to-fill" for specialized technical positions (r = 0.74). But descriptive analysis shows that the algorithms designed to eliminate human bias actually have a "Bias Paradox" in favour of candidates from 'Tier-1' Indian institutes because of the historical learning data. The study indicates that Bengaluru recruiters are shifting towards an "Augmented Intelligence" model, where AI handles data processing, and humans engage in navigating complex discussions with stakeholders and determining cultural fit. Policy implications include the importance of ethical AI governance frameworks and the importance of NLP tuning locally to reflect India's socio-economic and linguistic diversity. In this paper, a localized strategic framework is proposed for recruitment firms to ensure that they adopt a speedy technological approach while maintaining a selection value that are grounded in humans.