India’s Workers Are Rushing to Reskill as AI Reshapes Jobs
ETS’s latest Human Progress Report shows Indian employees facing heavy workplace disruption, rising skills pressure and a widening gap between AI demand and readiness.
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Indian employees reported high levels of workplace disruption and a strong push to learn new skills in the latest Human Progress Report from ETS, the assessment and talent solutions group behind exams such as TOEFL and GRE, according to a Times of India report citing details from the 2026 survey.
India also scored 114.4 on the Human Progress Index, above the global average of 96.7, the report added.
The findings suggest that as artificial intelligence reshapes jobs and workflows, workers in India are responding by investing more heavily in upskilling and credentials to remain competitive.
Nearly 98% of Indian respondents said they faced at least one barrier to professional success, underlining the pressure to keep pace with shifting workplace demands.
That pressure is showing up in how workers think about job security. The ETS report said security is now tied more to adaptability, verified skills and AI readiness, a shift that reflects a broader reordering of what employers and employees now value in a more volatile labor market.
“In the face of a changing job landscape, workers are quickly adapting,” said Amit Sevak, Chief Executive Officer of ETS. “Four in five workers are building new skills, even though most can’t envision their future job. Adaptability is becoming the new ‘must have’ skill.”
In India, that shift appears especially sharp. The Times of India reported that 89% of workers said they were building new skills to stay relevant, while about 90% said verified credentials mattered as they considered how to prepare for changing roles and expectations.
AI is a large part of that story. Indian respondents said they were using AI tools for more than 42% of their tasks, and 78% said they were using those tools mainly to remain competitive.
At the same time, the survey pointed to a 19-point gap between how important workers believe AI skills are and how proficient they feel, suggesting that adoption is moving faster than confidence.
The survey also points to a gap between workers’ expectations and the support they receive from employers. While 88% of Indian respondents said they expected support for upskilling, only 71% said they were receiving it, indicating that much of the burden of adaptation still falls on employees themselves.
Globally, ETS said 77% of workers are proactively building new skills, but 71% said they cannot clearly envision the future jobs those efforts are preparing them for.
The organization described this mismatch as an “adaptability paradox,” with workers responding to disruption in real time without much clarity on where the labor market is heading.
Access to credentials remains another weak point. ETS said 85% of workers worldwide view credentials as essential for career survival, yet only 45% reported having access to credentialing programs. That gap between motivation and access helps explain why many workers said the push to keep learning is also becoming a source of anxiety.
The 2026 report is based on an online survey conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of ETS between 25 August and 10 September 2025 among 32,558 adults across 18 countries, including India, the US, China, Japan, the UK and Germany.
ETS said the study is the third annual edition of its Human Progress Report, which tracks how workers are navigating technological change and shifting definitions of opportunity.
