At a time when much of the technology industry believes artificial intelligence will shrink the need for junior engineers, EPAM Systems is taking a different view.
The US-headquartered, engineering-led IT services firm has opened a 60,000 sq ft. fresher-only engineering facility in Hyderabad, aimed at training early-career engineers for AI-native delivery.
Over the past decade, EPAM’s headcount in India has grown nearly tenfold to more than 12,000 employees, and the company now sees the city as its primary pipeline for future engineers and leaders.
Larry Solomon, senior vice president and chief people officer at EPAM Systems, told AIM that the new campus reflects a shift in how the company builds engineering talent to meet growing demand shaped by cloud, data and AI.
Building Engineers for AI-Native Delivery
Solomon said traditional corporate training still focuses heavily on memorisation rather than real problem-solving.
According to him, engineers today need to break down unfamiliar client problems, collaborate across teams and assemble solutions that cannot be derived from textbooks.
The Hyderabad facility has been designed around that philosophy. Instead of fixed classroom instruction, the centre follows a flipped learning model, where freshers explore problems independently and seek guidance from mentors. The goal is to help engineers become comfortable navigating ambiguity early in their careers.
EPAM is also deliberately moving away from rigid training paths that push all engineers through identical sequences. Solomon said such approaches often result in uniform thinking and limited solution diversity. In an AI-era of delivery environment, the company believes teams must explore multiple solution paths rather than converge on a single “correct” answer.
EPAM said it plans to onboard 1,000 freshers into the programme in 2026 through campus placements. Each participant will be employed full-time, subject to performance during the training period.
Why EPAM Is Betting on Freshers
The Hyderabad campus is the first facility of its kind across EPAM’s global network. The move reflects a decision to shape engineers from the start, instead of relying on a lateral market where AI-ready skills remain limited.
A fresher-only setup also separates early learning from the pressure of live delivery. While the setting mirrors project teams, it removes client deadlines, giving new hires space to build judgment before moving into production roles.
Solomon rejected the idea that AI automation reduces the relevance of junior engineers. “I do not see AI as a threat to the employment of junior engineers. I see it as an asset,” he said.
According to him, basic familiarity with AI tools is only an entry point. The real value lies in applying those tools within real-world constraints such as business objectives, data limitations and system architecture.
By embedding AI into training from day one, EPAM wants freshers to treat it as a default part of engineering work rather than a specialised skill.
Solomon linked the investment directly to EPAM’s India roadmap. “They are a critical part of our growth strategy,” he said, adding that the company would not commit this level of resources if the model were short-term.
The city already hosts senior engineers and business leaders who will mentor cohorts as they pass through the programme.
Instead of integrating freshers into teams formed by lateral hires, EPAM aims to immerse them in its client-first delivery approach, collaboration norms and problem decomposition methods before they start live projects.
Amidst the fresher hiring pressure across the industry, EPAM is making the opposite bet — that early-career engineers, trained differently, will be essential to building AI-native systems at scale.
A Bet Against the Market
A Blind survey of 1,023 professionals in India found that 79% said their companies had reduced entry-level or internship hiring over the past year, with more than half reporting a significant drop. Only 6% saw any increase.
The pullback was pronounced at large tech firms, where roughly 80% reported declines in fresher or intern intake.
This trend reflects a broader shift, as companies use automation and AI to compress traditional entry-level work rather than expand it.
According to a report by Deccan Herald, citing staffing firm Xpheno, hiring of freshers is expected to remain muted through 2025–26 due to weak IT demand and AI adoption.
India’s engineering colleges produce about nine lakh BE and BTech graduates every year, yet the tech sector is expected to absorb only around 1.2 lakh of them.
Active demand is even lower. Xpheno estimates current entry-level demand across all sectors is under 50,000 roles, with only one-third coming from technology companies.
Earlier projections of 1.5 lakh tech hires were revised downward as uncertainty in key markets, particularly the US, affected hiring plans. In the first half of fiscal 2025-26, seven large IT services firms together absorbed a net 23,000 freshers.
Of the nine lakh engineering graduates, about 2.3 lakh are computer science graduates, including 13,000 from top-tier institutes such as IITs, NITs and BITS. While a small fraction secure core tech roles, many are forced into non-engineering jobs.
Against this backdrop, EPAM’s decision to expand fresher intake through a dedicated AI-focused campus runs counter to prevailing industry trends.
What Freshers Need to Do Now
In a tightening market, industry leaders say fresh graduates need to stand out on fundamentals rather than tools
“The fundamentals still matter: clean coding practices, debugging ability, systems thinking, and an understanding of how data flows through an application. AI tools don’t replace this — they make it even more important,” Sudipta Chandra, AVP, technology at Calsoft, told AIM.
Beyond skills, mindset is becoming a key filter. Freshers are expected to engage with AI and take responsibility for outcomes critically. “The mindset I value most is curiosity paired with discipline,” Chandra said.
Abhimanyu Saxena, co-founder of Scaler and InterviewBit, told AIM that freshers need to shift focus from credentials to execution. “In today’s AI-driven world, the true differentiator is not what you know but what you can build.”
He urged students to start early with real-world exposure. “Students should start early by participating in hackathons, contributing to open-source projects,” he said, alongside working on side projects that mimic real-world complexity and seeking mentorship from those who have built and scaled systems.
As fresher hiring shrinks and expectations rise, engineers who combine strong judgment with AI fluency are likely to be the ones who break through.
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