Mumbai, June 1 -- Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), one of India's largest employers, may have reduced its new hirings by as much as 90,000 in FY26 from the previous year. The sharp recruitment decline comes at a time when conglomerates are increasingly focusing on upskilling existing employees in artificial intelligence (AI) and redesigning existing roles rather than expanding workforce. This loss of recruiting appetite signals a worrying trend at a time when advent of AI, global wars, supply chain crisis and a stringent economy has dampened many a hiring plan. "As of March 31, 2026, the Group's headcount is 4.19 lakh+, comprising 1 lakh+ new hires, with focused recruitment in AI, data science, automation and digital transformation," the Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate said in its FY26 annual report, published on its website last week. When compared with the previous fiscal's report, the drop is clear. "During FY 2024-25, Reliance on-boarded over 1.9 lakh new hires," the earlier annual report had said. While the latest report does not specify the exact number of recruits beyond "1 lakh+", the reduction could be close to 90,000. The FY24 report showed the company had then hired 171,116 employees. Jio Platforms Ltd, which houses the digital services and telecom arm, had a headcount of 74,822 end FY26, down almost 21% from 94,523 a year ago, the report said. According to a company executive, one reason for the decline in headcount is a new career option in the Reliance Jio home business, where employees in smaller markets can become 'micro entrepreneurs' instead of full-time employees. A micro entrepreneur oversees installation and maintenance of home business products in a specific city area and is compensated per installation. The media and entertainment business had 10,295 employees, a drop of 8% from 11,186 in FY25. The oil to chemicals industry, one of its older businesses, employed 28,051 in FY26 versus 29,985 in FY25, over 6% fewer. However, the retail business showed a 17% rise in workforce, with 290,293 at the end of March 2026, from 247,782 in FY25. The overall workforce at Reliance has, however, continued to grow. The conglomerate, preparing to list its telecom and digital services arm, Jio Platforms Ltd, has steadily expanded its employee base from 347,362 in FY24 to 419,911 end FY26....