New Delhi, Aug. 12 -- A structural transition is underway in India's telecom sector, which is moving away from a manpower-intensive model to a leaner, automated and tech-driven framework as operators replace employees with AI, cloud-based infrastructure and intelligent networks.

Although hiring trends among the three largest telecom operators vary, the shift in job profiles is evident as the common thread.

Market leader Reliance Jio (Jio), its closest rival Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea together added a shade more than 30,000 employees over the past five years. But the hiring trends were not uniform. While Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea upped their workforce strength over this period, hiring at Reliance Jio, which has the largest cus...