Benevolve is highlighting the role of AI-powered skills intelligence in helping businesses prepare for festive-season demand by focusing on workforce capabilities rather than just hiring more employees. The approach is designed to help consumer, retail and e-commerce companies identify existing skills, redeploy employees where needed and address capability gaps during periods of increased demand.
According to a September 2026 report by NLB Services, festive hiring in India is expected to grow by 15–20% this year, generating 2–2.5 lakh seasonal and gig jobs between July and December. Tier II and Tier III cities are expected to account for around 45% of this demand.
Festive Hiring Pushes Businesses to Rethink Workforce Planning
The festive season places additional pressure on several business functions, including fulfilment, inventory management, logistics, customer experience and support. Companies typically respond by increasing headcount to manage higher workloads and meet customer demand.
However, Benevolve highlights that hiring alone does not provide a complete picture of workforce readiness. Businesses also need to understand the capabilities of their existing employees, identify opportunities to redeploy them and determine which skill gaps require targeted training or additional hiring.
Benevolve Uses AI to Map Workforce Skills
Benevolve’s AI-powered skills intelligence platform maps the skills available across an organisation and connects them with business requirements. This allows leaders to identify areas where critical skills are limited, understand which employees can move across functions and determine where upskilling or recruitment could have the greatest impact.
The approach aims to shift workforce planning from reactive hiring towards more structured decisions based on employee capabilities and operational requirements.
AI-Led Internal Talent Marketplace Supports Employee Redeployment
Benevolve’s approach is already being used by enterprise clients across sectors, including retail and e-commerce. The company has powered an AI-led internal talent marketplace to help organisations make better use of existing workforce capabilities.
According to Benevolve, its platform currently supports more than 35,000 employees across enterprise clients.
Skills-First Workforce Planning Extends Beyond the Festive Season
Benevolve says skills intelligence can support workforce planning beyond seasonal hiring cycles. Consumer businesses and digital-first companies increasingly operate with leaner teams, faster operating cycles and changing demand patterns.
A skills-first approach can help these organisations adapt by identifying available capabilities, enabling employee redeployment and directing training towards business needs. This allows workforce decisions to focus on building adaptable teams rather than repeatedly increasing and reducing headcount in response to demand peaks.
Benevolve Emphasises Workforce Capabilities Over Headcount
With festive hiring expected to increase across India, Benevolve is advocating a workforce planning approach that combines recruitment with skills mapping, employee redeployment and targeted upskilling.
By helping businesses understand the capabilities they already have and where additional skills are required, the company’s AI-powered skills intelligence platform aims to support workforce readiness during seasonal peaks and changing business conditions.
Leadership Comment
“Every festive season, businesses focus on adding people to meet rising demand. But effective workforce planning also means understanding the skills already available within the organization, where critical gaps exist and where redeployment or targeted hiring can make the biggest difference. Festive demand brings this challenge into focus, but the need for skills-level workforce intelligence extends well beyond the season,” said Aditya Singh, Founder & CEO, Benevolve.
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