As the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) accelerates, India's information technology (IT) and start-up sectors are going through a turbulent period marked by job cuts and increased uncertainty over the future role of programmers and coders.
Recently, IT industry veteran and Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy said that modern technology will eliminate routine roles in this field. Reflecting this view, the Economic Survey 2024-25 noted that emerging technologies pose both threats and opportunities to labor markets around the world.
As companies increasingly focus on machine learning (ML), this field is expected to eliminate mundane roles such as data entry and basic coding. Automating routine tasks allows companies to reduce recurring labor costs by replacing them with one-time capital investments in technology.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India's largest IT services provider, announced plans to lay off about 12,000 people, or 2% of its workforce, this year in a major reshuffle. However, employees and IT unions claimed that around 38,000 staff were laid off in the second quarter. TCS said in a statement that it has so far laid off about 6,500 employees.
According to a report in April, Infosys had dismissed about 800 new students from its Mysore campus who joined the company in October 2024 because they failed an internal evaluation, but the company denied the allegations. In October, quick commerce platform Zepto reportedly laid off 300 employees, bringing the loss of nearly 1,000 jobs since the start of the year. Ola's AI division Kultrim also plans to lay off nearly 200 employees in 2025, including about 50 people from its linguistics team, as part of a strategic realignment.
According to staffing firm Xpheno, nearly 7,700 senior professionals in the IT industry lost their jobs between mid-2024 and mid-2025 due to overemployment due to AI adoption, automation, economic pressures, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
