India’s biggest IT company just made its boldest cut yet and it signals a deeper industry shift.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has announced plans to lay off approximately 12,000 employees, marking the largest workforce reduction in its history. The move impacts nearly 2% of its global headcount, which exceeds 600,000 employees.
This decision, according to internal sources and CEO K Krithivasan, is driven by a need to realign the company’s talent base around AI, automation, and next-generation tech services as traditional IT contracts face pricing pressure and slower global demand.
The layoffs are expected to disproportionately affect mid-level and senior professionals, as TCS restructures teams to become leaner, more automated, and AI-native.
The announcement has sparked strong reactions across India’s tech community. IT employee unions have opposed the decision, urging workers not to resign under pressure and demanding transparency in the process. They also flagged concerns around worker protections in the face of tech-led disruptions.
Industry analysts, however, see this as part of a broader recalibration one where even stable, services-led IT giants must pivot quickly or risk irrelevance. As enterprise clients demand more AI-driven solutions and outcome-based pricing, legacy teams are becoming increasingly expensive to maintain.
This isn’t just a company-level restructuring. It’s a loud signal that India’s IT workforce is entering its next evolutionary phase from developer heavy to AI-integrated, from delivery to orchestration.
TCS’s transition is painful, yes. But it may also be inevitable for companies betting their future on staying ahead of the curve, not riding it.
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