Everyone knew that artificial intelligence (AI) had arrived, and it would cost jobs. When it has hit home, it hurts. India’s largest IT services provider, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), has announced it will lay off 12,260 employees, around 2 percent of its global workforce, this financial year. The company deemed it necessary to become ‘future-ready’ in an era of AI-led business transformation. It is a euphemism for describing the challenging times TCS and other IT companies face in a slowing global economy, increased competition and turbulent tariff and other geopolitical challenges. TCS’s plans come soon after its poorest first-quarter financial performance since 2020. The results showed that overall revenue fell by 3.1 percent, while dollar revenues slipped 1.1 percent.
TCS isn’t the only one letting go of its employees. Start-ups have retrenched 3,600 personnel early this year. Other tech companies, including Infosys, Wipro, and HCL Tech have slowed fresher recruitment and let go of small batches of older staff. At the international level, it’s a stampede. Tech giant Microsoft terminated over 6,000 employees this May. The announcement followed the confirmation by CEO Satya Nadella that AI currently writes 30 percent of the company’s code. One employment tracker has claimed that over 80,000 employees across 169 tech companies have been laid off in 2025.
The TCS disclosure reminds us of the consequences of AI—the programming of machines to simulate human intelligence, enabling them to ‘think’ and ‘learn’ to solve problems, make predictions and take decisions. Management consultancy Goldman Sachs reminds us we could lose as many as 300 million full-time jobs worldwide. McKinsey projects that by 2030, nearly 30 percent of working hours in the US could be automated. However, all technological change—AI is a significant one—creates turbulence in the present, but yields rewards in the future. Many have forgotten that computerisation arrived decades ago, accompanied by some job losses, but it ultimately expanded the employment base manifold in the long run. The World Economic Forum’s recent “Future of Jobs” report, for instance, forecasts that 83 million jobs globally will be eliminated by 2027, but 69 million new roles will emerge. What is necessary, though, is an immediate safety net that will retrain and redeploy those who have been rendered redundant. That is one way to lessen the pain.