Global IT firms snap up more Indian staff in growth chase

AI technologies increasingly become part of IT services workflows in emerging trend

- Jas Bardia & Varun Sood

Three of the world's largest information technology (IT) services firms—Capgemini SE, Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. and EPAM Systems Inc.—have found a seemingly contrarian hack to grow and maintain their operating margins: hike the India headcount.

Analysts see this as the beginning of a new trend as artificial intelligence (AI)-based technologies increasingly become part of IT services workflows and give rise to demand for tech workers to monitor their deployment. India's talent pool seems to offer a competitive staffing solution for this need.

This comes at a time when some among their biggest Indian peers are trimming their workforce.

Capgemini, Cognizant and EPAM ended 2025 with 230,000, 256,900, and 12,200 employees in India, making between a fifth and three-fourths of their total employees, respectively. The firms hiked their India headcount from a year ago, in absolute terms and also as a percentage of total headcount. Local hiring also drove the overall headcount addition.