TCS Prepares Job Cuts as Sector Watches Rise of AI

Co to let go of 2% staff; HCL may lay off some graduates; Wipro to test senior execs

- Jas Bardia & Varun Sood

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will lay off approximately 12,000 employees this fiscal year, as India's biggest private employer adjusts to slowing growth and rising artificial intelligence (AI).

The company attributed the decision, which will primarily impact senior and middle-level employees, partly to AI.

"TCS is on a journey to become a future-ready organization," a company statement said on Sunday. "This includes strategic initiatives on multiple fronts including investing in new-tech areas, entering new markets, deploying AI at scale for our clients and ourselves, deepening our partnerships, creating next-gen infrastructure and realigning our workforce model.

"As part of this journey, we will also be releasing associates from the organization whose deployment may not be feasible. This will impact about 2% of our global workforce, primarily in the middle and the senior grades, over the course of the year."

This would imply that TCS, which ended the June quarter with 613,069 employees, will let go of 12,200 employees. Mint has learnt that TCS has already asked 100 employees in Bengaluru to go over the last fortnight.