Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest IT firm by market value and headcount, expects to employ as many artificial intelligence agents as human workers within three years, its chairman said. The company won't cut staff but will slow hiring as AI absorbs a growing share of work, a move that mirrors a broader shift in the country's $315 billion technology sector.
TCS's AI workforce plan
The chairman's projection means TCS's roster of AI agents — software bots that handle tasks from coding to customer queries — could roughly equal its roughly 600,000 human employees by 2029. TCS has already reduced its net headcount sharply. The firm cut more than 12,000 jobs last July, and net headcount fell by over 23,000 in the fiscal year ended March 2026. The company has not disclosed how many AI agents it currently deploys.
Job losses mount as AI reshapes IT sector
TCS's hiring slowdown comes amid a wave of AI-related layoffs across the tech industry. According to Layoffs.fyi, 117,571 tech employees have been laid off across 175 companies so far in 2026. AI has been cited as a reason for 87,714 job losses this year, accounting for 22% of all layoffs — a jump from 54,836 in 2025. India's IT sector, built on people-heavy teams, has already trimmed hiring due to AI and geopolitical turbulence.
Hedge funds turn to AI tools
Outside IT services, finance is also leaning into automation. Magnetar, an $18 billion hedge fund, plans to deploy AI bots to scan markets, analyze stocks, and forecast trends. Humans will retain final trade decisions, the firm said. The move underscores how AI is penetrating industries beyond software development, even as regulators and investors watch for unintended consequences.
New roles on the horizon
Not all the news is about cuts. Companies reshaping operations with AI say new roles and openings are expected to emerge, though the timeline and scale remain unclear. For now, TCS's approach — no forced layoffs, but a deliberate hiring freeze — reflects a balancing act between adopting technology and managing a massive workforce. The question hanging over the sector is how fast those new jobs replace the ones AI absorbs.
