Indian tech professionals must upskill to stay relevant

The $290-billion strong Indian IT industry contributes significantly to Indian GDP through both direct and indirect job creation. The industry has employed around six million people directly. Importantly, employees of the Indian IT industry represent the great middle class of the domestic economy, which significantly drives the consumption growth. So, any disruption to employment prospects in the Indian IT industry will not only affect its employees but will also have a negative impact on the consumption-led story of the Indian economy. Against this backdrop, the fall in employee count of TCS points towards a worrisome trend.

The Tata Group company’s headcount of employees fell by 19,755 to 593,314 at the end of the second quarter of FY26. In stark contrast, the headcount was up by 5,090 in the previous quarter. TCS’ total headcount has come down below six lakh for the first time in years. Undoubtedly, TCS is one of the biggest employers among India Inc and its headcount fall doesn’t augur well for the domestic economy. According to experts, artificial intelligence (AI)-led disruption is bringing in a shift in the IT services industry.

Many repetitive tasks are getting automated, leading to redundancies in the job roles. Most of these redundancies are happening in the entry-level job roles. Additionally, many employees are unable to upskill themselves in AI and relevant skills. Such skill mismatch is leading to layoffs. This is more visible in the mid-level and senior-level employee space.

The world’s largest IT services firm, Accenture, has also optimised its workforce in recent quarters. In the latest quarter, its headcount fell by 11,000. Notably, Accenture has more than three lakh employees operating out of India, making it the largest employee base for the company. The employee optimisation moves by Accenture and TCS’ show that other players are likely to follow suit. There may not be mass layoffs to be seen but addition of employees will be tepid in the coming years. Amid such a negative outlook, there is, however, a silver lining.

As AI adoption grows, it is likely to create new job roles that were not seen before. In every new technology, such a trend has already been observed. Today, market participants may not foresee the job roles that will get created in the coming decade, but experience shows that that is a part of the cycle. Each new technology makes many existing job roles redundant but eventually creates a lot more jobs than initially anticipated. So, it’s time for upskilling and reskilling in contemporary skill sets. This is already happening at a rapid pace.

As entities in India embrace digital transformation at a swift pace, the country is slowly emerging as a big enough market for the global technology industry. Non-technology Indian entities into retail, banking, financial services, manufacturing and consumer-facing businesses are increasingly developing their own digital platforms and apps. Even their hiring is growing at a pace that is faster than the technology firms. The recent dynamics between India and the US is also prompting the former to be more reliant on home-grown technology.

This throws open big opportunities for Indian tech firms to develop products and apps that can be used by domestic consumers. If that happens, job creation in the Indian IT industry will be back to its usual pace in due course. Meanwhile, till that happens, it is better for technology professionals and college graduates aspiring to be part of the Indian IT industry to aggressively upskill themselves in contemporary skill sets to stay relevant and in demand.