Synopsis
Global layoffs are intensifying across large tech firms and global capability centres in India, as companies like Oracle, Cisco, Amazon and Meta trim headcounts amid AI-driven strategies. Having moved from offshore support to core global roles, Indian workers are now more exposed to strategic restructuring and AI-led workforce changes.Listen to this article in summarized format
Their success in moving up the value chain means the cost arbitrage advantage that once shielded them from the waves of job cuts across global organisations is less effective in the latest workforce realignment caused by artificial intelligence (AI).
The season started with Oracle cutting 10,000 jobs in India earlier this month, followed by Dell and Atlassian. More global tech majors including Cisco, Amazon and Meta are set to trim headcounts as companies increasingly redirect investments into artificial intelligence and adopt AI-centric strategies.
Cisco executives are considering a 10-20% headcount cut, which will also flow through its Indian operations, two people with knowledge of the matter told ET. Cisco did not respond to a request seeking comment sent on Friday until press time on Tuesday.
Ecommerce giant Amazon is reported to be considering another 14,000 job cuts in May after 16,000 job cuts in January. Here, too, Indian employees could be impacted, though Amazon has officially denied that job cuts are underway. Meta is also discussing slashing 20% of its workforce, media reports have said, as the costs of AI investments rise.
“For India, unfortunately, what makes you successful is now putting you in danger,” Pareekh Jain, CEO of Pareekh Consulting and EIIRTrend, told ET.
“Earlier India was spared from layoffs because we were at a cost-advantage,” he noted. But as the Indian technology industry matured from low-cost, back-office roles and moved to core business functions such as innovation, it lost the cost advantage. “So now, we are impacted by global job cuts,” Jain said.
Sandeep Panat, founding partner at global capability consulting firm Wizmatic, agreed that “climbing the capability ladder increases exposure to strategic restructuring,” but insisted that staying in low-value work would have been worse because that is being automated much faster.
“If we look at what AI actually automates today, it is largely structured, well-documented, process-heavy work,” Panat said. “A lot of what Indian GCCs do like code generation, data transformation, report creation and testing is highly replaceable by AI. But this type of work exists across geographies, not just India.”
The strategy layer, the top end of the technology stack, is harder to automate because there is still a lot of human decision making rather than process. “GCCs in India that have product mandates, global ownership and decision rights will be actually AI beneficiaries, not victims,” Panat said.
