Human faces behind TCS’s 12,261-strong layoff drive

New Delhi: When Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) announced plans to “release” roughly 2 per cent of its 613,069-strong global workforce, about 12,261 positions, it triggered waves of uncertainty across its mid- and senior-level ranks. 

Behind the headline figures lie tens of thousands of professionals grappling with abrupt career shifts and unanswered questions about what comes next.

Across TCS delivery centers in Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, employees in leadership and specialist roles received the same curt notification: “Deployment may not be feasible.” 

Within days, a dedicated support portal went live; counselling lines, outplacement resources and severance details arrived in inboxes. Yet human-resources staff concede that no amount of benefits can fully blunt the shock of a long tenure ending overnight.

To cushion the impact, TCS has rolled out reskilling and redeployment initiatives—internal “boot camps” on cloud, AI and next-gen infrastructure. Participants report intense schedules of virtual labs and peer-learning sessions, aimed at equipping affected associates for emerging tech roles. 

Whether these programmes can translate into new assignments remains to be seen, but for many, they represent a lifeline in an otherwise disorienting transition.

TCS MD & CEO K. Krithivasan describes the cuts as critical to forging a “future-ready organisation.” 

In a July statement, he outlined multi-front investments, from AI at scale and new-tech partnerships to geographic expansion, paired with workforce realignment. 

The April–June quarter saw TCS add 5,000 employees even as it prepared to part with 12,261 others, reflecting parallel drives to hire in growth areas while pruning legacy roles.

The layoff announcement followed Q1 FY26 results showing 1.3 per cent revenue growth (₹ 63,437 crore) and 5.9 per cent profit gains (Rs 12,760 crore). Krithivasan warned of “demand contraction” amid geopolitical volatility and deferred client spends, conceding that double-digit growth in FY26 is unlikely.

As discretionary IT budgets tighten, TCS and its peers face the challenge of balancing margin preservation with talent retention.

TCS’s realignment mirrors a global tech correction: Microsoft has cut over 15,000 jobs (7 percent of its workforce) in 2025, while Layoffs.fyi charts more than 80,000 tech layoffs at 169 companies this year, following 150,000 cuts at 551 firms in 2024. 

Industry leaders acknowledge the emotional weight of these decisions, even as they pursue automation and AI to drive future growth.