Upskill or risk losing job: IT firms warn employees as AI takes hold

India’s top information-technology (IT) services firms are sending a clear message to their employees: Upskill and reskill for an age increasingly defined by artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (GenAI). Those unwilling or unable to adapt risk losing their jobs.

The $282 billion sector, employing around six million people, has long been one of the country’s largest organised job creators. But the tone has shifted: Layoffs — described as “involuntary attrition” in industry parlance — have usually been handled discreetly, given the sensitivity. That discretion appears to be fading.

 

Industry body Nasscom has supported the move. “This shift is likely to