The Great AI Reset: Is Your Job Being Stolen Or Just Being Rebuilt?

India's tech giants are laying off thousands, but some job categories are seeing record salaries. The real threat probably isn't the machine, but your ability to change with it.

11 May 2026, 11:17 · www.ndtv.com

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US job cuts rose 38% in April, with AI causing over 21,000 layoffs
Indian IT shifts from large junior workforce to AI-native smaller, leaner teams
AI washing masks layoffs, with firms quietly reducing low-value and repetitive roles

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New Delhi:

For months, the conversation around AI and job loss felt like a controlled burn, something happening in abstract research papers or high-level Silicon Valley boardrooms. But the latest numbers suggest the fire has reached the hallway.

Last week, the Challenger, Gray & Christmas report revealed a stark pivot: US job cuts surged 38% in April, with AI cited as the leading driver for over 21,000 layoffs. Globally, over 93,000 tech jobs have been purged in just the first few months of the year. As this wave hits Indian shores, we aren't just looking at a crisis of displacement; we are witnessing a fundamental 'metamorphosis' of what it means to go to work.

The Death of the 'Entry-Level Army'

"The fears are real. There's no two ways about it," says Ashish Tulsian, Founder & CEO of Restroworks (formerly called Posist). For decades, the Indian IT and tech model was built like a massive triangle: a huge base of thousands of junior employees doing manual "grunt work," supporting a small peak of bosses.

Tulsian argues that this model only existed to bridge systemic inefficiencies. Now, AI is mending those cracks. The "army" of people who were hired just to move data from point A to point B is no longer a necessity. When the machine does the grunt work, the foundation of that triangle disappears.

This shift is hitting home with startling precision. In April 2026 alone, Oracle reportedly laid off around 12,000 employees in India as part of a pivot toward AI. Even the giants are recalibrating. TCS reduced its headcount by over 12,000 roles in FY26, signaling a retreat from the traditional high-volume hiring model. The industry is seeing a transition to the "AI Native" model, where companies like Cognizant, Freshworks, and SuperOps are redesigning operations around smaller, leaner teams.

The 'AI Washing' and the Silent Cull

However, there is a darker trend emerging dubbed "AI washing." Across the industry, there is a growing suspicion that companies are using "AI-driven restructuring" as a convenient mask for traditional rightsizing or correcting past over-hiring. By framing layoffs as a technological inevitability, firms can pivot their narrative from 'struggling' to 'innovating.'

This is often a 'silent' process. While firms like Livspace (1,000 roles) or Pocket FM have made headlines with double-digit cuts, major IT players are often trimming staff quietly through delayed onboarding and the steady removal of repetitive, low-value roles. Dipti Rawal, Founder at PeopleIQ observes that this trimming is now a standard part of reassessing how much human intervention a task actually needs.

Photo Credit: AI generated image

The Indian story: Augmentation vs. Attrition

Yet, the ground reality in India is a strange paradox. While global data shows a hiring freeze, Saurabh Garg, Co-founder of NoBroker, points out that AI is often acting as a shield against operational fatigue rather than a pink slip. By handling the "drudge work," AI allows teams to scale without the burnout of manual processes.
This philosophy is being implemented even in diversified conglomerates. Amol Deshpande, Chief Digital Officer of RPG Group, which includes CEAT, Zensar and KEC, notes that "the augmentation of AI in every job will be significantly higher than the loss of job to AI at this stage."

For traditional business leaders, the goal is transition, not termination. Deshpande highlights that RPG is moving past concerns about job loss by "transitioning managers from information intermediaries to enablers of human-AI collaboration," a move that requires empathetic and ethical leadership that AI simply cannot replicate.

The Transformation of "Bharat" and Traditional Sectors

This shift is visible even in traditional sectors. Ranganath Kuppur, CEO of Globus Fashion notes that AI is now used to sharpen trend forecasting, shifting the focus to skilling people to work alongside tools.
This isn't just happening in tech hubs. Madhav Krishna, Founder and CEO of Vahan.ai, sees a transformation in "Bharat," where

AI is reducing barriers around language and digital literacy. For Krishna, the future includes a new breed of AI-linked gig work - like Indian language data annotation - that could become a major employment category for millions.

The New 'Skill Gap' Crisis and the Dual-Track Career

This shift creates a brutal new reality. A growing divide between the AI-fluent and the left-behind. The crisis isn't just that the tools exist; it's that the workforce is splitting into two camps.

Those who know how to use AI are becoming "super-employees," while those who don't are finding their roles automated away. Tapan Acharya, CRO of Keka HR, warns that on factory floors in Pune or back-offices in Hyderabad, the fear is visceral. To the worker in the third row, "efficiency" is often just a polite synonym for "redundancy."

This gap is where companies must invest. RPG Group, for instance, has generated a 30% improvement in AI capabilities through its dedicated academies like Ignite and E-Luminati. By building this "AI dexterity," the company is moving past abstract fears and focusing on equipping employees to navigate new "dual-track career paths."

The Death of the Traditional Interview

Because this new model requires a different kind of talent, the way companies hire is being dismantled. Ravi Vasantraj, Global Delivery Head at Mphasis, notes that the traditional model is giving way to a "skill-dense" structure. Mphasis has moved away from traditional campus hiring in favor of structured internships and hackathons that evaluate "real-world capability" over months. In this new world, the number one attribute isn't a specific degree, but "learnability."

The Safety Net as a Design Principle

This is where the challenge moves from the 'tool' to the 'talent.' Dr. Ajay Kela of the Wadhwani Foundation argues for "precision skilling" to prepare people for higher-value roles. In high-stakes sectors, this isn't optional. Whether it is Steris Healthcare or TrioTree Technologies, the machine processes the data while the human handles the clinical responsibility. "Concerns about AI replacing human jobs are understandable, but in the pharma and healthcare arenas, the use of AI in the workforce represents something different. What will be observed here is the adjustment of roles rather than a substitution of talent," Jeevan Kasara, Chairman, Steris Healthcare shares. AI will slowly take over tedious and data-driven tasks in the sector such as clinical data processing, pharmacovigilance signal detection, and trial site monitoring, he added.

Surjeet Thakur, Founder and CEO of TrioTree Technologies, highlights: "Across the industry, concerns around AI-led job losses are valid, especially when reports suggest that nearly 41% of employers globally are exploring workforce reductions where automation can replace repetitive tasks. However, the same World Economic Forum report also highlights that 77% of companies are prioritising reskilling and AI-integrated workforce models." AI-driven systems are already transforming patient care through predictive diagnostics, remote monitoring, improving diagnostics, workflow coordination, and reducing clinical review time by nearly 40%, enabling faster and more efficient patient care delivery, he adds.

As Dr. Srinivas Padmanabhuni, CTO of AiEnsured points out, we are seeing the rise of "vibe code cleanup specialists" who ensure AI-generated code is rigorously tested. Removing human wisdom from the loop in areas like payroll, performance, or patient care as Vahan.ai emphasizes with their "human-in-the-loop" recruiters, is not just organizationally dangerous; it is a breach of trust. Despite widespread AI deployments, one continues to see a pattern of failures, from hallucinations and biased decisions to life-threatening accidents, Padmanabhuni adds.

The Bottom Line

The trend is clear. Routine coding and entry-level execution roles are being automated away, but demand for specialized talent in AI/ML, cybersecurity, and data engineering is hitting record highs. Data from leading international tech staffing indices (such as Challenger and global Hays projections) indicates that while base salaries for entry-level "support coding" positions have stagnated or dipped by 8% globally, compensation for specialized talent is hitting record highs. The annual Talent Shortage Survey for 2026 reveals that the demand for proficiency in AI/ML, cybersecurity, data engineering, and generative model fine-tuning has spiked by 45% this year alone.

In India's top tech hubs, the competition for this specialized workforce is fierce. Comprehensive salary guides and reports from leading Indian HR consultancies-including TeamLease and Michael Page India's 2026 Salary Report-confirm that AI-certified talent now commands a "digital premium" of 100% to 150% over traditional software roles.

From the trend-forecasting at Globus to the frontline accessibility of Vahan.ai, and the digital academies at RPG, AI is taking the "boring" parts of your job. If your role was 80% repetitive execution, you are facing a digital tap on the shoulder. The only way to stay in the room is to opt-in to the metamorphosis before the tide of "efficiency" becomes a flood of displacement.

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