AI boom, hiring bust: Indian IT firms add just 17 net employees in nine months

This shift was evident in the latest earnings for the October–December quarter for the top IT services firms. Even as AI dominated client conversations and deal pipelines, hiring across India’s top IT services remained muted.

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Shrinking headcount

At the end of Q3 FY26, TCS reported a global headcount of 582,163, down by over 11,000 employees sequentially and sharply lower than its Q1 level of 613,069. Tech Mahindra also reported a decline, with headcount falling to 149,616 in Q3 from 152,714 in the previous quarter. HCLTech reported a marginal sequential dip of 0.1% to 226,379 employees.

Infosys appeared as an outlier, increasing headcount to 337,034 in Q3 from 331,991 in the previous quarter, adding nearly 5,000 software professionals. This, however, was still far lower than the employee growth the company registered in the previous quarter, indicating a struggle to attract the relevant talent akin to its peers.

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AndyC

Andy Curtis is an award-winning security consultant, researcher and public speaker. He has been working in the computer security industry since the early 1990s, having been employed by state and federal government, leading healthcare and banking providers across three continents. He has given talks about computer security for some of the world’s largest companies, worked with law enforcement agencies on investigations into hacking groups, and is a regular voice on TV and radio explaining IT security threats.

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