Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran predicted that AI agents will replace half of the company's tech jobs in the future. He said, "The company will have an equal number of AI workers — we call them AI agents — as there are employees," signaling a major shift in the workforce [1, 2].
TCS employs about 600,000 people, making it India's largest private-sector employer. The company is one of the main drivers of India's $315 billion software services industry, which has thrived on labor arbitrage but now faces disruption as AI adoption grows [1, 2].
Last year, TCS planned to cut 12,000 jobs amid technology changes that included integrating AI across its operations. Chandrasekaran confirmed that hiring will continue to slow down as AI tools take on more roles [1, 2]. He added, "Will it definitely lead to decrease in hiring — absolutely. That does not mean there are no future opportunities. Once the transition happens, the AI world will produce so much more opportunities, there will be new talent that will be required" [1].
TCS has partnered with OpenAI to build AI data centers and is close to securing additional AI-related agreements. These moves underline the company's aggressive push to deploy AI at scale across its business [1, 2].
Chandrasekaran made these comments during TCS's June 2024 shareholders meeting, highlighting the ongoing transition the company expects to undergo as AI becomes more central to its operations [2]. The shift will reshape TCS's workforce balance between human employees and AI agents.
With the company's tech workforce and AI agents expected to reach parity in the coming years, TCS plans to reduce hiring accordingly while focusing on developing new skills and roles to support the AI-driven business model [1, 2].
