Not Gen AI, But Agentic AI Can Be The Way Forward For India's IT Sector—Here's Why
Indian IT companies now seek fewer people, but with sharper and niche skills such as in AI, full stack, cloud, cybersecurity.
India's ever-evolving information technology (IT) sector is shifting, not shrinking. In the past few weeks alone, the country's leading IT giants including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, and Wipro, have either job cuts or paused fresher hirings to focus on 'strategic reset plans' due to artificial intelligence (AI).
Notably, hiring is evolving in the sector and routine tech roles are being replaced by AI, automation, and cross-functional demands. IT companies now seek fewer people, but with sharper and niche skills such as in AI, full stack, cloud, cybersecurity. As a result—fresher hiring—once the backbone of Indian IT, is now the first casualty.
In the same backdrop, industry experts spoke to NDTV Profit in an exclusive interview to shed light on the changing dynamics of the IT sector and how engineers needs to upskill themselves in a way to become 'future-ready' in an AI world.
Agentive AI and its impact on traditional IT roles
Sumit Singh Gandhi, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of CATKing Educare, an edtech platform, told NDTV Profit that nowadays, it is not generative AI, but agentive AI which will make students future-ready.
"Agentive AI is a combination of many Gen AIs. Today, technology is changing at such a fast pace that for the first time in history, technology is getting expensive over a period of time," said Gandhi. The expert believes engineering and management colleges in India may not be preparing students for today's world.
"These days, colleges have started including AI modules for engineering students. However, students of core engineering branches such as mechanical, electrical, and mining, are far from the exposure to AI training," said Gandhi.
Agentive AI refers to AI systems that act with autonomy and adaptability to pursue goals and take actions for completing tasks in today's dynamic environments. Unlike traditional AI, which may follow pre-defined rules or respond to prompts, agentive AI systems are designed to be proactive and goal-oriented. It combines various steps, including reasoning, planning, and learning, to handle complex, multi-step problems with minimal human intervention.
Indian IT layoffs at a glance
Urvashi Verma, head of recruitment at a multinational company told NDTV Profit that employees need to upskill themselves in today's evolving times to become future-ready. Verma highlighted that technicians and engineers are also choosing non-traditional roles these days, including freelancing.
Experts believe that repetitive jobs will those that are first replaced by AI. India's largest IT services firm, TCS will cut 2% of its workforce, letting go of 12,000 employees globally. This has been the largest layoff for any Indian IT firm and for the company itself, in its history. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft also revealed that 30% of the tech giant's code is now written by AI.
Between 2019-2020, IT layoffs were moderate with some reduction due to automation and changing business models. In 2020, the COVID pandemic triggered notable layoffs in early quarters and over 13,052 employees were laid off by 34 tech firms. In 2021, the situation briefly stabilised, however, in 2022, layoffs surged again with 49 IT firms letting go off 14,217 employees.
