<\/p>\n
Oracle:<\/strong> It laid off a maximum of 30,000 employees because the company’s debt had increased due to the purchase of large computers and servers for AI.<\/p>\n Amazon:<\/strong> It laid off 16,000 people in January to reduce redundant management layers and paperwork within the company.<\/p>\n Microsoft:<\/strong> It took a different approach and dismissed about 8,750 employees by offering them voluntary retirement buyout.<\/p>\n Meta:<\/strong> It has laid off 8,000 people today to make the company’s teams smaller and work directly on AI.<\/p>\n Block, Inc. (Jack Dorsey’s company):<\/strong> He reduced about 40% of his staff i.e. more than 4,000 people so that the entire company could be reshaped according to AI. Apart from this, companies like PayPal, Cisco and LinkedIn have also laid off thousands of people.<\/p>\n Are companies laying off people because of the recession?<\/strong> More work with less people:<\/strong> For example, the CEO of Snapchat said that 65% of his company’s code is now being written by AI itself. This means that where earlier 10 junior coders were required, now one senior engineer can do the same work in a few hours with the help of AI tools.<\/p>\n Managers leave:<\/strong> Companies are now removing mid-level managers. Advanced tools like Anthropic’s ‘Claude’ and OpenAI’s ‘ChatGPT’ have made managing files and entry-level tasks so easy that there is no need for so many people anymore.<\/p>\n Training of AI from employees only:<\/strong> Companies like Meta are installing software in their employees’ laptops that note how a person works on a computer. Companies are using this data to make their AI agents more intelligent, so that in future they can do the work themselves. The employees are not happy with this, because in a way they are training technology to replace themselves.<\/p>\n What effect will this have on India’s engineers and IT sector?<\/strong> 1. Pressure on Indian IT companies<\/strong> 2. ‘Follow-the-leader’ game among India’s tech startups<\/strong> 3. Alarm bells for those who know ‘only coding’<\/strong> What should Indian tech workers do now?<\/strong>
No, this is not a recession. Companies like Meta have made billions of dollars in profits in this quarter. Then why are these layoffs happening? There is a direct answer to this. Money is being diverted from humans to Artificial Intelligence. Companies are doing two big things right now.<\/p>\n
Whenever tech companies in Silicon Valley sneeze, India’s tech sector catches a cold. This entire turmoil is having a direct impact on India in three ways.<\/p>\n
Big IT companies of India work in making software for banks and retail companies of America and Europe. When foreign companies are shifting their budget from humans to AI, they are also reducing the projects given to Indian companies. This is the reason why Indian IT companies have reduced the hiring of new college pass-outs in the last few months.<\/p>\n
Indian startups always follow the model of American companies. When companies like Meta and Amazon are making profits through layoffs, India’s big startups are also removing mid-level managers and junior coders so that they too can show themselves as ‘AI-First’.<\/p>\n
Every year lakhs of students graduate from engineering in India, most of whom do basic coding or testing work. Since this basic work is now being done by AI itself, it is becoming difficult for Indian youth who only know ‘rote coding’ to get a job or keep it.<\/p>\n
Darwin has a law, only that which changes with time will survive. Now this is the mantra for Indian engineers also. Don’t be afraid of AI, make it a tool. Companies now need people who say, ‘I can do the work of 5 people alone by using AI.’ Instead of traditional coding, opportunities are now increasing in areas like data science, AI model tuning, cloud computing and cyber security. AI can write code, but it cannot understand a client’s business problem like humans can. Therefore, your ability to talk and think will have to be strengthened.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n