Wipro says AI now does the work of 20,000 employees, but it moved them to other roles instead of cutting jobs

Wipro's AI initiatives have raised productivity by the equivalent of 20,000 employees' output, chief technology officer Sandhya Arun told Reuters on September 10, 2026, and those employees have been redeployed within the company rather than laid off. Wipro had about 243,000 staff in June and is moving to what it calls a "human-AI operating model", with more than 100,000 employees given advanced AI training and certifications. Arun said the shift "doesn't necessarily mean person-to-person replacement by an agent": the same engineer might manage a group of AI agents, move to other projects or train for a different role. Reuters also noted that Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest software exporter, said in June that IT firms would slow hiring as it moves towards an equal number of employees and AI agents. No jobs were cut, so this is not counted as an AI job loss, but it shows how India's IT employers expect AI to absorb work that people used to do.