Layoff Bloodbath Begins

Sector6 ------------------ Oct 1. 2025 Your backstage pass to the biggest shifts shaping IT, AI, and GCCs. We discussed in The Belamy Accenture's underwhelming AI quarter. However, another story is emerging: the 11,000 layoffs. Interestingly, it is not just Accenture. The situation appears somewhat familiar in the tech industry and may be gradually worsening. by Mohit Pandey Accenture laid off more than 11,000 employees over a three-month period. This is not due to the company's financial health. In fact, it secured $5.9 billion in GenAI contracts and doubled its AI talent pool to 77,000 in two years.  CEO Julie Sweet said the company was working on tight timelines, and reskilling was not an option for the skills they require. Message: If you can't adapt to AI, you're out. Accenture is spending $865 million on restructuring. Every dollar saved is being funnelled back into AI. The company reported $2.7 billion in AI revenue and noted that it has no plans to stop hiring new talent, however.  But the pain isn't confined to Accenture.  Fiverr, the Israel-headquartered freelance service marketplace, axed 30% of its workforce, which is around 250 employees, just weeks after pushing employees to become an "AI-first company". SAP is heading the same way. In a provocative interview with Business Insider, the firm's chief financial officer, Dominik Asam, said that by using AI, there's more automation, and for the same volume of output, the company could now afford to have fewer people. Close to home, another story is brewing. TCS in July said the impact is closer to 2% of its workforce, roughly 12,000 jobs. When Accenture signals such a sharp shift, the market forecasts Indian IT won't be immune.  [Must Watch] Check out our latest episode of Front Page on AIM Network, where we dive into how the Accenture layoffs might just be the beginning and what firms can do to keep up. 2025 has Already Been Bad Six months into 2025, layoffs at big tech were already making headlines. The narrative that AI is driving widespread job cuts has gripped the tech industry, with companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Chegg, Workday, CrowdStrike, PwC and Klarna citing AI as a factor in their workforce reductions. According to Layoffs.fyi, over 50,000 tech employees had already been laid off until June 2025.  However, Indian IT has still been wary of referring to it as AI layoffs. When TCS CEO K Krithivasan addressed the company's move to lay off 12,000 employees, he blamed "skill mismatch" and "organisational shifts" from waterfall to agile. Accenture also hinted at the same.  Microsoft and Google, on the other hand, framed layoffs as part of a larger, aggressive push into AI. The message is that redundancy is the price of transformation.  So is this just the beginning of a bloodbath in the industry? It seems so. AI News >> OpenAI now lets ChatGPT users buy products directly in chat through its Instant Checkout feature, currently available for US users shopping on Etsy and soon expanding to Shopify merchants. Anthropic has announced the release of Claude Sonnet 4.5, its latest AI model for coding and agent-based tasks. Microsoft has launched Agent Mode in Excel and Word and Office Agent in Copilot chat, introducing what the company calls "vibe working" to Microsoft 365 Copilot. Lovable has launched Lovable Cloud and Lovable AI, aiming to make full-stack app creation more accessible. Best Firm for Data Scientists – Showcase your leadership in data science and build a thriving workplace. Apply Now Join AIM Leaders Council – Connect with top data leaders and shape the future of AI. Check Eligibility Our Events – Be part of an exclusive event uniting North America's top data leaders. More Details AIM PeMa Quadrant – Discover the best in AI and data services with AIM's PeMa Quadrant. Explore Now GCC Explorer Unlock Exclusive Insights into 1400+ Global Capability Centers (GCCs) in India with AIM Research's Comprehensive Database.  Access GCC Explorer   Stay ahead with these insights, and join us in driving the future of data science and technology. Your active engagement and participation are what make our community thrive.   For Brand Collaborations, Contact us at info@aim.media To unsubscribe from future emails, simply click the "unsubscribe" link AIM. Unsubscribe © Copyright, 2025, AIM • 1st Floor, Sakti Statesman, Marathahalli – Sarjapur Outer Ring Rd, Green Glen Layout, Bellandur, Bengaluru – 560103