Indian IT industry

Let’s acknowledge that technology is a boon and a bane. While organizations across industries are leveraging the power of automation, Indian software firms are preparing for a massive cutdown. Indian IT firms are expected to fire up to 3 million employees by 2022, out of the estimated 16 million employees currently filling up important roles. According to official reports, this move will save US$100 billion in salaries annually. 

A report by Nasscom suggests that India’s IT sector consists of 16 million employees, and out of the lot, 9 million contribute to low-skilled services and BPOs. Unfortunately, around 3 million employees are said to lose their jobs by 2022 and will be replaced by RPA solutions. 

Out of the total cutdowns, only 0.7 million roles will be substituted by Robotic Process Automation and the rest are due to other tech updates and upskilling. According to a report by the Bank of America on Wednesday, RPA is impacting IT employment in the US too. 

TCS, Infosys, HCL, Tech Mahindra, Cognizant, and Wipro are some of the tech giants that are planning to slash 2 million low-skilled roles by 2022. RPA is a software that has the capabilities to perform routine, high-volume tasks. The aim is to free up employee’s efforts by adopting RPA, giving them the time to focus on other complex tasks that will boost the ROI. RPA can mimic the way employees worked on the task earlier instead of building new workflows which reduce costs when compared to other software-led approaches. 

Organizations around the world, especially those in the tech domain, are embracing digital transformation for better business. Due to this, they are calling back most of their outsourcing which is one of the reasons for the job cuts. According to the Nasscom report, faster automation is shrinking the talent pool in developing economies. India and China, two countries that handle most of the labour outsourcing, will be the worst hit due to technological disruptions.