India’s IT sector feels the pressure from AI

Tech workers globally are facing a tougher job market, and India is no exception. Widespread adoption of AI threatens offshore IT services firms; this sector, led by Tata Consultancy and Infosys, has thrived on the nation’s ample supply of relatively low-cost programmers.

The Naukri JobSpeak index tracks job postings and recruiter activity at tech firms. We’ve charted it against milestones in AI software releases from companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic. The JobSpeak index cooled after GPT-4 and Claude made their public debuts in 2023. Revenue at IT firms has softened, likely compressed by AI-native competitors that undercut on price and delivery speed. Companies are paying workers less – while borrowing more to finance their own AI efforts and stay competitive.