- India’s IT Hiring Pyramid Shifts as Infosys Pulls Back on Freshers

, India’s second-largest IT services provider, has become the first major player to explicitly forecast a decline in fresher hiring, citing productivity gains and automation. While the company will meet its FY26 guidance of hiring 20,000 graduates, management expects entry-level intake to shrink in the coming years. This contrasts with peers such as , , , and Cognizant, which continue to expand fresher hiring, at least for now. The divergence underscores how AI disruption, client spending cuts, and visa curbs are reshaping India’s IT talent pyramid. 1. Infosys’s Hiring Outlook - Management told analysts it expects to hire fewer freshers in future, enabled by higher productivity. - Headcount growth will be modest, with revenue per employee expected to rise. - CFO Jayesh Sanghrajka reaffirmed FY26 guidance of 20,000 hires, with 12,000+ already onboarded in H1FY26. 2. Sector Context and AI Disruption - The IT sector faces AI-driven disruption, muted client spending, and US visa restrictions. - Fresher hiring has been subdued for two years, impacting ~1.3 million engineering graduates annually. - Infosys sees AI reducing the need for L1 and L2 roles, accelerating automation-led efficiency. 3. Peer Strategies - TCS: Selective intake of “AI-native” freshers; doubled trainee intake; hired 42,000 freshers last fiscal. - HCLTech: Added 5,196 freshers in Q2FY26, more than double YoY; plans 12,000 hires this fiscal. - Wipro: Targets ~12,000 freshers in FY26, alongside lateral hiring. - Cognizant: Hired 15,000 freshers in FY25; CFO Jatin Dalal emphasized expanding the pyramid bottom. Infosys’s stance highlights a structural shift: automation is shrinking entry-level roles, while peers still rely on fresher intake to sustain delivery models. The divergence suggests a two-speed hiring pyramid, with Infosys betting on productivity and AI, while others maintain traditional intake strategies—at least until automation pressures intensify.