Cognizant eyes up to 15,000 layoffs, India set to bear the brunt

The American Bazaar ^ | May 6th, 2026 | Shubhangi Chowdhury

[Cronos]

Cognizant could be heading toward one of the biggest tech layoffs of the year, following cuts at companies like Amazon and Oracle. Reports suggest the IT services firm may reduce between 12,000 and 15,000 jobs globally, although the company has not confirmed a final number.

From a US perspective, the move reflects a wider shift in how large tech and consulting companies are restructuring their workforce as clients rethink spending. While Cognizant is headquartered in the United States, most of its employees are based in India, where over 250,000 people make up the company’s largest workforce hub out of a global total of more than 357,000.

The expected layoffs are tied closely to the company’s financial planning. In its April 29 earnings update, Cognizant said it expects to spend between $230 million and $320 million on severance. That figure has led analysts to estimate the potential scale of job cuts, based on typical compensation packages offered to employees who are laid off.

Much of the impact is likely to be felt in India, where salary levels are lower compared to the US. Industry estimates suggest that severance payouts there could cover several months of pay per employee, allowing the company to stretch its budget across a large number of roles.

The restructuring is part of a broader shift in the tech services model. Industry executives say clients are moving away from the traditional pyramid structure that relies heavily on entry-level hiring. Companies are now less willing to pay for training large groups of fresh graduates, instead prioritizing more experienced talent and automation.

Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar S has also signaled that changes are coming across the organization. Speaking during the earnings call, he pointed to a move toward a “broader and shorter pyramid,” combining digital tools with human workers. The approach reflects how AI and automation are beginning to reshape hiring strategies across the global tech industry.

While the final numbers are still unclear, the direction is consistent with what’s happening across US tech. Companies are tightening costs, investing in AI, and reshaping teams, even if that means significant job cuts in the near term.

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TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS:

[ComputerGuy]

Oooh, but I am notknowing

[No.6]

Cognizant has been losing suits over their H1B practices- both the “usual” scamming where positions magically don’t meet any US worker and wage cheating as well as using lesser quality H visas to sneak in cheapo workers.

Balance against data center concerns; is it worth building these if it keeps millions of legal invaders out?

[allendale]

AI despite its growing pains is doing to tech companies what automation did to manufacturing in the 20th century. Change is inevitable.

[Republic_Venom]

Accenture is also a US based company with 650,000 resources. 500,000 based in India.

[Cronos]

As per Accenture’s fact sheet for their 2Q 2026 fiscal report - https://newsroom.accenture.com/fact-sheet&ved=2ahUKEwihi9uo29mUAxXwS_EDHQWQHNkQy_kOegoIAggACAEIDBAC&opi=89978449&cd&psig=AOvVaw22EXj_T10xUlWiUaaclh9D&ust=1779979720205000

Global Headcount: ~786,400 employees (as of the Q2 fiscal 2026 report).

Employees in India: Over 300,000.

[Oystir]

Cognizant sponsors the local PGA golf tournament. No one in the community understands “what” they do. No one really knows the precise pronunciation. Ironically, the article blurb doesn’t say either. Anyhow, rumors have been floating for a while that the tournament/sponsor is in trouble and not return... The tournament has its roots in the old Jackie Gleason and was recently better known as the Honda Classic.

[ComputerGuy]

Cognizant is an IT meat market. In the US it serves up low-skill cheap workers whose primary job qualification is that they speak English.

[Semper Vigilantis]

Remember the good old days when the bank or electric company or 'Ma Bell' or some big company had your address wrong, or you kept receiving phone calls from collections meant for someone else because your phone number was one digit off in their 'computer system'? Remember how hard it was to get it corrected?
Just wait until you have to correct a mistake in a system using AI.
Is it possible to convince AI it is wrong?!?!?
Who do you show you documents to?
Will you have to scan them and text/email them to an OCR AI bot?
I wrote code to automate manufacturing processes for 20 years. Trying to imagine every scenario and include code to deal with it was exhausting. Is AI going to write it's own code based on available information found online?

Remember the old adage "Garbage in, garbage out"? How much misinformation has been replicated and repeated across systems over the last 20 or so years?

This mindless acceptance and utilization of everyday AI is not going to end well.

[bk1000]

If Indians are so smart and capable, India should be a world leader in tech innovation. They are not.

[Cronos]

india does rank 38th on the https://www.wipo.int/web-publications/global-innovation-index-2025/en/gii-2025-results.html

World intellectual property organization Global innovation Index.

but the country is unwieldy as it isn’t really a country but a federation of multiple countries

[pierrem15]

My heart bleeds. /s

[Jonty30]

I guess they should have hired white people.

[montag813]

Cognizant has been losing suits over their H1B practices- both the “usual” scamming where positions magically don’t meet any US worker and wage cheating as well as using lesser quality H visas to sneak in cheapo workers.

Yeah, I actually lost an old friendship over this truly evil company Cognizant, when the friend went to work for them. He made an absolute killing, but lost his soul. It was very sad, but eye opening. There are tens of thousands of Americans who work every day to betray their own country and its workers.

[Cronos]

well, technically Indians ARE caucasians

[pburgh01]

Congizant is my competition in the Microsoft space. F them and their Indians. They have 1000 business development people whose whole job is to get big government work; they also have a cozy relationship with the big firms like Deloitte and PWC for subcontracting. We do alright cleaning up after their messes. We call them a Curry Meatshop

[rdcbn1]

Cognizant is an IT meat market. In the US it serves up low-skill cheap workers whose primary job qualification is that they speak English.

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Exactly. AI is replacing low skill, low value IT and customer support workers in much the same way that computers displaced human calculators back in the day

Computer programming algorithms mimicked the team structures that engineers and mathematicians set up to solve complex engineering problems back in the slide rule days and the early Fortran coding language incorporated many of these constructs.

the advent of readily available digital computers put tens of thousands of human calculators into career moves, usually to more productive jobs as many were highly skilled engineers and mathematicians . Many used their problem solving skills to become the early computer programmers and software engineers

Their work gave rise to the entire tech boom we now take take for granted and which has created millions upon millions of new jobs never envisioned in the 1940s

[ComputerGuy]

You’re right. I’ve noticed, though, that killer backend code can be rendered impotent by crappy user interface design.

[Snowybear]

I saw their work when I worked on contract for Partners Health in NC (remotely). They did all the test cases for PBH’s behavioral health internal website. I automated all the test cases. All done in Excel spreadsheets that were a mess. Duplicate test cases, missing test cases, etc.

-SB

[paulcissa]

Indians replaced me twice in my career. Both times, I was compelled to train my replacement. For me, both moves were vertical, so I have muted complaints about the business decisions that drove it. However, I haven’t seen any reason to feel empathetic about them all getting sacked. A 25-year river of low-skilled idiots posing as tech professionals has left me callous and indignant.

I hope they can get work on the salt fields in India. I care nothing of their future, nor did they care about mine.