While rivals from TCS to Cognizant have cut thousands of jobs amid rising automation, Infosys is moving in the opposite direction, pledging no layoffs and pressing ahead with a plan to onboard 20,000 fresh graduates this year, Chief Executive Salil Parekh said.

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"We have not done any layoffs in the last year and we don't see anything of that sort coming up," Parekh told Moneycontrol in an interview.

Earlier reports said that TCS would let go of 12,500 employees. HCLTech, Oracle and Cognizant have since carried out their own workforce reductions.

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AI is expanding work, not eliminating it 

Parekh pushed back against the narrative that AI would erode demand for talent, saying the shift was structural rather than existential.

"AI is expanding the scope of work, not shrinking it," he said, adding that while the tasks performed by freshers would change, the underlying demand for engineers would persist.

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Infosys is training engineers to work both with and without AI tools, ensuring they can build and evaluate code generated by foundational models, Parekh said.

"There is also more attention to deep individual knowledge and becoming a subject matter expert," he added, signalling that specialised skills would command a premium as AI commoditises routine coding tasks.

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AI already contributing to revenue 

AI currently accounts for about 5.5% of Infosys' revenue and is growing rapidly, Parekh said, describing it as a key growth driver for the coming years.

To accelerate the shift, the company is deepening partnerships with OpenAI and Anthropic, while rolling out internal platforms including Topaz Fabric to support AI-led development at scale.