N Chandrasekaran says TCS will have as many AI agents as employees in 3 years

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Chairman N Chandrasekaran has predicted that the company may have as many AI agents as it has human employees in the next three years. However, Chandrasekaran said the company is not planning to lay off employees but will slow down hiring for new roles.

During the company’s AGM, Chandrasekaran said that TCS has invested heavily in building AI agents for internal operations, solution frameworks and customer-specific work.

“I predict that in the next three years, TCS will have as many AI agents as it has human employees… Consequently, the day is not far off when TCS will have the same number of AI agents or AI employees as physical employees,” he said.

“If the company has half a million employees, the day is not far off when the company will have half a million AI representatives… The company’s employees and AI representatives will work together and that will be the future,” added Chandrasekaran.

The TCS chairman also noted that the company’s AI-related revenue has been growing consistently, with a quarterly CAGR of over 22%, and clocked an annual sales rate of around $2.5 billion in the last quarter.

Artificial intelligence will reduce hiring in the IT industry

Chandrasekaran also said that the increased use of AI agents will reduce hiring both in TCS and the broader IT industry. However, he noted that technology will also lead to the creation of new roles and opportunities.

“Some of the work will go to artificial intelligence representatives. This will be the nature of the transition that we will have to go through, not only as a company, but as an industry and a country,” he added.