As 2025 draws to a close, India’s tech sector is emerging from its most turbulent year in a decade. A structural shift fueled by AI, a landmark ban on real-money gaming, and an aggressive push for profits has triggered a wave of mega layoffs across the industry. From legacy IT giants like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to high-flying unicorns like Ola Electric and Dream11, no corner of the ecosystem has been left untouched.
According to industry data from Inc42, approximately 9,500 tech professionals in India lost their jobs in 2025 alone, marking a transition analysts call ‘The Great AI Realignment.’
TCS and the AI skills gap
The most shocking development of the year came from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). Traditionally a champion of job security, the IT giant reportedly downsized its workforce by approximately 2% — impacting over 12,000 employees, which will be spanned over a several months, going well into 2026.
The layoffs primarily targeted mid-to-senior level talent as the company shifted toward an AI-first delivery model. Analysts note that traditional roles in routine coding and support are being rapidly phased out as TCS integrates tools like GitHub Copilot to automate its bench model.
Layoffs in tech startups
The 2025 startup landscape saw a decisive move away from growth-at-all-costs toward lean, automated operations. Here is how the year’s major layoffs unfolded across the ecosystem:
Ola Electric
Laid off: 1,000+
In a bid to curb mounting losses and optimise margins post-IPO, the EV manufacturer slashed over a thousand positions. The cuts focused on front-end operations and divisions that have been increasingly managed by automated systems.
Mobile Premier League
Laid off: 600+
Following the “Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act,” MPL was forced to axe 60% of its Indian workforce. The move reflects a desperate move away from cash-based gaming toward ad-supported models.
Gupshup
Laid off: 500
The conversational AI unicorn reduced its headcount to streamline operations and boost profitability, particularly within departments absorbed during its recent flurry of acquisitions.
Gameskraft
Laid off: 400
Another casualty of the regulatory crackdown, the gaming firm implemented a major restructuring, letting go of nearly 400 staff members as its core RMG revenue streams were threatened with extinction.
Zepto
Laid off: 300
Despite high-profile funding rounds, the quick-commerce leader removed hundreds from its payroll. The firm moved many of these roles to third-party contracts and automated invoice processing and replenishment using in-house software.
VerSe Innovation
Laid off: 350
The parent company of Dailyhunt and Josh cut jobs amid a funding crunch, cited as a direct result of integrating AI to handle content moderation and curation.
The regulatory blow: Dream11’s shocker
In August 2025, the passage of the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act effectively banned real-money gaming (RMG), impacting the sector’s Rs 2 lakh crore valuation.
While Dream11 CEO Harsh Jain famously avoided mass layoffs by redeploying 500 engineers into new AI and fintech ventures, the broader industry wasn’t as resilient. Industry experts estimate that the ban has put nearly 200,000 indirect jobs at risk across the ancillary gaming ecosystem.
Amazon India has not been immune to the global restructuring mandate issued by CEO Andy Jassy earlier in the year. In a push to operate like the “world’s largest startup,” the e-commerce titan eliminated approximately 1,000 corporate positions across its Indian hubs in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Gurugram during the final quarter of 2025. According to senior VP Amit Agarwal, these cuts were not merely a cost-saving measure but a strategic effort to “remove organisational layers” that had become bloated during the pandemic-era hiring spree. The layoffs primarily impacted white-collar roles in HR, marketing, and finance, as the company seeks to flatten its hierarchy and reallocate resources toward high-stakes bets in Artificial Intelligence and its burgeoning quick-commerce vertical.
The silent layoffs and the future
Beyond these headlines, a trend of silent layoffs dominated 2025. Many firms, including global giants with large Indian hubs like Microsoft (9,000 globally) and Meta (600 in India), opted for contract non-renewals and performance-linked exits rather than public announcements.
