Cognizant Layoffs: The Company May Cut Up to 15,000 Jobs, and India Is in the Crosshairs

Cognizant layoffs are making waves again, and this time the scale is hard to ignore. The Nasdaq-listed IT services giant is reportedly assessing a workforce reduction of between 12,000 and 15,000 employees globally as part of a newly launched transformation initiative called Project Leap. India, which accounts for more than 250,000 of the company’s 357,600 employees, is expected to feel the sharpest end of the cut.

Cognizant announced Project Leap alongside its first-quarter earnings. The company confirmed it expects to spend between $230 million and $320 million in restructuring charges, of which $200 million to $270 million relates directly to employee severance and personnel costs, with the remaining $30 million to $50 million covering other restructuring-related expenses. Notably, the company did not disclose the number of jobs to be cut. The estimate of up to 15,000 roles has since been derived from salary and severance calculations by analysts and sources familiar with the matter, as reported by Moneycontrol.

What is Project Leap?

Project Leap is far more than a routine cost-trimming exercise. It is Cognizant’s most deliberate push yet toward an AI-driven delivery model. The programme rests on three pillars: deeper investment in artificial intelligence, a shift toward integrated and platform-based service offerings, and a broad workforce upskilling effort for employees who remain after the restructuring.

The company expects the programme to generate savings of up to $300 million in 2026 alone, a near one-to-one return on the restructuring spend within the first year. Most of the charges are expected to be booked during 2026, signalling that this is a concentrated, fast-moving exercise rather than a slow, multi-year wind-down.

Speaking on the company’s post-earnings analyst call, CEO Ravi Kumar S described the restructuring as “a global programme” and said that “various parts of the organisation will go through the process.” He also pointed to a shift toward a “broader and shorter pyramid” model, one that blends digital labour with human labour, flattens hierarchy, and depends more heavily on automation to deliver work that large teams of junior employees once handled.

Why India bears the biggest burden

The maths is fairly straightforward. With over 70 per cent of Cognizant’s global workforce based in India, any large-scale restructuring will naturally hit the country hardest. Industry estimates suggest that roughly 12,000 to 13,000 of the projected cuts could fall on Indian employees. There is a cost logic here too; the average annual salary for a mid-level IT professional in India is around ₹15 lakh. With severance typically running to about six months’ pay, each India-based separation costs roughly ₹7.5 lakh, which is significantly less than equivalent costs in the US or Europe.

Interestingly, Cognizant’s management confirmed on the same earnings call that the company plans to bring in more than 20,000 freshers in 2026. That tells us the cuts are not aimed at the bottom of the pyramid, but at mid-level, higher-cost roles, the kind increasingly being displaced by AI tools and automated delivery platforms.

A pattern playing out across the industry

Cognizant is not the only firm going down this road. TCS was reported in 2025 to be reviewing roughly 12,500 roles. Accenture has already cut over 11,000 employees globally. HCLTech and Oracle have both carried out their own restructuring exercises. The thread running through all of them is the same: clients are no longer willing to fund large, layered teams of developers who need time to ramp up. They want smaller, sharper teams that deliver results from day one.

As one industry executive put it bluntly, “Customers are not okay with full pyramids anymore and don’t want to fund training freshers.” That single statement captures the structural shift reshaping an entire industry.

What it means for the people involved

Cognizant has not officially confirmed a final headcount figure or identified which geographies or levels will be most affected. The 15,000 number remains an estimate, not a confirmed outcome. But for the employees watching closely, uncertainty itself is its own kind of pressure.

What is clear is that this is not a Cognizant story alone. It is the story of an industry mid-transition, moving from a labour-heavy model built over two decades. The financial logic may be sound, but the human cost is real, and it is only beginning to come into focus.