TCS headcount falls by over 11,000 in Q3FY26, doubles fresher hiring

Tata Consultancy Services on Monday announced its third-quarter results for the fiscal year 2026, highlighting a sharp acceleration in artificial intelligence adoption and fresher hiring even as profits decline.

India's one of the largest IT services firms, said it doubled its intake of fresh graduates during the quarter and upskilled more than 217,000 employees with advanced AI capabilities. However, the headcount declined by 11,151 employees on a net basis as the company continued with workforce restructuring. During Q2, the company had reported a net reduction of 19,755 employees on a sequential basis. In Q3, the company's total employee base stood at 5,82,163, down from 5,93,314 in the September quarter.

"As of this quarter, there are over 217,000 associates with advanced AI skills," said Sudeep Kunnumal, Chief HR Officer. "We doubled our intake of fresh graduates with higher-order skills, rapidly expanding our next-generation talent pool," he added.

Despite the decline in employee counts, the attrition remained high at 13.5% on a last-twelve-month basis in IT services.

Following this, Harpreet Singh Saluja, President of Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) alleged that TCS employees, particularly those with 10 to 20 years of service, have been pushed out through forced resignations, prolonged benching, role withdrawals, manipulated performance assessments, and indirect pressure to resign.

"These exits are strategically categorised as 'voluntary attrition' to avoid statutory obligations such as retrenchment compensation, notice pay, and due process mandated under labour laws," Saluja said.

Separately, the consolidated profit fell 13.8% to Rs 10,720 crore in the December quarter, compared with Rs 12,444 crore in the same period last fiscal. Profit also declined sequentially from Rs 12,131 crore in the prior quarter.

Revenue rose 2% quarter-on-quarter to Rs 67,087 crore. Annualized AI services revenue reached $1.8 billion, up 17.43% sequentially, as enterprises are spending on automation, data platforms, and generative AI.

"We remain steadfast in our ambition to become the world’s largest AI-led technology services company, "K Krithivasan, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, added that investments across the AI stack are beginning to drive growth.

Chief Financial Officer Samir Seksaria added that executing the company's five-pillar AI strategy at speed and scale remains central to TCS's long-term transformation.

TCS reported a total contract value of $9.3 billion in Q3.