Oracle Cuts 3,000 Jobs in India While Microsoft Places 500 Staff on PIPs Amid AI Shift
Oracle plans to cut around 3,000 jobs in India, while Microsoft has placed about 500 local employees on PIPs. These workforce adjustments reflect a broader industry shift as companies reallocate budgets from legacy roles to emerging artificial intelligence skills. The concurrent measures across both enterprises underscore a broader transition within the enterprise technology landscape.
India’s technology sector faces a fresh wave of structural adjustments as major multinational enterprises recalibrate operations and redirect capital investments toward emerging capabilities. Database and cloud major Oracle is preparing to cut approximately 3,000 jobs in the country, while Microsoft has placed roughly 400 to 500 employees locally on Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs).
Workforce Reductions at Oracle
Oracle's upcoming restructuring places around 3,000 positions at risk in India, reflecting a broader global contraction as the company trims legacy headcounts, reports Economic Times. The enterprise, which employs approximately 30,000 people in the country following previous workforce reductions, is realigning its operational focus. Oracle Layoffs: 7,000 to 10,000 Jobs Under Threat in New Cost-Cutting Round Amid AI Infrastructure Push.
Gaurav Vasu, chief executive of market research firm UnearthInsight, noted that Oracle's restructuring reflects changing functional priorities across the tech industry. “The restructuring is essentially about moving budgets from legacy sales skills to new-age skills,” Vasu said, adding, “In Oracle’s case, it is a combination of PIP and a shift towards new-age areas. It is an AI-led restructuring where budgets are being reallocated between legacy skills and new-age skills," he added.
Microsoft Implements Performance Reviews
At Microsoft, approximately two per cent of the local workforce - translating to roughly 400 to 500 employees, according to EIIRTrend chief executive Pareekh Jain - has been placed under a global performance improvement initiative. Addressing the development, a Microsoft spokesperson stated that the company maintains formal mechanisms for performance management and global voluntary separation. "Employees who are not meeting the expectations of their roles may be offered additional coaching or placed on a PIP. Depending on the circumstances, they could also be offered voluntary separation or face termination," the spokesperson said, adding that “the share of employees globally on PIPs is a very small percentage.”
Industry executives emphasize that performance improvement plans should not be automatically equated with direct layoffs. Kamal Karanth, co-founder of staffing firm Xpheno, noted that PIPs are “not necessarily an alternative to layoffs” and are intended to offer staff an opportunity to improve their performance. Similarly, Vasu stated that a 1 per cent to 2 per cent rate of involuntary or PIP-related attrition typically forms part of regular corporate management processes. Will ITC Infotech Merger Cause Job Cuts? Happiest Minds CEO Clarifies Employment Plans.
Strategic Shift Toward Artificial Intelligence
The concurrent measures across both enterprises underscore a broader transition within the enterprise technology landscape. Companies are aggressively shifting financial budgets away from traditional operations to fund specialized engineering capabilities in artificial intelligence and advanced computing infrastructure.
Experts anticipate that the broader impact of AI on engineering employment will become increasingly apparent over the next two to three years, with junior and mid-level engineers working on lower-complexity tasks likely to face greater exposure to these industry-wide shifts.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 01, 2026 06:14 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).