Indian IT stocks fell sharply on Wednesday, with Infosys down 7.3%, TCS sliding 5.8%, and the NIFTY IT index plunging 6.3%. Investors are spooked by new AI tools from US-based Anthropic that could automate routine tasks, threatening the labour-heavy model that has long powered India’s tech exports.

Amid the sell-off, Deepak Shenoy of Capitalmind warned that repeatable, low-value jobs are most at risk. He said IT professionals need to reskill and focus on results, as AI is reshaping how projects are executed, and visas are drying up, leaving the path to residency abroad hanging in the balance.

Deepak Shenoy’s wake‑up call for Indian IT

“Interesting that indian IT stocks are down now because of a fear of AI cutting into their business. The trajectory might not be easy to predict but it’s the boring, repeatable job that will go first, and these companies will need to upskill to become the ai orchestrators of choice,” Shenoy wrote on X. According to him for decades, companies in India’s IT sector have grown by sending large numbers of workers abroad on visas to serve clients, especially in the United States. But that way of working is changing fast.

ALSO READ

Shenoy pointed out that the jobs most likely to disappear first are the “boring, repeatable” ones, the kind of tasks that don’t require deep creativity or strategy. “Companies don’t even need to productise, they need to embrace the ai based service model, and already many of them are,” he wrote.

Shenoy suggested that instead of treating AI as a threat, Indian IT companies should use it as a part of their core services. Many are already moving in that direction, he said, but the transition won’t be easy. “AI is changing the game. You’ll need less people to do a project, and less middle management. So move towards that game instead, and most IT cos are already doing this.”

Reskill again — and build skills in India

Shenoy explained that it won’t make much difference if someone is good at managing people — what matters more now is the ability to get things done, whether the work is done by humans or machines. So people, especially those buried in middle management roles that add little value, may be at risk of losing their jobs if they don’t reskill. “Net hires are down. Middle managers that added little value are staring at being fired. Your skill isn’t managing people as much as getting things done, ai or human. Employees have to reskill, again.”

ALSO READ

He also touched on something that has worried many Indian tech workers, the future of visas. “The visas are dying so you won’t get the path to a permanent residency abroad anymore, so make the best of your skills here.”

For years, these visas were seen as a ladder to international jobs and even permanent residency. Now, those doors are tightening. One big reason for that is recent changes under US policy. The Trump administration has overhauled the H‑1B visa programme, a category that many Indian tech professionals have relied on to work in the United State.

Previously, employers paid just a few thousand dollars to bring in skilled workers. Under the new rules, they will now have to pay new $100,000 fee. This has made hiring young and mid‑level Indian talent far more expensive and uncertain for US companies.

What happened in the markets

Right as Shenoy was tweeting, Indian tech stocks were sliding. Shares of major Indian IT exporters fell hard on Wednesday in what turned out to be one of the worst days for the NIFTY IT index in year. It came after a US AI company called Anthropic launched new AI tools that can automate tasks across legal, sales, marketing and data analysis, jobs that many Indian IT workers do now. For decades, India’s tech sector has followed a labour‑intensive model, companies grew by hiring many people, moving them around the world, and billing clients for hours worked.

But now, with AI changing how work gets done, that model is under pressure. Analysts say automated tools could reduce how much companies depend on large teams, especially for routine work.