Artificial Intelligence (AI) has reshaped the technology world at a startling pace, and its heaviest blow is now landing squarely on people's jobs. Companies across the globe are adopting AI on a massive scale to work faster and cut costs, but the same technology has turned into a nightmare for employees. Fresh figures from a platform that tracks layoffs in the tech sector reveal just how badly the job market has deteriorated. What stands out most is that the first six months of 2026 alone wiped out more jobs than the whole of 2025 did.
By 1 July 2026, the number of tech workers who had lost their jobs to AI worldwide had crossed 1.28 lakh. By comparison, all of 2025 saw a total of 1.25 lakh IT professionals laid off. Given how quickly companies are embracing automation and new AI tools, it is clear this wave is not about to slow down.
India Is the World's Second Biggest Casualty
In this whole crisis, India has climbed to second place globally. Between January 2020 and July 2026, the United States took the hardest hit from AI-driven tech layoffs. Of all the employees let go, 71.33% were from the US alone. India's share of the total came to 7.16%, the highest after the United States. Behind India on this list sit countries such as Germany (3.43%) and the United Kingdom (2.64%).
Education and Finance Bore the Brunt
The impact of AI in India has not been uniform across every field. The technology has hit workers in certain sectors far harder than others. The sectors that shed the most jobs paint a clear picture.
- Education sector (EdTech): The single biggest shock landed here, accounting for 21.67% of the total layoffs.
- Finance sector: Banking and financial services saw 14.73% of jobs affected.
- Food industry: Food tech and delivery-related segments recorded 12.26% of the cuts.
- Transport and consumer business: Both of these sectors also showed the door to roughly 11% of their employees each.
A Crisis That Deepens Every Year
Looking back at the numbers from recent years, the threat AI poses to jobs keeps growing larger. In 2020, around 81,000 workers lost their jobs, a figure that rose to 1.65 lakh by 2022. In 2023, it then surged to an all-time high of 2.66 lakh. There was some relief in 2024 and 2025, but the first six months of 2026 alone smashed the record of the entire previous year. These figures make it plain that as companies weave AI ever deeper into their operations, the pressure on human jobs only keeps mounting.
