Automation takes over, Infosys releases up to 9000 employees

Homegrown IT major Infosys is reported to have released about 8,000 to 9,000 employees in the last one year on account of automation of lower-end jobs, The Economic Times reported on Friday.

"We have been releasing about 2,000 people every quarter and also training them in special courses that will help them in their new assignments," the report said quoting Infosys human resources head Krishnamurthy Shankar, as saying on the sidelines of an event organised by the Bengaluru chapter of Global Shapers.

With automation set to increase in intensity, the number of people the company hires will come down over time, he further added.  Infosys added 5,700 people in the first nine months of this fiscal, compared to about 17,000 in the same period last year, cited the news report.

The total employee strength of the company for December quarter declined to 1,99,763, it added.  Shankar said that Infosys has trained about 490 people in a first batch of machine learning and the use of artificial intelligence (AI). 

(The original article was published at zeebiz.com)