On May 21, 2026, Zeb Evans, the CEO of ClickUp, did something unusual. He announced that his company was laying off 22% of its workforce - not because the business was struggling, but because it was "the strongest it's ever been". The reason? Artificial intelligence.
"We reduced headcount by 22%," Evans posted on X. "The business is the strongest it's ever been. So I think it's important to be direct about what I'm seeing and why." He made it clear this was not a cost-cutting exercise. The savings, he promised, would flow back into the people who stayed, with million-dollar salary bands for top AI talent.
This wasn't a desperate move by a struggling startup. ClickUp was last valued at $4 billion in 2021. Its business was growing. Yet Evans voluntarily chose to let go of hundreds of employees because he believes AI has fundamentally changed how work gets done.
For Indian IT professionals, this is not a distant Silicon Valley drama. It is a preview of what is already happening in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune. The top five Indian IT firms - TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCLTech, and Tech Mahindra - together shed nearly 7,000 employees in FY26, reversing the hiring gains of the previous year. TCS alone laid off 12,000 people, described as the biggest job cut by an Indian corporate entity in recent times.
This article breaks down what ClickUp's radical restructuring means for Indian IT workers - and what you can do to survive.
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ClickUp's Three-Bucket Workforce: A Blueprint for the Future
ClickUp's CEO was unusually transparent about the company's new workforce structure. He said the company is redesigning itself around three categories: "builders," "system managers," and "front-liners".
Builders will focus on developing AI-powered systems. System managers will supervise those AI systems and automate parts of their own responsibilities. Front-liners will continue to handle customer interactions and provide what Evans called "the human touch."
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Notice what is missing from this structure. Traditional middle managers - the people whose job is to coordinate, report, and supervise human teams - are nowhere to be found. Their tasks are being absorbed by AI agents.
This is not a theoretical risk in India. According to Teamlease Digital CEO Neeti Sharma, by 2026, about one in five companies in India could see half of their middle managers leave as AI begins to take over routine tasks such as reporting, scheduling, and performance monitoring. Shark Tank India judge Anupam Mittal has also warned that AI agents are rapidly taking over tasks traditionally handled by managerial layers, particularly roles focused on coordination rather than execution.
The message is clear: if your job primarily involves moving information between people rather than creating something new, you are in the crosshairs.
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The Two-Tier Job Market Has Already Arrived in India
ClickUp's plan to offer "million-dollar salary bands" to top AI talent while laying off hundreds of others is a stark illustration of the two-tier job market that is already taking shape in India.
On one hand, demand for AI specialists is exploding. AI and ML roles saw a 45% year-on-year increase in hiring. Senior roles paying over ₹20 lakh grew 55%. Professionals with deep AI skills are commanding salaries that would have been unthinkable just two years ago.
On the other hand, routine, coordination-heavy roles are under intense pressure. Infosys's headcount decreased by 8,440 employees in Q4FY26 alone. Tech Mahindra lost around 1,993 employees. And these are not isolated events. According to Layoffs. fyi, more than 114,000 tech employees across 150 companies have lost jobs in 2026 so far.
"The heaviest impact will fall on the lower rungs of the labour pyramid, namely the traditional entry-level coding and back-office roles that Indian IT has relied on for scale," said HFS Research founder Phil Ferst. Yet even as entry-level coding jobs shrink, companies are struggling to find talent for AI-specific roles. This is the paradox of the AI job market: the jobs that are disappearing and the jobs that are growing require completely different skill sets.
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The New 'Builder' Role Is Your Ticket to Survival
Nandan Nilekani, co-founder and chairman of Infosys, recently described the transformation as a "root-and-branch" restructuring of IT work. He identified four IT jobs that are shrinking - front-end web developers, QA testers, IT support specialists, and traditional blockchain roles - while also naming five new roles that are exploding in demand: AI engineers, AI forensic analysts, forward-deployed engineers, AI leads, and data annotators.
This is the shift that ClickUp is accelerating. The company's CEO said that employees who automate their jobs with AI will "always have a job" because they "become owners of the AI systems, agent managers".
UiPath executives have similarly pushed back against fears that AI will displace India's developer workforce, arguing that coding agents will expand demand for technologists rather than shrink it. They framed the impact through the lens of the Jevons Paradox: productivity gains from coding agents lead to more software being built and more engineers being required. "Writing code is only part of the job," said one executive. "Defining systems, architecture, governance, security – that remains. Agents take away some coding and testing, but steering them is still the engineer's job."
The key takeaway is that the engineer's role is not disappearing. It is evolving from "writing code" to "building and managing AI systems." If you want to be one of the "builders" or "system managers" in this new world, you need to start reskilling now.
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Your Survival Guide: Four Steps to Stay Relevant
The AI-led restructuring is not coming. It is already here. Here is what you can do right now.
1. Focus on agentic AI skills. Learn how to build, orchestrate, and supervise autonomous AI systems. Frameworks like LangChain, AutoGen, and CrewAI are becoming the new standard. Understanding how to manage AI agents that can plan, reason, and execute tasks is more valuable than knowing a particular programming language.
2. Specialise in the hard problems. AI is excellent at "greenfield" development - writing fresh code for new projects. But most companies sit on "brownfield" legacy systems: outdated codebases riddled with technical debt and undocumented quirks. Modernising these systems is where AI struggles and human expertise remains essential.
3. Build judgement, not just coding speed. As AI agents take over routine tasks, the premium will shift to judgment, architecture, security, governance, and problem-solving. These are the skills that AI cannot easily replicate.
4. Stay informed and keep learning. The window for premium AI salaries is wide open now, but it will not stay open forever. The professionals who thrive will be those who treat learning as a continuous process, not a one-time event.
The future of work is not about fewer people. It is about different work, new roles, and better rewards for those who embrace AI rather than resist it. The choice is yours.
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FAQ
Q: Will AI completely replace software developers in India?
A: No, but it will change the role. Routine coding tasks will be automated, but demand is growing for developers who can build, orchestrate, and supervise AI systems. UiPath executives argue that productivity gains from AI will lead to more software being built and more engineers required, not fewer.
Q: Which jobs are most at risk from AI in Indian IT?
A: Middle managers, entry-level coders, QA testers, IT support specialists, and back-office roles that involve repetitive, rule-based tasks. Teamlease Digital CEO Neeti Sharma has warned that about one in five companies in India could see half their middle managers exit as AI takes over reporting, scheduling, and performance monitoring.
Q: What new roles are being created by AI?
A: Nandan Nilekani has identified five emerging roles: AI engineers, AI forensic analysts, forward-deployed engineers, AI leads, and data annotators. These roles require a combination of technical skills, strategic thinking, and the ability to work with non-deterministic systems.
Q: How can I prepare for the AI-driven job market?
A: Focus on agentic AI skills (LangChain, AutoGen, CrewAI), specialise in modernising legacy "brownfield" systems, and develop judgement, architecture, and problem-solving abilities. Continuous learning is not optional.
Q: Is the Indian IT industry shrinking?
A: No, but it is restructuring. The top five IT firms added about 1.35 lakh net jobs in FY26, but hiring has plateaued and shifted toward specialised AI skills. Fresher hiring targets have been lowered, with TCS planning to hire 25,000 freshers in FY27 - significantly lower than its previous addition of 40,000-42,000 in prior years.
Q: What is ClickUp's new workforce structure?
A: ClickUp is redesigning its workforce around three categories: builders (developing AI systems), system managers (supervising AI systems), and front-liners (handling customer interactions). Traditional middle management roles are being eliminated.
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Have you already started learning agentic AI skills, or are you still waiting for your company to offer training? Share your experience in the comments below.
If you found this article useful, share it with a colleague in IT. The AI-led restructuring is already happening. The only question is whether you will be ready.
Tags: ClickUp layoffs, AI jobs, middle management, Indian IT, future of work, workforce restructuring
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