AI software plugins likely to weigh on IT roles for next 12-18 months, experts say
While the impact of software plugins from Anthropic on IT services is being debated, launches of such tools are likely to affect certain roles within the industry, especially over the next 12-18 months, experts said.
While estimates across staffing and consultancy firms vary, experts estimate anywhere between 6% and 20% of the headcount in specific IT and business functions to be impacted, as more enterprises adopt artificial intelligence, increasing productivity levels by 30-40%. Coding, software maintenance, sales and marketing, legal, and data analysis roles are among the most vulnerable.
“Tools like Claude Cowork, which can automate multi-step tasks such as organising files, drafting reports and transforming data into structured outputs, aim to reduce repetitive effort and free up professionals for higher-value, strategic work,” said Kapil Joshi, chief executive, IT Staffing, at business service and staffing company Quess Corp.
Legal, financial and software maintenance tasks that were typically done manually are being automated using tools like Palantir's Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) and Anthropic's Claude Cowork. Because autonomous agents enable a single user to generate the output of numerous employees, this change poses a threat to existing seat-based pricing and billable-hour models in tech services.
“In the near term, people-heavy service models face margin pressure, but structurally this is an inflexion point: firms that pivot from junior-led execution to expert-driven, AI-augmented delivery stand to emerge stronger over the medium to long term,” said Gaurav Vasu, CEO and founder of UnearthInsight.
The absolute number of roles that companies will hire for could potentially decline by about 25%, said Neeti Sharma, CEO of staffing firm Teamlease Digital.
This is in tandem with industry body Nasscom’s estimates released in its annual strategic review. According to it, India’s total workforce in IT and global capability centres rose a modest 2.3% in FY26 to 5.95 million, translating into a net addition of around 135,000 employees during the year. This followed a net increase of 133,000 in FY25, marking one of the slowest rates of workforce expansion in recent years.
Industry watchers also noted that while some roles will be impacted, the focus on AI-augmented deals for enterprises will create new job opportunities as well.
“In the short run, perhaps the volume of people being hired might be less, but in the long run, it could be more. For instance, while software development roles might decline, investments in data centres will bring in other roles. The next 12-18 months will see a lot of disruption,” Sharma added.
Companies made the most recruitments in job descriptions like MLOps specialists, cloud architects and cybersecurity specialists in 2025. These have now been morphed into roles like ML platform and MLOps engineers, cloud modernisation architects and cybersecurity engineers (for zero trust, identity and AI security) in 2026.
“Rather than a headline-driven disruption, the trend points toward evolutionary role transformation where efficiency gains from AI tools enhance productivity and create opportunities for people to focus on creative, interpersonal, and complex problem-solving work,” Joshi said, highlighting that the human element remains essential for high-level strategy and positioning.
While estimates across staffing and consultancy firms vary, experts estimate anywhere between 6% and 20% of the headcount in specific IT and business functions to be impacted, as more enterprises adopt artificial intelligence, increasing productivity levels by 30-40%. Coding, software maintenance, sales and marketing, legal, and data analysis roles are among the most vulnerable.
“Tools like Claude Cowork, which can automate multi-step tasks such as organising files, drafting reports and transforming data into structured outputs, aim to reduce repetitive effort and free up professionals for higher-value, strategic work,” said Kapil Joshi, chief executive, IT Staffing, at business service and staffing company Quess Corp.
Legal, financial and software maintenance tasks that were typically done manually are being automated using tools like Palantir's Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) and Anthropic's Claude Cowork. Because autonomous agents enable a single user to generate the output of numerous employees, this change poses a threat to existing seat-based pricing and billable-hour models in tech services.
“In the near term, people-heavy service models face margin pressure, but structurally this is an inflexion point: firms that pivot from junior-led execution to expert-driven, AI-augmented delivery stand to emerge stronger over the medium to long term,” said Gaurav Vasu, CEO and founder of UnearthInsight.
The absolute number of roles that companies will hire for could potentially decline by about 25%, said Neeti Sharma, CEO of staffing firm Teamlease Digital.
This is in tandem with industry body Nasscom’s estimates released in its annual strategic review. According to it, India’s total workforce in IT and global capability centres rose a modest 2.3% in FY26 to 5.95 million, translating into a net addition of around 135,000 employees during the year. This followed a net increase of 133,000 in FY25, marking one of the slowest rates of workforce expansion in recent years.
Industry watchers also noted that while some roles will be impacted, the focus on AI-augmented deals for enterprises will create new job opportunities as well.
“In the short run, perhaps the volume of people being hired might be less, but in the long run, it could be more. For instance, while software development roles might decline, investments in data centres will bring in other roles. The next 12-18 months will see a lot of disruption,” Sharma added.
Companies made the most recruitments in job descriptions like MLOps specialists, cloud architects and cybersecurity specialists in 2025. These have now been morphed into roles like ML platform and MLOps engineers, cloud modernisation architects and cybersecurity engineers (for zero trust, identity and AI security) in 2026.
“Rather than a headline-driven disruption, the trend points toward evolutionary role transformation where efficiency gains from AI tools enhance productivity and create opportunities for people to focus on creative, interpersonal, and complex problem-solving work,” Joshi said, highlighting that the human element remains essential for high-level strategy and positioning.
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