Indian employees wake up to lay off mails. Why is Visa striking down work force despite strong business growth
July 29th for some employees at Visa , ended before the day began. As a routine, employees would first check their emails and then proceed with the work for the day. Few of them knew that the first email of the day would be the last they would receive from the company.
A message which landed during dawn for Indian employees from the human resource informed them that their job was over at the payments tasked firm. The layoffs are a part of Visa’s global decision, as the company heads towards automation.
As per reports, Visa has decided to eliminate around 2,600 positions or about 7% of its workforce. Layoffs are not a big story for big companies in the recent days. For Visa, the question is where is it heading next. Chief Executive Officer Ryan McInerney said the company was reshaping its workforce to prepare for the next phase of AI adoption. Speaking during the company’s earnings call, he said Visa is moving beyond AI tools that simply assist employees and is now focusing on agentic AI, where AI systems can perform tasks with human supervision.
With its hubs in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad, the company had more than 3,500 employees in India alone. However, there has been no official notice on how many Indian employees have been laid off in the recent job cuts. According to media reports, India is the most significantly impacted unit of the visa in the AI adoption journey. One Indian-based team of 28 reportedly lost 10 members at a shot. The cuts were not limited only to junior positions. Senior directors, engineering managers, and employees who spent years with Visa were also those affected. Employees were given severance packages and notice periods ranging from around 15 to 30 days. However, many had to return their laptops and ID cards soon after being informed, while access to company systems was withdrawn within days.
WHY THE JOB CUTS?
Visa revealed it wants to be more efficient and redirect sources towards areas where it can achieve stronger growth, hence, heading towards AI. The company is aiming to incorporate agentic AI systems which could perform tasks with human supervision. So it means, the question is no longer whether the employees can use AI to do the work faster. It is whether fewer employees will be needed to do the same amount of work.
It is worth noting that the company is not cutting jobs because if its core business has collapsed. Visa, however, continues to perform strongly with consumer spending remaining resilient. The company’s business also benefits from its transaction-based model, which does not expose it to the same kind of credit risk faced by traditional lenders. So this is less about survival but more about a change to fit in the transforming technological ecosystem.