TCS to create 5,000 new jobs in UK, launches AI Experience Zone in London amid layoff scrutiny

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Friday announced plans to create 5,000 new jobs in the United Kingdom over the next three years and launch a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) Experience Zone and Design Studio in London, even as the IT major faces questions over large-scale job cuts in India.

The company unveiled its latest initiative during a visit by a UK business delegation led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer to TCS’s Banyan Park campus in Mumbai.

The newly announced AI Experience Zone and London Design Studio will serve as an innovation hub to foster collaboration with UK businesses across sectors, the company said in a regulatory filing.

“The UK is TCS’ second-largest market globally, making it central to our investment strategy around the world,” said Vinay Singhvi, Head of UK & Ireland, TCS. “The AI Experience Zone will further help foster innovation in collaboration with businesses throughout the UK, helping maintain an edge in artificial intelligence and new technologies.”

TCS, which has been operating in the UK for over five decades, employs more than 21,000 people across 19 sites in the country. It also runs community programmes such as the TCS London Marathon, which raised a record £73.5 million for charity in 2024.

According to a new Oxford Economics report, TCS contributed £3.3 billion to the UK economy in FY2024 and supported more than 42,000 jobs, including 15,300 in technology roles. It also made a total tax contribution exceeding £780 million.

The company’s “Partnering for Skills” initiative aims to reskill over 12,000 people for STEM jobs, in line with the UK government’s workforce development goals.

However, the announcement comes at a time when TCS is under growing scrutiny at home over mass layoffs.

According to the company’s latest quarterly data, its global workforce fell to 593,314 employees as of September 30, down 19,755 from the previous quarter, much higher than the 12,000 layoffs it had previously indicated.

TCS attributed the decline to a mix of voluntary and involuntary attrition amid what it described as a “realignment” of its operations.

NITES said the company’s omission of headcount and attrition details in its initial BSE filing raised concerns about transparency, alleging that the decline could not be explained by voluntary attrition since overall attrition rates had actually fallen.

"TCS has continued to grow revenue during the same period, proving that business performance cannot be used as a justification for such drastic cuts. TCS may present these job cuts as numbers on a balance sheet, but for us they are stories of shattered lives," NITES said.

NITES alleged that employees who have given 10-15 years of loyalty are being cornered, threatened, and discarded overnight.

"This is not restructuring, this is corporate cruelty. TCS has chosen profits over people, turning its workplace into a fear factory and betraying the very workforce that built its empire," Harpreet Singh Saluja, the President of NITES, said in a statement.