Top Indian IT companies, including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, HCLTech, Wipro, and Tech Mahindra, are reducing their bench strength—employees waiting for project assignment—from historical levels of 20-30% to roughly 8-10% by fiscal year 2027. This shift aims to improve profit margins and operational efficiency by adopting AI-driven productivity and demand-based hiring. As artificial intelligence accelerates coding tasks, the reliance on a large standby workforce has lessened, and recruitment is shifting to a demand-driven model aligned with specific project needs. The change is also a response to margin pressure amid slowing revenue growth, as leaner benches reduce idle payroll costs and boost operating margins. Currently, the time an employee spends on the bench has decreased to about 30-45 days, compared to the 45-60 days common in previous years. Rather than mass redundancy, major firms are prioritizing reskilling programs to transition employees from legacy roles to high-demand areas like AI, cloud computing, cybersecurity, and data analytics. Companies are continuing to hire with a more surgical approach: TCS is using project-based learning, Infosys is targeting specialized talent such as frontier engineers, and Tech Mahindra is looking to resume campus recruitment. Wipro, however, stands out as an exception among these major players, having not announced similar specific hiring initiatives.