Cognizant layoffs 2026 could affect up to 15,000 employees globally, with India expected to face the biggest impact as the IT giant pushes ahead with its Project Leap restructuring. Cognizant layoffs 2026 could mark one of the company’s biggest workforce reductions in recent years. Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. is reportedly preparing for a significant global workforce reduction that could affect between 12,000 and 15,000 employees, with reports indicating India could see the largest impact.
What is happening at Cognizant?
The reported Cognizant job cuts are part of a broader restructuring effort. According to a report from Moneycontrol, the Nasdaq-listed IT company revealed on April 29 that it anticipates incurring severance expenses between 230 million dollars and 320 million dollars as part of its newly inaugurated “Project Leap.” Cognizant Project Leap is reportedly designed to reshape the company’s operating model.
Project Leap is designed to transform Cognizant to be leaner, faster and AI-driven. Reportedly, the company is interested in investing further in AI capabilities, partnerships, and reskilling and decreasing the layers of workforce that are not relevant to the new model. Practically it implies that Cognizant is attempting to move away from a traditional IT services delivery-based model to one that focuses more on automation and increased productivity per head.
Why is Cognizant cutting jobs?
The expected layoffs reflect a fundamental change in client demands. Industry executives report that customers are increasingly unwilling to finance the traditional “pyramid” staffing model, which relies heavily on entry-level “freshers.”
This reorganisation implies that Cognizant is setting up a new type of IT services marketplace, where AI is becoming a key focus of delivery, pricing, and productivity. It has also been mentioned by the company that part of the savings of Project Leap will be spent in the growth to come particularly in integrated offerings, AI capabilities, and partnerships. Therefore, although this move can be seen as down-sizing, it is also a gamble that a smaller, more automated structure will be more appropriate to the future demand of clients.
What this means for the IT industry
Cognizant India layoffs could have a significant impact given the company’s large workforce presence in the country. India remains the most sensitive part of the story because a large portion of Cognizant’s workforce is based there, making any restructuring likely to have an outsized local effect. Cognizant’s move follows a year of heavy restructuring across the software sector. In 2025, TCS reportedly reduced its workforce by 12,500, followed by similar manoeuvres at Accenture, HCLTech, and Oracle. The latest reports add to the growing list of IT layoffs India has witnessed over the last year.
Although Cognizant has not officially stated the number of layoffs, the magnitude of the severance reserve strongly suggests the company is preparing for significant workforce restructuring. Project Leap reflects how AI-led restructuring is now moving from boardroom strategy to real workforce decisions across the IT sector.
Cognizant’s previous restructuring efforts
This is not Cognizant’s first major efficiency drive. Cognizant’s earlier restructuring effort was its NextGen programme, launched in 2023, and it was much more than a simple layoff exercise. Cognizant expected personnel actions to affect around 3,500 employees, or about 1% of its workforce, while also consolidating a huge amount of office real estate.The firm’s “NextGen” program in 2023-24 resulted in 3,500 job cuts and the vacation of approximately 11 million square feet of office space. Cognizant has already gone through one major restructuring round before the current one. The Cognizant move follows wider software sector layoffs across major global firms.
Has Cognizant confirmed the layoffs?
Cognizant has not yet officially responded to requests for comment regarding the specific layoff estimates. While Cognizant has not officially confirmed the exact scale of the layoffs, the reported move signals how quickly the global IT services industry is being reshaped by changing client expectations.