AI Job Cuts In 2026 Have Already Beaten All Of 2025, and India Is The Second Worst Hit Country

In just six months, AI has wiped out more tech jobs worldwide than it did in the whole of last year. And India isn't watching from the sidelines this time; it's sitting at number two on the list.

If you've been scrolling through layoff news every other week this year, you're not imagining things. AI is no longer just "helping" companies work faster, it's actively replacing the people who used to do that work. And the numbers from the first half of 2026 prove it.

2026 Isn't Even Over, But It's Already Worse Than 2025

According to data tracked by Layoffs. fyi, AI-related layoffs in the global tech industry hit 1.28 lakh employees by July 1, 2026. That's a bigger number than the 1.25 lakh people who lost their jobs to AI during the entire year of 2025, and we're only halfway through 2026.

Companies aren't hiding the reason either. They're leaning harder into AI tools and automation to cut costs and boost output, and that's translating directly into fewer human roles across departments.

This Has Been Building For Years

This isn't a sudden spike out of nowhere. AI-led layoffs were already around 81,000 back in 2020, dipped in 2021, then exploded to over 1.65 lakh in 2022. By 2023, the number touched nearly 2.66 lakh, the highest yet. Things cooled off a bit in 2024 and 2025, which made it look like the storm was passing.

Except it wasn't. Half of 2026 has already crossed all of last year's total, which tells you the AI-driven shake-up in tech hiring is far from done.

India Is The Second Worst Hit Country In The World

The US leads by a huge margin, accounting for 71.33% of all AI-led tech layoffs globally between January 2020 and July 2026. But right behind it, at number two, is India with a 7.16% share of these job cuts. That puts India ahead of Germany (3.43%) and the UK (2.64%) on this uncomfortable list.

Which Sectors In India Are Losing The Most Jobs?

Here's the part that might surprise you, it's not just core tech companies feeling the heat. Within India, the breakdown looks like this:

• Education – 21.67% (the hardest-hit sector)
• Finance – 14.73%
• Food – 12.26%
• Transport – 11.03%
• Consumer businesses – 11%

So whether you're eyeing a career in ed-tech, banking, food-delivery ops, or logistics, AI's fingerprints are already on the hiring numbers in your field.

It's Not All Bad News, Though

Here's the twist: while AI is shrinking demand for a lot of traditional roles, it's also opening doors in newer fields like machine learning, data science, and AI development. The jobs aren't disappearing entirely; they're shifting. The real question is whether the workforce is shifting fast enough to keep up.