India’s celebrated $280 billion tech industry, employing over 5 million people, is facing a severe human toll. Widespread AI-fueled layoffs and an intense work culture have created a workforce under extreme pressure, marked by a disturbing wave of worker suicides. A Rest of World analysis documented 227 reported suicides among Indian tech workers between 2017 and 2025, with many cases linked directly to work pressure. 83% of tech workers suffer from burnout with one in four working over 70 hours a week, far beyond the legal 48-hour limit, even while some industry leaders advocate for 90-hour weeks.
This mental health crisis is amplified by the disruptive force of Artificial Intelligence. The industry’s backbone of outsourcing and entry-level coding jobs is now highly vulnerable to automation. Leading firms have cut tens of thousands of jobs in AI-driven overhauls, creating a climate of fear and job insecurity amid a massive labor surplus. Workers report being pushed to use AI to increase productivity while working unpaid overtime, feeling utterly trapped, the lines blurred between personal and professional hours worsened since COVID-19’s shift for remote work. The case of a young engineer who died by suicide after working 15-hour days at a prestigious AI startup underscores a systemic failure, suggesting that the fate of India’s tech workforce may be a grim preview of AI’s global impact on the increasingly precarious IT sector employment.
Read the full article on Rest of World to understand the human stories behind this crisis and its implications for the global tech labor force.
