Visa Cuts 2,600 Jobs Amid AI Push, Employees In India Caught Off Guard

Visa Layoffs 2026: For some Visa employees in India, July 29 began with an email they were not expecting. 

The messages reportedly landed between 4 am and 5 am. By the time many employees started their day, their jobs were gone. The layoffs are part of Visa's global decision to eliminate around 2,600 positions, or about 7 per cent of its workforce.

The bigger story, however, is not just the number. It is where Visa wants to go next. Artificial intelligence is becoming central to that plan. And India's large technology workforce is now directly feeling the impact.

Visa had more than 3,500 employees in India, with technology and corporate hubs in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad. So far, the company has not disclosed how many India-based employees are part of the latest cuts. 

Visa Layoffs: What Happened In India?

The India impact has emerged as one of the most striking parts of the restructuring. According to media reports, several employees received layoff emails before dawn on July 29. One India-based team of 28 reportedly lost 10 members. 

The cuts were not limited to junior positions. Senior directors, engineering managers and employees who had spent years with Visa were among those affected.

Employees were offered severance packages and notice periods of roughly 15 to 30 days. But for some, access to company systems was withdrawn within days, with laptops and ID cards also being returned. 

Why Is Visa Cutting So Many Jobs?

Visa says it wants to become more efficient and redirect resources towards areas where it sees stronger growth.

AI is a major part of that strategy. CEO Ryan McInerney has spoken about Visa moving beyond AI tools that simply help employees. The company is increasingly looking at agentic AI -- systems that can perform tasks with human supervision.

That is an important shift. The question is no longer simply whether employees can use AI to do their work faster. It is whether fewer employees will be needed to do the same amount of work.

Visa's cuts primarily hit technology and product teams, according to a Reuters report. Notably, Visa had about 34,100 employees in fiscal 2025. That means the latest cuts amount to roughly one in every 14 employees globally. 

Visa Layoffs Not Due To Business Crisis 

It is important to mention that this is not a company cutting jobs because its core business has collapsed. Quite the opposite.

Visa has continued to perform strongly, with consumer spending remaining resilient. The company's business also benefits from its transaction-based model, which does not expose it to the same kind of credit risk faced by traditional lenders. 

So, this is less about survival. It is about changing the workforce before the business changes even more.

For India, this distinction matters even more. Global technology companies have built large engineering and operations teams in the country over the years. India has benefited enormously from that model.

Visa is no exception. Its India operations include major technology centres. Thousands of employees work across engineering, product and corporate functions. That makes the Visa layoffs particularly significant for India's technology workforce.

The immediate concern is obvious: could more global companies start asking whether some technology work can now be done with fewer people? The answer is already visible elsewhere.

Good Performers Not Necessarily Safe

One of the most unsettling parts of the Visa restructuring is that performance alone may not provide complete protection.

Former Visa employee Arnab Das said on X that his former manager had been laid off despite owning a product end-to-end and receiving strong performance reviews. His comments highlighted the uncertainty created by the cuts. 

Visa is not alone. The entire payments industry is already going through a similar reset. Mastercard announced plans earlier this year to reduce its global workforce by about 4 per cent, saying it wanted to refocus investment on strategic priorities. Fintech company Block also announced plans in February to cut nearly half its workforce, or around 4,000 jobs. 

The broader corporate world is moving in the same direction. Amazon announced plans to eliminate around 16,000 corporate roles. Cloudflare planned to cut more than 1,100 jobs. Atlassian announced around 1,600 job cuts as it reshaped its workforce around AI. Similarly, Standard Chartered also said it plans to eliminate 15 per cent of corporate-function roles over four years amid AI push. 

Speaking on the layoffs, Umesh Kothari, Assistant Dean and Assistant Professor at SP Jain School of Global Management, said, "The rapidly growing use of AI is changing the workplace from one organised around tasks to one increasingly organised around judgement, problem-solving and decision-making... In a workplace where technologies and roles will continue to evolve, the ability to learn, unlearn and apply knowledge in new contexts will ultimately become one of the strongest forms of career resilience."