Visa’s recent round of layoffs has left many employees in India shocked after receiving job-cut notifications in the early hours of July 29. The move comes as the payments giant accelerates its adoption of artificial intelligence across its business operations.
According to a report, several employees received emails from the human resources team between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m., informing them that their roles had been eliminated.
On July 28, Visa announced that it would reduce around 7% of its global workforce, affecting nearly 2,600 employees. CEO Ryan McInerney said the company is restructuring its workforce to support the next phase of AI adoption.
Speaking during the company’s earnings call, McInerney said Visa is moving beyond AI tools that assist employees and is now focusing on agentic AI, where AI systems can perform tasks under human supervision. He also noted that agentic commerce is expected to create new growth opportunities.
Visa has not disclosed how many employees in India were affected. The company employs more than 3,500 people across its technology and corporate hubs in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, and Hyderabad.
Several teams reportedly faced significant cuts. In one India-based team of 28 members, 10 employees lost their jobs, including senior directors, engineering managers, and employees with nearly 20 years at the company.
Affected employees received severance packages and notice periods ranging from 15 to 30 days. Many were asked to return their laptops and ID cards shortly after being informed, while access to company systems was withdrawn within days.
One employee said the Bengaluru office, which had been busy just days earlier, became unusually quiet following the layoffs.
The layoffs also sparked reactions on social media. Former Visa employee Arnab Das wrote on X, “Visa laid off some of my close friends. The worst part they laid off my manager yesterday and I don’t know how to verify my CV points. What a worst situation to be in.”
In another post, he said, “My entire team at Visa just got laid off including my manager. The guy had end-to-end ownership of the product, outstanding performance reviews every cycle, and was probably the last person you’d expect to be let go. Feeling shocked. And strangely lucky that I left Visa.”
The report also said Visa had reduced contractor hiring and spending on external software providers in recent months, believing AI could perform some of those tasks. At the same time, some employees claimed limits were placed on AI tool usage, even as the company encouraged wider AI adoption.
Visa is not alone in making such changes. Earlier this year, Mastercard announced plans to reduce around 4% of its global workforce as part of its strategy to support future priorities, including AI-driven growth.
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