Is AI Responsible for Layoffs in Indian IT Industry?

It's obvious that there's a slowdown across all the roles in Indian IT services industry. There were layoffs as well.

Infosys, TCS, Cognizant, HCL, Wipro - all have laid off their employees - in thousands! The companies that used to hire hundreds of students from campuses have either stopped hiring or have delayed issuing joining dates / offer letters.

The blame for layoffs and slowdown often goes to AI.

I however think AI is not responsible. The real reason for the layoffs is the over-hiring these companies did in 2021 - 22, after COVID.

COVID accelerated the demand for cloud migration, cybersecurity and collaboration tools. This resulted into companies ramping up teams to stay in the competition.

Most companies hired 10 engineers, when they needed just 2. It's a fact!

Now that the markets have stabilized, companies can't justify the salaries of these employees. Firing them is the natural way to justify value creation to the shareholders.

What do you think?