Infosys AI training mandatory—three words that just redefined the rules of engagement for India’s IT workforce. In a leaked internal memo that’s sending shockwaves through the tech ecosystem, Infosys has reportedly told its 3.23 lakh employees: complete AI Agent certification or risk your appraisal.
Welcome to 2026, where your career progression isn’t just about coding skills or project delivery anymore. It’s about whether you can work alongside—and manage—AI agents.
The Leaked Memo: What Infosys Actually Said
According to the internal communication circulated across Infosys divisions, employees must complete mandatory Infosys AI training modules focused specifically on “agentic AI”—autonomous AI systems that can interpret goals, make decisions, and execute actions independently within defined guardrails.
The memo, which surfaced on anonymous tech forums and was subsequently confirmed by multiple Infosys employees speaking on condition of anonymity, establishes a clear timeline: AI Agent certification must be completed before the appraisal cycle concludes in January 2026.
“This isn’t optional anymore,” one senior technical lead at Infosys told us. “The message is explicit—demonstrate AI literacy or your performance rating takes a hit. It’s that binary.”
The policy represents the most aggressive Infosys AI training mandatory push by any major Indian IT services company to date—and it’s forcing uncomfortable questions about the future of technology work itself.
Understanding the ‘Agentic’ Era: Why This Matters
To appreciate why Infosys AI training mandatory policies matter beyond one company’s HR directive, you need to understand what “agentic AI” actually means—and why it terrifies some employees while exciting others.
Traditional automation executes predefined rules: “If X happens, do Y.” Agentic AI systems operate differently. They understand context, set sub-goals, make decisions autonomously, and adapt their approach based on results—all while staying within human-defined boundaries.
Infosys has already launched over 200 enterprise AI agents as part of its Infosys Topaz™ AI offerings, developed in partnership with Google Cloud. These agents handle everything from procurement sourcing and contract surveillance to code generation and customer service workflows.
The company’s internal AI learning path breaks down into three tiers:
AI-Aware: Foundational training ensuring basic AI literacy across all employees—over 270,000 have completed this level.
AI-Builder: In-depth training for developers and technical roles, focusing on AI application development and integration.
AI-Master: Advanced training for architects and engineers working on custom AI models and agentic systems.
The new mandate appears to require all employees reach at least the AI-Builder level, with specific modules on managing and orchestrating AI agents—not just understanding them.
“The shift is from ‘knowing about AI’ to ‘working with AI agents as colleagues,'” explains Rajesh Kumar, an AI transformation consultant who has worked with multiple IT majors. “Infosys is essentially saying: if you can’t manage an AI agent that’s handling procurement or code reviews, you’re not ready for modern delivery models.”
The Numbers Behind the Push: Why Infosys Can’t Afford to Wait
Infosys AI training mandatory policies didn’t emerge from abstract innovation goals. They’re driven by hard business realities that CEO Salil Parekh has been transparent about in recent earnings calls.
Infosys’ operating margin for the fiscal year stands at 21%—solid, but under pressure. Parekh has explicitly stated that “Generative AI will create more opportunities,” but the company also acknowledged revenue impacts from project cancellations and client-specific challenges.
Translation: Infosys needs to deliver more value with the same or fewer billable hours. AI agents provide that leverage—but only if the human workforce knows how to deploy and manage them effectively.
Gary Bhattacharjee, VP of Data Strategy and AI at Infosys, previously told media that AI has the potential to “eliminate entire functions rather than just improving processes, resulting in substantial cost reductions for clients.”
He wasn’t being hyperbolic. Infosys has used robotic process automation (RPA) to achieve what he calls “labour arbitrage”—substituting human labour with low-cost robots for repetitive decision-making processes.
The company is now shifting focus from coding to algorithms as coding itself becomes increasingly automated. The goal? Enhance employees’ mathematical understanding and develop complex quantitative models that AI can’t replicate yet.
The Employee Reaction: Between Anxiety and Opportunity
For the 3.23 lakh Infosys employees globally, the Infosys AI training mandatory directive triggers vastly different emotional responses depending on role, seniority, and technical background.
“I’ve been coding for 12 years. Now suddenly I need to prove I can ‘manage’ an AI that writes code faster than me? It feels like being asked to train my own replacement,” confessed one Java developer at Infosys’ Bangalore office.
Contrast that with a Gen-Z analyst at the same office: “Finally. I’ve been using ChatGPT and Claude for months to accelerate my work. Now I’ll actually get formal training on enterprise-grade AI agents instead of figuring it out through Reddit threads.”
The generational and skill-set divide is real. Younger employees, often digital natives comfortable with AI tools, view certification as validation of skills they’re already developing. Mid-career professionals, particularly those in roles most vulnerable to AI disruption, see existential threat.
Thirumala Arohi, Senior Vice President and Head of Education, Training and Assessment at Infosys, framed the initiative positively: “Infosys Springboard is committed to democratize quality education and strengthen the next-generation workforce with digital and life skills. We firmly believe that AI proficiency will give young aspirants and professionals a competitive advantage in a dynamic and demanding job market.”
But “competitive advantage” for some means “competitive disadvantage” for others who can’t or won’t adapt quickly enough.
The Appraisal Link: Career Consequences of Non-Compliance
Here’s where Infosys AI training mandatory policy gets teeth: it’s directly linked to the annual appraisal cycle that determines salary hikes, promotions, and—let’s be honest—continued employment.
Infosys operates on an October-to-September performance cycle. Self-assessments were due October 17, 2025. Manager evaluations happen through December. Ratings finalize in January 2026, with revised compensation letters issued in June.
For many Infosys employees, this appraisal season already carried unusual weight. After years of frozen or modest salary hikes (FY22 saw no raises; FY24’s hikes were 5-10% lower than previous cycles), employees desperately hoped for meaningful raises in 2026.
Now that hope comes with a condition: demonstrate AI agent competency.
Sources indicate that the AI certification requirement will be incorporated into the standard performance rubric, likely as a separate competency assessment or prerequisite for achieving top performance ratings.
“You could deliver exceptional project outcomes, but if you haven’t completed the AI Agent certification, you won’t get the highest performance band,” explained an HR business partner at Infosys. “It’s being treated like mandatory compliance training—except it actually determines your career trajectory.”
EXPERT TAKE:
“Infosys is doing something revolutionary but also risky,” explains Dr. Ananya Sharma, Professor of HR Strategy at IIM Ahmedabad who has studied Indian IT workforce transformations. “Making AI training mandatory and tying it to appraisals creates compliance, yes. But it also creates resentment if employees feel they’re being evaluated on skills that don’t directly relate to their current role contributions.”
Dr. Sharma adds: “The question is whether Infosys has the training infrastructure, time allocation, and manager buy-in to make this work. If a developer is billable 45 hours per week on client projects, when exactly are they supposed to complete 30-40 hours of AI certification coursework? If Infosys doesn’t provide dedicated learning time and resources, this becomes performative policy theater that just stresses people out without actually building AI capability.”
The Industry Ripple Effect: TCS, Wipro, HCL Next?
If Infosys AI training mandatory policies succeed, expect rapid replication across India’s IT services sector. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which has also begun its appraisal cycle, hasn’t announced similar AI certification mandates yet—but industry observers consider it inevitable.
“TCS, Wipro, HCL, Tech Mahindra—they’re all watching this Infosys experiment closely,” says Karthik Srinivasan, a tech industry analyst. “If Infosys can demonstrate that AI-upskilled employees genuinely deliver better project outcomes and higher client satisfaction, every major IT player will implement similar mandates within 12 months.”
The competitive dynamics are straightforward: IT services companies compete on delivery quality and cost efficiency. If Infosys employees can leverage AI agents to deliver projects 30% faster with fewer human hours, clients will demand the same capability from TCS and Wipro—forcing those companies to upskill their workforces or lose deals.
India’s IT services sector employs roughly 5.4 million people. If the Infosys AI training mandatory model spreads industry-wide, we’re talking about the largest workforce upskilling initiative in Indian corporate history—whether employees are ready for it or not.
What This Means for India’s Tech Workforce
Beyond Infosys, the implications cascade across the entire technology ecosystem:
Fresher hiring shifts: Companies will prioritize candidates with AI/ML backgrounds or demonstrated AI tool proficiency over traditional developers.
Mid-career vulnerability: Professionals with 10-15 years of experience who haven’t kept pace with AI developments face the greatest displacement risk.
Skill premium changes: The salary premium shifts from “years of Java experience” to “ability to architect solutions using AI agents.”
Career longevity questions: If AI can handle increasing percentages of technical work, what’s the sustainable career path for software engineers?
For educational institutions, the message is equally stark: curricula that don’t integrate AI agent development, prompt engineering, and AI orchestration are producing graduates for yesterday’s job market.
The Bottom Line: Adaptation or Obsolescence
Whether you view Infosys AI training mandatory policies as visionary workforce development or coercive upskilling under threat of career consequences probably depends on where you sit in the org chart and how confident you feel about your AI literacy.
What’s indisputable: the “agentic” era isn’t coming—it’s here. AI agents are already writing code, managing procurement, monitoring contracts, and handling customer inquiries at scale across Infosys client projects.
The only question was whether companies would give employees time to adapt gradually or force rapid transformation through policy mandates. Infosys has chosen the latter.
For the 270,000+ employees who already completed foundational AI-Aware training, the transition to AI Agent certification might feel like a natural progression. For others, particularly those in non-technical roles or late-career stages, it might feel like being handed a parachute mid-flight and told to figure it out.
Either way, the message from India’s second-largest IT services company is unambiguous: AI competency isn’t a nice-to-have career enhancement anymore. It’s table stakes for continued employment.
The leaked memo might have surprised employees. The policy direction shouldn’t have. This is where the entire industry is headed—Infosys is just moving faster and making the consequences more explicit.
SUMMARY POINTS:
- 270,000+ certified: Over 270,000 Infosys employees already completed AI-Aware foundational training; new mandate requires AI Agent certification.
- Appraisal-linked compliance: Certification directly tied to FY26 performance reviews concluding January 2026; non-compliance impacts ratings.
- Industry-first move: Infosys becomes first major Indian IT company to make agentic AI training compulsory for entire workforce.
