Wipro’s employee headcount declined by 6,716 in the September quarter of FY27, even as voluntary attrition in its IT services business eased marginally and the company continued investing in artificial intelligence (AI) skills.
The company’s workforce stood at 2,36,328 employees at the end of Q2 FY27, down from 2,43,044 in the preceding quarter, according to its quarterly datasheet. This represents a sequential decline of about 2.8 per cent.
However, headcount remained higher than a year earlier, when Wipro reported 2,35,492 employees in Q2 FY26. The latest figure marks an increase of 836 employees year on year.
The quarterly decline follows workforce growth during FY26. Wipro’s annual report recorded 2,42,156 permanent employees as of 31 March, 2026, compared with 2,33,346 a year earlier, an increase of around 3.8 per cent. The company’s latest disclosures do not specify the reasons behind the September-quarter reduction or provide a breakdown of the workforce changes.
Wipro’s net utilisation rate, excluding trainees, also declined marginally to 83.4 per cent in Q2 FY27 from 83.6 per cent in the previous quarter. The figure was lower than the 86.4 per cent recorded in the corresponding quarter last year. The company has not established a direct link between the change in utilisation and the decline in headcount.
Meanwhile, voluntary attrition in IT services, excluding business process services, eased to 13.8 per cent on a trailing 12-month basis in Q2 FY27, compared with 13.9 per cent in Q1 FY27 and 14.9 per cent in Q2 FY26.
Alongside these workforce changes, Wipro continues to invest in employee training and AI-related capabilities. Its FY26 annual report stated that 2,12,663 employees had been covered under its AI-ready workforce initiatives, while 93,994 associates had completed its Master AI certification. The company also reported 19.23 million learning hours devoted to skilling and professional development.
The figures highlight a combination of lower quarterly headcount, slightly reduced utilisation and easing attrition, alongside continued investment in technology skills. However, Wipro has not disclosed how AI skilling has affected workforce requirements or quantified the contribution of individual factors to the latest headcount decline.
