PhysicsWallah layoffs and AI

PhysicsWallah's Q2 FY27 earnings call (November 4, 2026; transcript filed with the NSE and BSE on November 9). Analyst Jinesh Joshi: "this is the first quarter wherein we have seen the total number of employees decline on a sequential basis". Vikram Bhardwaj, answering for management: "That is the right observation, Jinesh Joshi. Essentially, a lot of AI efficiencies wherein we have earlier also spoken around the content and the QC teams, the test-making team, all of that is now being. And even the gradations that we do in terms of evaluating our subjective copies, all of that is happening now through AI in a much more efficient way." ... "So, I think there is some efficiencies that have come in specific to these pods, whether it is content making, quality checks, test paper making, test paper evaluation. All of these teams have seen some efficiencies coming in." The company's shareholders' letters give total employees of 19,567 at June 30, 2026 and 19,104 at September 30, 2026 (18,340 a year earlier).

PhysicsWallah, the Indian online test-preparation and education company, said on its earnings call on November 4, 2026 that the fall in its number of employees in the July to September quarter, the first quarter-on-quarter fall it has reported, came from AI now doing the work of its content-making, quality-check, test-paper and answer-evaluation teams more efficiently. Its own figures show 19,567 employees at the end of June and 19,104 at the end of September 2026, 463 fewer, though still more than the 18,340 a year earlier. Asked about the fall, management gave AI as the reason and no other, so it is graded Explicit. No layoff and no number of jobs cut was announced, and the company did not say whether people were let go or not replaced, so this is recorded as a statement and nothing is counted.

Roles the sources name:

Not specified (management named the content-making, quality-check, test-paper-making and answer-evaluation teams as where AI now does the work, but did not say which roles went)

Share of the workforce:

about 2.4% fewer employees than at 30 June 2026 (the company's own counts)