PwC restructures Indian operations amid AI threat to consulting

PwC is creating a joint venture that will combine its US and Indian member firms into a single entity of roughly 40,000 people, a move designed to pool technology, engineering, and AI capabilities under one roof. The deal is scheduled to be signed on September 14, 2026. Sanjeev Krishan, currently the chair of PwC India, will step into the CEO role at the new venture. The restructuring is less about geographic tidiness and more about survival math: AI is eating into the kinds of work that offshore consulting centers have traditionally handled, and PwC would rather cannibalize its own model than let someone else do it. What the merger actually looks like The joint venture will integrate PwC US’s India-based offshore “acceleration centres” with PwC India’s consulting business. The acceleration centres have long served as cost-efficient hubs where US-contracted work gets executed by Indian teams. PwC India’s consulting arm, meanwhile, has been building its own client relationships and service lines domestically. This isn’t happening in isolation. PwC UK merged its risk and consulting units back in April 2026, folding together 4,600 employees and roughly £1.1 billion in revenue. The Ind...