WIPRO

Adds details on sector paragraph 2 onwards

May 12 (Reuters) - India's IT shares fell to a three-year low on Tuesday as investor jitters around the threat posed by artificial intelligence to flagship IT firms flared up again, after OpenAI announced a new AI venture.

The Nifty IT index .NIFTYIT fell 3.6% to its lowest since May 2023, with Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS, Infosys INFY.NS, HCL Technologies HCLT.NS and Wipro WIPR.NS falling between 2.5% and 4%.

Analysts at HSBC said in a Tuesday note that India's top-tier IT firms largely failed to meet street expectations for earnings in March quarter as well as in their outlooks for the new financial year, adding that strong spending globally on AI could be "crowding out" demand for traditional IT services.

HSBC's warning comes a day after OpenAI said it is launching a new company backed by more than $4 billion, embedding engineers into organizations to identify where AI can make the most impact. It's the latest challenge to Indian IT firms' business model from a major AI company targeting enterprise clients.

Indian IT stocks are unlikely to attract positive investor interest unless global AI activity, cloud capex growth and cloud revenue momentum slow, HSBC said.

Indian IT companies derive a significant share of their revenue from North America and are considered sensitive to U.S. economic uncertainty and corporate technology spending trends.

The industry has been under pressure for much of 2026, starting with a February rout after the roll-out of Anthropic's Claude Code and on fears rapid advances in generative AI would disrupt demand for traditional IT and professional services.

India's IT stocks have slid 25.4% so far this year, making them India's worst-performing sector, compared with a 9.7% drop in the benchmark Nifty 50 .NSEI.

March quarter results have done little to soothe investor worries. Dollar revenue at industry bellwether Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS shrank 0.5% year-on-year to $30 billion for the year ended March - the first decline since the company's 2004 IPO.

Industry peers have flagged challenges of meeting targets with limited visibility on demand: HCL Tech's CEO C Vijayakumar said in the company's post-earnings investor call it took "25%-30% more effort to convert and get to the same number" in terms of total contract value.

The broader Indian market remained under pressure on Tuesday, with the rupee sliding to a record low on elevated crude oil prices with talks to end the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran finding no success.

(Reporting by Chandini Monnappa, Surbhi Misra and Pranav Kashyap in Bengaluru; Editing by Ronojoy Mazumdar)

((Surbhi.Misra@thomsonreuters.com | X: https://twitter.com/SurbhiMisra_ |;))

May 5 (Reuters) - CrowdStrike Holdings Inc CRWD.O:

• CROWDSTRIKE EXPANDS PROJECT QUILTWORKS, THE CYBERSECURITY COALITION FOR SECURING FRONTIER AI RISK

• CROWDSTRIKE - ARMADIN, COGNIZANT, HCLTECH, INFOSYS, KPMG, NTT DATA, TCS, WIPRO JOIN QUILTWORKS COALITION

• CROWDSTRIKE - INTEGRATES ANTHROPIC OPUS 4.7 AI INTO FALCON PLATFORM

Source text: ID:nBw1WDjhXa

Further company coverage: CRWD.O

((Reuters.Briefs@thomsonreuters.com;))

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

By Ujjaini Dutta

BENGALURU, April 24 (Reuters Breakingviews) - "AI deflation" is the new popular shorthand for an uncomfortable truth: getting paid less for doing the same amount of work. Coding tools such as those made by Anthropic's Claude are eroding pricing power of India's top IT services companies far faster than expected. For the $315 billion industry, it heralds a reset toward outcomes rather than hours-based billing.

HCL Technologies HCLT.NS on Tuesday cut its revenue guidance in constant currency terms to 1%-4% for the year to March 2027, after missing its 4%-4.5% target. Its shares fell 11% the next day, wiping out $4.5 billion in market value. The plummeting growth is a far cry from the expectation that firms would unlock more work in the short-term as clients modernise legacy code and clean up data for AI infrastructure, even if it comes at a lower cost.

Indeed, deal wins and toplines show little sign of that support. U.S. dollar revenue at the $97 billion industry leader Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS shrank 0.5% year-on-year to $30 billion for the year ended March 2026 - its first decline since the company's initial public offering in 2004. Wipro's WIPR.NS annual IT services segment revenue contracted 0.3% as well.

It is getting harder to secure contracts too: HCLTech CEO C Vijayakumar admitted in the company's post-earnings investor call that the total contract value of deals in the quarter ended March remained largely flat but it took "25%-30% more effort to convert and get to the same number." There is also margin compression: HCLTech's net profit margin stood at 12.8% in the year to March, compared to 14.9% in the previous year.

So what happens when the models keep improving and more services fall under generative AI capabilities? Anthropic's latest model, Mythos, is deemed so powerful at finding software vulnerabilities that the company is, for now, holding back releasing it to the wider public.

It points to a heavy remodelling how Indian IT functions. Charging by hour is a dead end. One option is to guarantee outcomes and agree remuneration by way of a share of revenue or cost-savings achieved by a client. Some firms, including HCLTech, already do a little bit of this but the risks are harder to manage. Revenue and earnings could become much more volatile.

Shares of Tata Consultancy -- one of India's most important white-collar employers -- are down nearly 21% since Anthropic's coding tools were released in early 2025. The country's IT sector has lived through many technology transitions, but debugging its model in the AI era may prove harder than usual.

Follow Ujjaini Dutta on LinkedIn and X.

CONTEXT NEWS

Shares of HCLTech fell nearly 11% on April 22 after the Indian IT services firm on the prior day slashed its full year revenue guidance to 1%-4% year-on-year growth in constant currency terms for the year to March 2027, down from 4%-4.5% guided for the previous financial year.

"The business environment remains highly fluid, ​making it difficult to form a definitive view of how the ​next 12 ⁠months will unfold," said CEO C Vijayakumar in a post-earnings call.

Wipro on April 16 reported IT services segment revenue of $10.5 billion, down 0.3% year-on-year. The company announced a record share buyback of up to 150 billion rupees ($1.61 billion) and said it expects June‑quarter revenue to range from a 2% sequential decline to flat growth.

Tata Consultancy Services on April 9 reported its U.S. dollar revenue fell 0.5% year-on-year to $30 billion for the year ended March 31. In constant currency terms, revenue fell 2.4%.

(Editing by Una Galani; Production by Aditya Srivastav)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on DUTTA/ujjaini.dutta@thomsonreuters.com))

Rewrites throughout and updates closing levels

By Urvi Dugar and Pranav Kashyap

April 22, BENGALURU - HCLTech HCLT.NS lost $4.5 billion in market capitalisation on Wednesday after it projected fiscal 2027 revenue growth below estimates, with restrained client spending raising fresh doubts over a recovery in India's $315 billion IT industry.

The weakness points to sector-wide challenges rather than a company-specific issue, Goldman Sachs analysts said, citing subdued discretionary spending, slower project ramp‑ups and ongoing macro pressures that suggest a meaningful demand recovery may remain elusive.

Top Indian IT companies have been beset by uncertainties over the last year from U.S. tariff and immigration policies as well as geopolitical turmoil in the Middle East, with clients choosing to focus on optimising costs.

HCLTech shares ended the session down 10.7% at 1,286 rupees, losing the most in a day in more than 10 years. Its fourth‑quarter earnings also missed analyst estimates.

The gloom spilled across the IT pack, dragging larger peers Infosys INFY.NS and Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS down 3.4% and 3%, respectively, and the sub-index .NIFTYIT down 3.9%.

HCLTech's trading volumes surged as panic selling gripped investors, with 33.06 million shares changing hands—the busiest session since November 2012, and nearly 10 times the 30-day average. Meanwhile, at least six brokerages cut their price target, with Jefferies also downgrading the stock to "Underperform" from "Hold".

NSE data for HCLTech's May 26 expiry contracts showed a jump in put-buying at the 1,200‑rupee strike, with open interest swelling to 6,863 contracts by market close, and heavy call writing at 1,300.

The former implies investors are betting on the stock falling further by around 7% while the latter suggests limited scope for a near‑term rebound.

"The business environment remains highly fluid, making it difficult to form a definitive view of how the next 12 months will unfold," said CEO C Vijayakumar in a post-earnings call.

He also called out specific project scaledowns from two clients in the Americas region, which could shave about 0.5% off annual growth.

Tech Mahindra TEML.NS staged a partial comeback to close 2.5% down, after sliding nearly 6%, following a fourth-quarter revenue beat.

(Reporting by Urvi Dugar and Pranav Kashyap in Bengaluru; Editing by Ronojoy Mazumdar and Janane Venkatraman)

((UrviManoj.Dugar@thomsonreuters.com; +91 9558725583;))

April 17 (Reuters) - India's equity benchmarks are likely to open little changed on Friday as a weak first-quarter forecast by IT company Wipro could offset optimism over a potential peace deal to end the Iran war.

GIFT Nifty futures GIFc1 were trading at 24,178 as of 8:06 a.m. IST, indicating that the benchmark Nifty 50 .NSEI will open near Thursday's close of 24,196.75.

Asian markets .MIAPJ0000PUS fell 0.6% as fuel supply concerns and doubts over whether upcoming U.S.-Iran peace talks would help ease disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz weighed on risk sentiment. MKTS/GLOB

"Asian markets appear less convinced as investors remain wary of how durable these developments are, especially given the fragile nature of geopolitical agreements in the region," said Hariprasad K, research analyst and founder of Livelong Wealth.

A 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel went into effect on Thursday and President Donald Trump said the next U.S.-Iran meeting may take place over the weekend.

Lower oil prices are also likely to offer some relief, with Brent crude falling about 1% to $98 per barrel in early trading on Friday, a positive for India, the world's third-largest largest oil importer.

Easing crude prices, alongside hopes of a de-escalation in the conflict, supported foreign inflows. Foreign portfolio investors bought Indian shares worth 3.82 billion rupees ($41.08 million) on Thursday, marking the second straight session of buying, as per provisional data.

Meanwhile, Wipro's WIT U.S.-listed shares fell 4.8% overnight after it posted lackluster quarterly results and forecast muted demand for the first quarter, citing spending curbs by its U.S. banking and financial clients in an uncertain economic environment.

STOCKS TO WATCH

** HDFC Life Insurance Company'S HDFL.NS new business value fell in March-quarter, while profit rose slightly, driven by policy renewals

** Angel One ANGO.NS reports 83% rise in fourth-quarter profit, helped by stronger client trading activity and higher order volumes

** Axis Bank AXBK.NS to consider raising funds via issue of equity shares or debt instruments during board meeting on April 25

($1 = 92.9860 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M; Editing by Sonia Cheema)

((VivekKumar.M@thomsonreuters.com;))

Corrects to drop incorrect revenue growth estimate in bullet 1

** Analysts, on avg, expect Indian IT firm Wipro WIPR.NS to post a 2% Y/Y drop in profit - data compiled by LSEG

** Shares up 1% at 201.38 rupees ahead of results

** Nomura expects WIPR'S Q4 constant-currency revenue to rise about 0.8% sequentially but flags muted margin performance as costs from large deal ramp ups offset currency gains

** Brokerage forecasts Q1FY27 revenue change of -1% to +1% sequentially

** JP Morgan expects WIPR to underperform peers, forecasts flat to slightly negative sequential growth outlook citing deal delays, AI-led pricing pressure and macro uncertainty

** Motilal Oswal warns of margin pressure from wage hikes and weaker growth

** Avg rating on WIPR at "hold"; median PT is 240 rupees - LSEG-compiled data

** YTD, WIPR down 19.7% vs ~16% decline in IT index .NIFTYIT

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru)

((Kashish.tandon@thomsonreuters.com))

April 15 (Reuters) - Wipro Ltd WIPR.NS:

• WIPRO - SIGNS DEFINITIVE AGREEMENT TO BUY ALPHA NET CONSULTING LLC CUSTOMER CONTRACTS

• WIPRO - PURCHASE CONSIDERATION UP TO $70.8 MILLION FOR ACQUISITION

Source text: ID:nBSE4th0Gh

Further company coverage: WIPR.NS

((Reuters.Briefs@thomsonreuters.com;;))

Recasts throughout; adds CEO, COO and analyst comments

By Haripriya Suresh and Sai Ishwarbharath B

BENGALURU, April 9 (Reuters) - Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS reported better-than-expected quarterly results on Thursday and said that new artificial intelligence models and tools in the market did not hurt demand for its offerings.

The comments from India's top software-services exporter offered some relief to the $315 billion sector, which has been grappling with investor concerns that AI could disrupt its traditional, labour-intensive business model.

"FY26 was a pivotal year for enterprise AI adoption across industries. For the first time since the advent of generative AI in late 2022, the shift from experimentation to scaled AI deployment showed a marked improvement," TCS Chief Operating Officer Aarthi Subramanian said.

TCS, which also provides AI services to its clients, said its annualised AI revenue crossed $2.3 billion in the fourth quarter, driven by accelerated deployments across industries, up from $1.8 billion in the third quarter.

Some analysts were, however, not impressed with the number. "It is pretty minuscule," said Anshul Jethi, analyst at LKP Securities, comparing it to the size at which TCS is currently operating right now and its future AI plans. Others said TCS still had ground to cover on the AI front.

"TCS is not behind, but it is not yet leading. The next 12 to 24 months will depend on whether it can move from AI capability to AI-led business models that scale beyond pilots and into core client operations," said Phil Fersht, CEO of IT advisory firm HFS Research.

It is the first major Indian IT company to report fourth-quarter results. Rivals Infosys INFY.NS, Wipro WIPR.NS and HCLTech HCLT.NS are set to report later this month.

TCS reported a 9.7% rise in sales to 706.98 billion rupees ($7.63 billion), and a 12.2% jump in net profit to 137.18 billion rupees ($1.48 billion) in the quarter.

Analysts had expected sales of 694.94 billion rupees and a net profit of 136.46 billion rupees, according to data compiled by LSEG.

"Every revenue band saw a healthy addition this quarter after a gap of about two years. This speaks to the early signs of stability and growth returning to our mid-size and large accounts," TCS CEO K Krithivasan said.

Revenue from North America, which accounts for nearly half of TCS's revenue, grew 2.5% in the fourth quarter.

The company's quarterly order book stood at $12 billion, compared with $9.3 billion in the third quarter and $12.2 billion a year earlier.

($1 = 92.6575 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Haripriya Suresh and Sai Ishwarbharath B in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee, Dhanya Skariachan and Shinjini Ganguli)

((haripriya.suresh@thomsonreuters.com))

Rewrites, updates stock move, analyst comments

April 6 (Reuters) - Shares of Wipro WIPR.NS rose as much as 3.2% on Monday after the Indian IT services firm agreed to buy the IT services business of Singapore-based Olam Group OLAG.SI for an enterprise value of $375 million.

The stock was last up 1.9% at 9:34 a.m. IST, making it the top gainer on the IT index .NIFTYIT, which was trading 0.5% higher. It was also the second-biggest gainer on the benchmark Nifty 50 .NSEI, which was down 0.2%.

Olam Holdings, a unit of the Singapore food and agribusiness conglomerate, will sell 200 million ordinary shares of Mindsprint, its IT and digital services arm, to Wipro Networks, a unit of Wipro, Olam said in a statement on Monday.

Mindsprint provides technology, cybersecurity and digital services across sectors including food and agribusiness, manufacturing, retail and consumer packaged goods, as well as healthcare and life sciences.

Analysts at ICICI Securities said the transaction is Wipro’s largest acquisition to date and improves revenue visibility while strengthening Wipro’s consulting, platform and industry-specific capabilities in the food and agribusiness vertical.

The deal would add domain expertise, IP-led platforms and a captive delivery relationship, making the engagement more strategic and sticky than a traditional outsourcing arrangement, the brokerage said.

Olam has also awarded Wipro an eight-year services contract with a committed annual spend of $100 million, which Wipro said is expected to exceed $1 billion in total contract value.

Wipro’s shares are now down 24.5% year-to-date, compared with a 19.2% decline in the IT index.

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon and Sherin Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy)

((Sherin.Sunny@thomsonreuters.com;))

March 31 (Reuters) - Wipro Ltd WIPR.NS:

• WIPRO - MERGER OF RIZING CONSULTING USA WITH RIZING LLC IS COMPLETED

Source text: ID:nnAZN4SOAMI

Further company coverage: WIPR.NS

((Reuters.Briefs@thomsonreuters.com;))

March 17 (Reuters) - Wipro Ltd WIPR.NS:

• WIPRO AND HARNESS ANNOUNCE STRATEGIC COLLABORATION TO ACCELERATE AI-NATIVE SOFTWARE DELIVERY FOR GLOBAL ENTERPRISES

Source text: ID:nPn7jlQvTa

Further company coverage: WIPR.NS

((Reuters.Briefs@thomsonreuters.com;))

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

By Una Galani

HONG KONG, March 4 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Is the global selloff in enterprise software and services stocks an overreaction? Maybe not in India. New tools released by Anthropic point towards increasing automation of work that "once required armies of consultants spending years mapping workflows", according to the owner of Claude large language models. The stakes are higher for the world's fourth-largest economy, where a reduction of IT services exports by Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS, Infosys INFY.NS, Wipro WIPR.NS and others or a cut in the size of foreign firms' global capability centres could upend the macroeconomic stability the country has enjoyed.

Providing services to global companies including JPMorgan JPM.N, Goldman Sachs GS.N and Exxon Mobil XOM.N created massive wealth, spurred the rise of major cities like Hyderabad and Bengaluru and created a wall of money that has propelled the stock market, property prices and well-heeled Indians' spending power. Moreover, it also generates foreign exchange earnings that help slow the depreciation of the Indian rupee, which, in turn, keeps a check on imported inflation for the energy-hungry country.

An analysis of Reserve Bank of India data by Samiran Chakraborty, an economist at Citigroup, is sobering. It concludes growth in India's exports of software and other services has, in the recent past, more than offset the widening trade deficit in goods. With further support from remittances of Indians overseas, the current account deficit fell to 0.7% of GDP in the fiscal year to the end of March 2025.

In a scenario of no growth in software exports in fiscal year 2027, Chakraborty estimates most of India's projected surplus in services, roughly $20 billion, would be wiped out. That would weigh on an already weak rupee: in 2025, it declined 5% against the U.S. dollar and was the worst-performing major currency in Asia.

True, India's software services exports have grown 9.5% annually over the past decade – three times the rate of its goods exports – and Citi forecasts 8% for the year to March 2027. What's more, IT firms typically have contracts that last between three to seven years, and so AI disruption – in this case, clients renegotiating terms – ought to be gradual.

But there is widespread fear that automation tools like those from Anthropic could hollow out these industries faster. This fear is reflected in the 20% drop in India's benchmark Nifty IT index since the start of the year. Several executives at top global firms have also told Breakingviews they expect to have fewer people working in their India-based global capability centres in the coming years. Given India's heavy reliance on services in its external accounts, the software apocalypse spells trouble for returns on all rupee-denominated assets. That justifies selling the rumour and buying the fact.

Follow Una Galani on Linkedin and X.

CONTEXT NEWS

India’s Nifty IT Index has fallen 20% so far this year. The Indian rupee has declined 1.3% against the U.S. dollar over the same period.

(Editing by Robyn Mak; Production by Ujjaini Dutta)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on GALANI/ una.galani@thomsonreuters.com))

By Haripriya Suresh

MUMBAI, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Fears that new artificial intelligence tools could replace large IT services firms are "overblown" as clients still need help deploying and scaling the technology, Babak Hodjat, chief AI officer at Cognizant CTSH.O, told Reuters in an interview.

Automated AI tools from startups such as Anthropic have stirred concerns about disruption in the business models of software and services firms globally, including India's traditionally labour-intensive IT services industry.

Enterprises are far from being able to rely on a single, all-purpose AI agent, said Hodjat, adding that most clients still need help engineering, integrating, and governing AI systems.

"That mapping is our job, it does not come just automatically out of the box," said Hodjat, whose work helped power Apple's AAPL.O Siri voice assistant.

Nasdaq-listed Cognizant, which has more than 70% of its workforce operating out of India, forecast annual revenue above Wall Street estimates on the back of strong demand as businesses adopt AI into their workflows.

Rivals Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS and Wipro WIPR.NS have also maintained that rapid AI adoption will boost, rather than shrink, demand for software service providers.

Hodjat's vote of confidence in the role of services companies comes despite AI-related job cuts already underway.

Shipping and logistics management software company WiseTech Global WTC.AX said it would lay off nearly a third of its workforce as it integrates AI into its customer software and internal operations. TCS announced 12,000 job cuts last year, but has since denied to local media that the layoffs were AI-related.

Cognizant, which generates about 30% of its code through AI and aims to reach 50%, is not worried about automation eliminating entry-level jobs. CEO Ravi Kumar S said during the company's earnings call earlier this month that it hired 25,000 fresh graduates in 2025, and expects to exceed that in 2026.

Almost all of Cognizant's clients have already tried to work with AI agents, Hodjat said, but have acknowledged that they need us to deploy it within their systems for returns.

(Reporting by Haripriya Suresh in Mumbai; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)

((haripriya.suresh@thomsonreuters.com))

By Bharath Rajeswaran

Feb 25 (Reuters) - Indian shares have lagged their Asian and emerging market peers so far in February, pressured by a $68.6 billion rout in the market value of information technology stocks, as investors fretted over disruptions linked to artificial intelligence.

The Nifty 50 index .NSEI has risen 0.4% so far this month, while the Sensex .BSESN edged 0.1% lower, underperforming both the MSCI Asia ex-Japan and MSCI Emerging Markets indexes.

The 10 Nifty IT constituents .NIFTYIT have lost a combined $68.6 billion in market capitalisation in February, as of the last close, with the index down 21% and on course for its worst monthly performance in nearly 23 years.

All 10 index members have fallen between 16.8% and 27% in February to date. Coforge COFO.NS is the steepest percentage decliner, down 26.8%, while Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS and Infosys INFY.NS have led the value erosion, losing about $21.9 billion and $16.3 billion in market value, respectively.

The selloff reflects growing concerns that rapidly advancing automation tools could compress project timelines and disrupt the labour-intensive delivery model underpinning India's roughly $300-billion IT services industry.

Investors have zeroed in on the AI-driven automation push from U.S. firms such as Anthropic and Palantir, heightening concerns over faster project execution, pricing pressure and reduced billable hours.

Brokerages warn the Indian IT sector could face further pressure if AI starts to eat into application services revenue, which typically accounts for 40% to 70% of total revenue for these companies.

"There are no easy answers to whether AI eventually renders IT services obsolete over the long term," said analysts led by Abhishek Pathak of Motilal Oswal.

"The narrative that AI is coming for not just IT but large swathes of the economy could be too strong to shake, at least in the short term," Motilal Oswal analysts said.

A slowdown or contraction in India's IT sector, whether through layoffs or reduced hiring, can have immediate consequences on both residential and commercial real estate demand. The Nifty Realty index .NIFTYREAL has risen roughly 2% in February, following a nearly 18% decline over the past three months.

Concerns over Indian IT companies have also accelerated foreign selling in the sector in 2026 so far.

While FPIs have turned buyers of Indian stocks in February on an overall basis, they pulled out about 110 billion rupees ($1.21 billion) from IT stocks in the first half of February, following a record 750 billion rupees of net selling in 2025.

($1 = 90.8980 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

((bharath.rajeswaran@thomsonreuters.com; +91 9769003463;))

Rewrites, adds details, background, quotes

By Haripriya Suresh and Sai Ishwarbharath B

MUMBAI, Feb 24 (Reuters) - India's information technology sector is forecast to surpass $300 billion in revenue for the first time in the current fiscal year, an industry body said on Tuesday, amid challenges and opportunities arising from artificial intelligence.

Indian IT stocks have slumped in recent weeks, tracking global peers as investors worry that advanced AI tools would disrupt the traditional business models of software firms, shaving billions off their market value.

Nasscom, the Indian IT industry body, expects the sector to grow 6.1% year-on-year to $315 billion in the fiscal ending on March 31, as global IT services pick up pace, driven by easing tariff and trade tensions and rising AI investments. Revenue growth will be similar in the next fiscal year, it said.

"AI is compressing traditional work but expanding other areas of work," said Srikanth Velamakanni, vice chairperson of Nasscom.

"The net balance is what you're seeing... There is not a single proposal in any tech company anywhere in the world that's going without AI in it. It is now an inevitable, fundamental part of every proposal in every company."

Nasscom projects fiscal 2026 AI revenue from services firms around $10 billion to $12 billion, but clarified that this does not include AI-specific revenues for all firms and revenues are set to rise "significantly" in the next few years.

India's leading IT service providers, including Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS, Infosys INFY.NS, and HCLTech HCLT.NS, are hopeful about better demand in the next fiscal year.

Overall, the country's IT industry is expected to add a net 135,000 jobs in the fiscal year, taking the total headcount to 5.95 million, Nasscom said.

(Reporting by Sai Ishwarbharath B and Haripriya Suresh; Writing by Kashish Tandon; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)

((mailto: saiishwarbharath.b@thomsonreuters.com;))

Corrects to "executive" from "CTO" in headline, adds designation in paragraph 3

By Haripriya Suresh

BENGALURU, Feb 23 (Reuters) - India's Wipro WIPR.NS expects rapid AI adoption to boost rather than shrink demand for software service providers, a top executive said, countering concerns that the technology threatens the industry's outsourcing model.

The $283 billion sector has been hit by a sharp market selloff amid investor fears that AI tools could upend its traditional, labour-intensive operating model.

"When you look at the entire gamut of things that's possible, it really appears like a large opportunity for us," Chief Strategist and Technology Officer Hari Shetty said in an interview, adding that he expected AI to create more jobs than it displaces.

"What you're seeing today is basically task automation. What we are really talking about is autonomous enterprise, which is a completely different ball game that will require IT services companies to work deeply with clients to actually convert them."

Calling AI "probably the single biggest opportunity" for the industry and comparable to the discovery of electricity or the internet, he said current debates focus too narrowly on automation while missing a broader structural shift.

Citing World Economic Forum estimates, he said AI could create 170 million jobs globally while disrupting roughly 92 million, adding that India's IT sector will see strong demand for skills such as model training, data curation, and responsible AI.

"The primary differentiation here is people who know AI and people who do not know AI," he said.

Shetty argued that, much like cloud computing, AI will broaden rather than diminish the responsibilities of service providers.

Wipro continues to see strong demand for younger, "AI literate" engineers, he said, countering predictions that the industry's traditional staffing pyramid will hollow out.

What companies need are partners who understand their domain processes deeply enough to help them transition to "autonomous enterprises," a shift he expects will shape the next decade of technology spending.

"We clearly think AI is a dominant force, at least for the next decade to two decades, in terms of the kind of business that it will drive," he said.

(Reporting by Haripriya Suresh in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Skariachan and Ronojoy Mazumdar)

((haripriya.suresh@thomsonreuters.com))