AI Defines Indian IT’s Uneven Q2

Last year, Indian IT couldn't stop talking about generative AI.‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  

AI Defines Indian IT's Uneven Q2 THE BELAMY Weekly Newsletter of AIM Monday, Oct 21, 2025 | By Mohit Pandey Now, subscribe to our Digital & Print Editions > Last year, Indian IT couldn't stop talking about generative AI. By the last quarter, the narrative had changed to a frenzy over building hundreds of AI agents. This quarter, the story has evolved once again. Now it is more about how AI might actually make money for Indian IT firms.  Although, truth be told, only a select few have anything worth counting. The Q2 earnings of Indian IT companies reveal a story of uneven growth masked by flashy AI promises. While TCS and Wipro pushed ambitious AI narratives, only HCLTech walked in with tangible AI revenue. Infosys kept quiet on numbers and Tech Mahindra went big with the talk of building a trillion-parameter LLM under the IndiaAI Mission. Meanwhile, Persistent and LTIMindtree carried on with their quiet, consistent rise—no hype, just steady progress. Wipro's Intelligence Push, Modest Numbers Wipro had a sluggish quarter. Net profit rose 1.15% year-on-year (YoY) to ₹3,246 crore, and revenue grew 1.8% to ₹22,697 crore. Despite the slowdown, CEO Srini Pallia went all-in on 'Wipro Intelligence,' a unified suite of AI-powered platforms meant to drive measurable outcomes.  He insisted Wipro is leading in AI, pointing to 200 AI agents already built across industries over the last two quarters. The company also booked $4.7 billion in total deal bookings, with large deals jumping 90.5% YoY to $2.9 billion.  Yet, beneath the optimism, growth remains stalled. "Clients no longer want proofs of concept—they want AI end-to-end," Pallia said. Wipro Intelligence consolidates its earlier generative and agentic AI work, but doesn't explain how it's different from peers like Infosys Topaz or HCLTech's AI Foundry.  TCS Bets $6 Billion on AI Data Centres TCS, India's largest IT firm, announced its boldest AI bet yet: a $6-7 billion investment over seven years to build one gigawatt of AI data centres. Revenues from operations for Q2 FY26 rose 2.39% to ₹65,799 crore, up from ₹64,259 crore in Q2 FY25. CEO K Krithivasan said the infrastructure would support "AI providers, hyperscalers, and government needs", marking a decisive leap into AI infrastructure. The company also launched a 2,75,000-employee AI hackathon to embed AI into every project. Regardless, growth remains muted. Net profit fell 1.94% sequentially to $1.46 billion, with layoffs and restructuring costs eating into margins.  For a company known for its caution, this pivot is seismic. The big question is whether AI infrastructure will offset the slowdown in discretionary spending.   AIM Network Deep Dive >> In this video, we break down the Q2 FY26 results of the top Indian IT companies and explore how AI is transforming the entire sector. From Infosys' £1.2 billion NHS deal to Infosys, Cognizant, Accenture and LTIMindtree's pledge to a combined investment exceeding $1.5 billion to accelerate adoption and development on Oracle's newly launched AI Data Platform, we explore who's building narratives and who is building real value. HCLTech Actually Makes Money from AI Amid the noise, HCLTech stands out as the only Indian IT major to have explicitly disclosed AI revenue—$100 million this quarter, nearly 3% of total revenue. The company posted an 11% YoY revenue growth to ₹31,942 crore, while profit stayed flat at ₹4,236 crore.  CEO C Vijayakumar called it a "standout quarter on every front". The company's AI work is now paying off. It closed nine AI and GenAI deals this quarter and said clients are open to new pricing models—licensing IP, outcome-based pricing and productivity-linked fees. "We're transitioning from AI pilots to AI monetisation," Vijayakumar said. HCLTech's AI Foundry strategy now includes partnerships with GPU providers and hyperscalers, after the massive OpenAI partnership. It also added 5,000 freshers this quarter. Compared to peers, HCLTech looks the most grounded—focusing on AI execution over exhibition. Infosys Grows 9% but Keeps AI Quiet Infosys reported strong growth but little clarity on AI. Revenue rose 8.6% YoY to ₹44,490 crore, with a net addition of 8,000 employees.  CEO Salil Parekh said Infosys is engaged in enterprise AI projects across operations and software development, but didn't reveal AI revenue. "We track it internally and will share at the right time," he said. The company continues to invest in modernisation using AI tools to shorten delivery timelines and improve ROI for clients. Attrition rose to 14.3%, and hiring plans remain strong, with 15,000-20,000 freshers expected this fiscal.  While peers announce AI platforms every quarter, Infosys seems content executing quietly without bold claims or flashy product launches. [Event Alert] L&T Finance (LTF) has launched 'Pitch Point', a competition for AI startups in the run-up to RAISE'25—a premier AI event for the BFSI sector in the country. The contest aims to identify and back early to growth-stage startups that are building AI products for the BFSI and non-BFSI sectors. Click here to find out more.    [Webinar] AIM x Polestar Innovator Session: Are You Agent-Ready? Join Ankit Rana, chief innovation officer at Polestar Analytics, and Siddharth Poddar, chief product officer at Polestar Analytics, as they break down what it truly means to be "agent-ready". Click here to know more. [Event Alert] Global integrated risk assessment firm Moody's is set to host its invite-only event 'Moody's India Open House' on Friday, November 7, at The Ritz-Carlton in Bengaluru's Ashok Nagar. Click here to know more. Tech Mahindra Builds India's Sovereign LLM Coming back to the quarterly results, Tech Mahindra posted ₹13,995 crore in revenue, up 6.2% YoY, and a net profit of ₹1,194 crore, up 5% sequentially. CEO Mohit Joshi said the company delivered its eighth straight quarter of margin improvement and added $816 million in new deals. On the AI front, Joshi confirmed the firm's participation in the IndiaAI Mission, contributing to the development of a one trillion parameter sovereign large language model.  The company also launched 'TechM Orion', an AI-powered API platform for autonomous workflow execution. While these moves signal confidence, Tech Mahindra still hasn't shown a clear financial return from AI. LTIMindtree and Persistent Keep It Simple LTIMindtree delivered broad-based growth, with revenue up 10.2% YoY to ₹10,394 crore and profit up 6.6% sequentially to ₹1,568 crore. CEO Venu Lambu said the company is "committed to becoming an AI-centric organisation," referring to its BlueVerse platform that houses over 300 specialised AI agents. Persistent continued to grow without theatrics. It clocked its 22nd consecutive growth quarter, with a 45% jump in profit to ₹471.4 crore and 23.6% growth in revenue to ₹3,580.7 crore. Its TCV stood at $609.2 million, with ACV at $447.9 million. For now, it seems like AI has given Indian IT a new story. The question is whether it can also generate revenue. All of this comes against the backdrop of Accenture CEO Julie Sweet's warning that AI returns have been "underwhelming", and it looms large. Indian IT is still doing plenty of projects, but few profits. And if the boldest firm, Accenture, has signalled caution, it's telling something. The industry's next real test will be to turn AI rhetoric into results before global clients start asking tough questions. Now, subscribe to our Digital & Print Editions > For Brand collaborations, reply to this email or write to info@aim.media You received this email because you signed up to the updates from AIM. Click here to unsubscribe if you do not want to receive emails from us.