Five Indian IT Giants. Five AI Strategies.

India's top IT services firms walked into the December quarter with the same promise and walked out with very different answers.‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  ‌  

Five Indian IT Giants. Five AI Strategies. THE BELAMY Weekly Newsletter of AIM Monday, Jan 19, 2026 | By Mohit Pandey Now, subscribe to our Digital & Print Editions > India's top IT services firms walked into the December quarter with the same promise and walked out with very different answers. Revenue grew across the board, profits told a messier story, headcount strategies split sharply, and AI moved from pitch decks into the core mechanics of how work gets delivered and priced.  But the quarter made one thing crystal clear: AI is no longer a theme or washing, it is now the operating logic of Indian IT. TCS remained the largest by revenue, reporting ₹67,087 crore in Q3 FY26, with sequential growth of 2%.  Infosys followed with ₹45,479 crore, up 8.9% year on year (YoY).  HCLTech posted revenue of ₹33,872 crore, growing 13.3% YoY.  Wipro reported ₹23,555 crore, up 5.5% YoY.  Tech Mahindra, the smallest of the five, with revenue of ₹14,393 crore, showed improving momentum with 8.3% growth. Profitability, though, came with a few dents and bruises. Labour code implementation, restructuring, and one-time charges weighed on nearly everyone.  TCS saw net profit fall 14% YoY to ₹10,657 crore, while Infosys reported a 2.2% decline to ₹6,654 crore.  HCLTech took a 11% hit tied to restructuring, even as revenue surged. Meanwhile, Wipro's net profit dropped 7% YoY to ₹3,119 crore due to a ₹300 crore labour code charge.  Tech Mahindra stood out here. Its net profit rose 14.1% to ₹1,122 crore, marking its ninth consecutive quarter of margin improvement. The AI Foundry by Tredence in Chennai: A Workshop for Builders of Real-World AI The AI Foundry hosted by Tredence, in association with AIM, is heading to Chennai. On February 7, senior AI and data science professionals will gather for an invite-only developer workshop focused on one question that matters right now: How to move from experimenting with AI to actually building systems that work in the real world? Click here to register now. The AI Money That Matters That divergence matters because it reflects execution discipline, not demand alone. Tech Mahindra's quarter was more about rebuilding control than outsized growth.  Deal wins reached $1.1 billion, up 47% YoY, the strongest run rate the company has seen in five years. The chief executive officer, Mohit Joshi, tied that performance directly to AI, but without putting a revenue label on it.  He said almost all large deals are now AI-infused. Clients expect proof of productivity gains rather than AI slides. This refusal to headline AI revenue is where the sector splits into camps.  TCS chose scale. It reported $1.8 billion in annualised AI revenue, up from $1.5 billion in the previous quarter. That number includes almost all AI embedded inside cloud, data, application, and industry projects. It is broad by design, including AI-focussed data centres. Notably, AI accounts for a very small share of the firm's total revenue, suggesting that it is still too early to report separate AI revenue. HCLTech chose precision. It reported $146 million in what it calls advanced AI revenue, growing nearly 20% sequentially. This excludes AI embedded inside traditional services and only counts agentic AI, robotics, physical AI, AI factories, data centre services, and product-led work.  Infosys took a third path. It refused to publish an AI revenue number at all. Instead, CEO Salil Parekh talked about impact. The company reported 4,600 active AI projects, more than 500 AI agents in production, and nearly 28 million lines of code generated using AI tools.  Around 90% of its top 200 clients are now running AI programmes. For Infosys, AI is part of delivery, not a separate line item. This reflects how AI is being embedded into the work itself. Infosys integrated Cognition's AI software engineer Devin into its Topaz Fabric, turning it into a system that can deploy and govern AI agents inside live enterprise environments.  Analysts say these strategies mirror earlier cycles like cloud and automation, in which standalone reporting faded once the technology became the default. And now, the deal flow supports that argument.  Infosys closed $4.8 billion in large deals in Q3, sharply up from $3.1 billion in Q2.  TCS reported a total contract value of $9.3 billion, one of its strongest quarters in recent memory.  HCLTech saw new deal wins rise 43.5% YoY to $3 billion.  Tech Mahindra's $1.1 billion may look smaller, but its growth rate and margin impact suggest improving quality. Wipro's total deal bookings reached $3.3 billion, with large deal bookings at $891 million—both down on a YoY basis. AIM Network>> During a regular Monday morning commute through Bengaluru traffic, AIM journalist Supreeth Koundinya decides to put Replit to test, building a real internal app during an auto ride, using nothing but a phone. No scripts, no studio setup, no laptop to start with. Just traffic, patchy 5G, and Replit doing the heavy lifting. Some are Trimming Heads, Some are Adding Agents TCS cut over 11,000 employees in the quarter, ending with 5,82,163 people. The management said that the layoffs would continue in the upcoming quarter. Infosys added 5,043 jobs, signalling confidence in large, long-term deal execution.  HCLTech trimmed staff selectively. Wipro added 6,529 employees, taking total headcount to 2,42,021, largely driven by fresher onboarding. Tech Mahindra reduced headcount by 872 YoY to 1,49,616, while still growing revenue per employee. Attrition eased across the sector, suggesting stabilisation after two volatile years. Wipro's attrition moderated to 14.2%. Others reported similar trends, reflecting a slower hiring market and fewer lateral exits. What changed was not just how many people companies hired, but why.  Freshers are no longer being hired to write boilerplate code. They are being trained to manage AI-assisted systems, test outputs, ensure compliance, and oversee workflows. That is why Infosys and HCLTech have announced high salaries for AI-ready freshers as well. Pricing is the next fault line. Tech Mahindra offered the clearest signal of where this is heading. Joshi spoke openly about separating human labour from digital labour in pricing models.  Today, AI-driven productivity gains largely show up as cost savings passed back to clients. Tech Mahindra wants to change that by billing digital labour separately, potentially linked to token consumption. It is early, but it hints at a future where AI is monetised as capacity rather than effort. Others are moving more quietly in the same direction. Infosys is tying AI to business KPIs rather than billed hours, preparing for outcome-based contracts. TCS is bundling AI into transformation deals at scale, using it to defend margins above 25% even as headcount falls. HCLTech is carving out products like AI work that carries higher margins and clearer ownership. Wipro sits somewhere in the middle. Its AI platforms like Wipro Intelligence, WINGS, and WEGA are contributing to deal wins, but profitability remains under pressure from regulatory costs and softer utilisation, which fell to 83.1% excluding trainees. The company plans to hire 10,000 freshers in FY26 but remains cautious, reflecting uneven demand. What links all five companies is that AI is no longer optional. It is embedded in how deals are won, how work is delivered, how people are hired, and how margins are protected.  The differences lie in disclosure and philosophy, not direction. Thriving Through Tech Change: A Leadership Guide to Supporting Mid-Career Talent Tech change is accelerating, and leaders can't afford to fall behind. Thriving Through Tech Change: A Leadership Guide to Supporting Mid-Career Talent, from Snowflake and AIM, is a practical leadership playbook for adopting smart tools with confidence, while keeping human judgment, empathy, and control at the centre.  Designed for non-technical leaders, it offers clear guidance on upskilling teams, reducing uncertainty, and supporting mid-career professionals through rapid change. Gain insights from industry leaders Yeshwanth S, director of data analytics and transformation at IQVIA, and Shubhosree Dasgupta, country data and analytics officer at HSBC, as they share real-world perspectives on leading transformation at scale. Register now and lead change with clarity, not chaos. 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.