Whilst Indian IT’s AI ambitions are excessive, the precise income impression is both minimal, delayed, or marred by unclear reporting. Regardless of substantial investments in GenAI, most corporations nonetheless talk about offers within the pipeline or tasks within the pilot section.
“Don’t fear in regards to the investments now. Take a look at the return on investments (ROIs) we will get on the again of it,” HCLTech CEO, C Vijaykumar, mentioned in the course of the Q4FY25 earnings name.
He emphasised the significance of investing in expertise improvement and labs, in addition to constructing use instances. “These efforts ought to result in the creation of proof of ideas to current to clients. That’s been our strategy, and it’s working properly thus far,” Vijaykumar mentioned.
In one other occasion, Sonata Software program, led by Samir Dhir, mentioned the corporate expects AI-enabled providers to contribute 20% of its income over the following three years, though the corporate mentioned AI is a part of all offers proper now.
Throughout the Q4FY25 earnings name, Dhir mentioned that the agency is pursuing a $34 million pipeline within the AI programme with over 100 purchasers.
On a cautionary observe, Dhir said that though its purchasers are adopting generative AI internally, it’s not impacting any of their choices. Nevertheless, it expects a shift within the subsequent 6-12 months.
AIM wrote earlier that Indian IT may lastly see ROI from AI this yr, however the declining income for bigger IT corporations means that this may not be the case, since most funding went into AI.
In contrast to greater gamers like TCS, Infosys, and HCLTech, smaller and mid-cap IT corporations are taking the lead with AI-led deal wins and larger agility. Nevertheless, the “invest-now, earn-later” mindset appears to be widespread throughout Indian IT.
Even Mid-sized Corporations Aren’t Immune
WNS reported Q3 FY25 income of $333 million, marking a flat 2.1% YoY progress. Whilst the corporate has doubled down on AI investments for 2 years, its CEO Keshav Murugesh said that the corporate is leveraging AI and GenAI for long-term worth creation.
Gautam Singh, head of WNS Analytics, had earlier advised AIM that generative AI is already influencing enterprise outcomes. They count on GenAI to impression round 5% of their FY25 income. He cited use instances with as much as 40% effectivity positive factors via analytics, AI, and automation.
The corporate added seven new purchasers and expanded 52 current relationships, suggesting rising demand for AI-enabled providers even when the returns have but to kick in.
Related was the case for Happiest Minds. In This autumn FY25, the agency reported a 30.5% year-on-year soar in income led by sturdy deal momentum in verticals like healthcare and BFSI and rising investments in GenAI.
Happiest Minds Reveals the Method
In contrast to different corporations, bringing transparency on the AI investments and revenues, Happiest Minds reported 2.1% income from its newly fashioned GenAI Enterprise Unit.
Whereas Happiest Minds has taken a lead in disclosing the tangible impression of its GenAI initiatives, most different corporations stay imprecise about AI’s income contribution. This consists of firms like Persistent Methods and Hexaware, which posted sturdy income progress in latest quarters.
Persistent Methods is focusing on $2 billion in annual income by FY27. Its managing director, Anand Deshpande, famous that the corporate’s early wager on Agentic AI drove its present progress.
Whereas these two corporations are betting on future positive factors from AI adoption, others take a extra measured strategy, signalling a sluggish shift from experimentation to integration in the long run.
For example, LTIMindtree, which posted a 9.9% YoY income progress in This autumn FY25, cited AI integration throughout providers as a significant factor. CEO Debashis Chatterjee mentioned AI-powered offers helped the corporate preserve resilience.
In a dialog with AIM earlier, Nachiket Deshpande, the president of LTIMindtree’s AI providers, mentioned that LTIMindtree needs to reimagine each service it gives with AI. The corporate is rolling out options to 10,000 customer support brokers. “This creates a brand new income alternative for us as clients put money into these capabilities,” he mentioned. “I predict each single greenback of income may have a generative AI element embedded in it.
The corporate not too long ago additionally inked a $450 million AI take care of a world agri large, which is able to finally improve the agency’s income within the coming months.
In the meantime, Mphasis, which delivered its strongest sequential progress in three years—2.6% in USD phrases, mentioned 59% of its $390 million deal wins have been AI-led. CEO Nitin Rakesh said that AI and tech are actually central to its enterprise technique.
EXL additionally posted sturdy first-quarter outcomes for fiscal 2025, with income climbing to $501.0 million and including 10 new purchasers in the course of the quarter. Chairman and CEO Rohit Kapoor, in a LinkedIn submit, mentioned that over 53% of the corporate’s complete income in Q1 got here from information and AI-led providers, a phase that grew 16% year-over-year. It additionally raised increased steerage for the following yr.
Equally, New Delhi-based IT providers agency Coforge signed a $1.5 billion 13-year IT take care of Sabre for AI options. The corporate ended the fourth quarter of FY25 with $2.1 billion in offers.
“Leveraging AI is the large distinction driving the numerous distinction in progress throughout organisations in as we speak’s actual world,” Coforge CEO Sudhir Singh advised Moneycontrol.
It looks as if Indian IT corporations are nonetheless within the technique of producing income from generative AI, which might take a minimum of 2-3 years. That is in distinction to corporations like ServiceNow and Accenture which reported generative AI pipeline this quarter and big income from AI providers for its purchasers.
For now, Indian IT is positioning for an extended sport, banking on AI to turn out to be foundational to future service choices. Nevertheless, with out clear ROI metrics, stakeholders are left to go together with optimism and vagueness.
The submit Indian IT’s AI Income is Nonetheless 2–3 Years Away appeared first on Analytics India Journal.
