AI will dominate the technology conversation for the next 20 years, but it is unlikely to dent India’s IT services business, according to Wipro Chief Strategist and Technology Officer Hari Shetty. At a time when investors are nervous about whether AI could reduce the need for large outsourcing teams, Shetty believes the technology will actually give IT companies more work, not less, Reuters reports.
Indian IT stocks have taken a hit in recent weeks as concerns grow around AI-led automation. The fear is that if machines can write code, move data and connect systems faster than humans, will companies still need thousands of engineers on payrolls? For an industry worth around $283 billion and built on people-heavy delivery models, the question has unsettled markets.
Shetty sees the anxiety as misplaced. “When you look at the entire gamut of things that’s possible, it really appears like a large opportunity for us,” he said, adding that AI is likely to create more jobs than it replaces. According to him, what most people are watching today is only the surface-level use of AI.
“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,” Shetty said. In simple terms, he believes IT firms will move from executing instructions to working closely with clients on how their businesses actually run.
Shetty described AI as “probably the single biggest opportunity” the industry has seen, placing it alongside major technological breakthroughs such as electricity and the internet. He said debates around AI often get stuck on job losses, while missing how deeply it can change the kind of work companies ask IT partners to do.
Wipro CTO says these IT skills will matter most as AI is taking over
He referred to World Economic Forum estimates which suggest AI could generate about 170 million jobs worldwide, even as roughly 92 million roles may disappear. In India’s IT sector, Shetty said demand will grow for skills that go beyond traditional programming, including model training, data curation and responsible AI practices. “The primary differentiation here is people who know AI and people who do not know AI,” he said.
Contrary to predictions that automation will hollow out the industry’s staffing pyramid, Shetty said Wipro continues to hire young engineers who are comfortable working with AI tools. Drawing parallels with the early days of cloud computing, he said new technology usually increases the range of work IT firms handle instead of narrowing it.
Shetty also pointed out that enterprise clients are no longer just looking for vendors to finish projects. They want long-term partners who understand their internal processes well enough to help them move towards what he calls autonomous enterprises. This, he said, will keep IT services companies closely involved in client decision-making for years. “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.
Not everyone in the industry is as relaxed about the near-term impact. Vishal Sikka, Founder and CEO of Vianai and former CEO of Infosys, has warned that AI is already changing how certain enterprise projects are delivered.
“If you look at the application of generative AI to knowledge work, this disruption is real. It is here,” Sikka said. He was referring to the use of AI in areas such as code migration, system integration and connecting different applications, tasks that form a big part of enterprise technology work.
According to Sikka, teams that use generative AI well are seeing dramatic jumps in productivity. “I have seen examples of 20, 30x productivity gain,” he said. While this improves efficiency, it also raises uncomfortable questions for IT firms about timelines, pricing and team sizes.
“If a client expects that you now do this project dramatically faster or cheaper or with less people then that would impact the here and now,” Sikka said. He added that some clients have already begun factoring these gains into negotiations. “I do see clients asking for discounts there was a report that I read about” an “AI discount.”
These worries have fed into the recent selloff in Indian IT stocks, which followed a global decline in software shares. The pressure increased after Google-owned Anthropic introduced new plug-ins designed to automate work across multiple software functions.
