Wipro Chief Executive Officer Srinivas Pallia refuted the apprehension in the much-talked-about topic on whether artificial intelligence (AI) is impacting hiring in the people-heavy information technology (IT) industry.
“There is no strong correlation to the industry yet in terms of AI (adversely impacting) hiring, it (AI) will continue to evolve as we move forward,” Pallia said while addressing a press conference after declaring the Q1FY25 results.
The comments assume significance as they come at a time when hiring has remained tepid in the IT industry. Experts have pointed toward AI-driven tasks that might eliminate entry-level jobs.
Wipro’s employee count reduced by 114 employees in the first quarter ended June 30, taking the total headcount stood at 2,33,232.
Overall, the IT industry’s headcount, traditionally driven by mass hiring from software engineering colleges, has largely remained the same in the last two fiscal years.
Adding to the point made by Pallia, Wipro Chief Human Resource Officer Saurabh Govil reiterated the IT industry’s pain point that the market faces a scarcity of deep AI talent. “That's why there's a premium and we are comfortable because we do a lot of work in-house to build that talent as well,” Govil added.
Echoing similar views, Wipro’s rival and India’s third-largest IT services major, HCLTech, on July 14, tweaked its fresher hiring strategy with quality and specialisation determining a candidate’s eligibility.
Additionally, such employees would be paid four times more than regular freshers. The Noida-headquartered company will also restructure its operations, including a planned reduction in headcount outside India over the next few quarters.
Also, read: India’s IT majors bet on startups to stay ahead in the Gen AI era
Agentic AI
Meanwhile, Pallia added that Agentic AI is transforming business models and how organisations function.
Agentic AI represents a step forward from traditional AI, capable of independently making decisions, planning, and reasoning to accomplish user-defined tasks with minimal human intervention.
“So by combining domain expertise with AI, we are able to deliver value through solutions such as hyper-personalised wealth management for our BFSI clients, predictive industrial insights for our manufacturing clients,” Pallia further said.
Wipro has deployed over 200 Agentic AI for clients.
Q4 Performance
For Q1FY26, Wipro reported an 11 percent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 3,330 crore, above the Bloomberg poll estimate of Rs 3,249 crore.
The firm's consolidated revenue from operations rose marginally to Rs 22,135 crore, also above analyst estimates of Rs 22,078 crore. In constant currency terms, revenue decreased 2.3 percent YoY.
Wipro maintained its revenue growth guidance for the second quarter and has now guided for revenue growth of -1 percent to +1 percent.
Operating margin increased by 80 bps to 17.3 percent.
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