Piyush Goyal says IT firms well prepared for AI shift, recommends tech stocks

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on February 12 said Indian information technology (IT) companies are well positioned to navigate the future, even as sectoral stocks remain under pressure over concerns related to artificial intelligence (AI) and slowing global demand.

Speaking at the launch of NITI Aayog’s Frontier Tech Hub roadmap on India’s Technology Services in New Delhi, Goyal said companies should not take a “depressed outlook” on the future.

“Our companies are very well prepared to embrace the future,” he said, urging those with capital to pick up IT stocks as he has “complete faith in our ecosystem.”

His remarks come at a time when the Nifty Information Technology index has slipped to near multi-month lows, with heavyweight stocks such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, HCL Technologies and Tech Mahindra witnessing sharp corrections in recent sessions.

The decline is said to be driven by investor worries that rapid advances in AI tools could disrupt traditional outsourcing and software services models, along with macroeconomic uncertainty in key markets like the United States, where Indian information technology firms derive a significant portion of their revenues.

On AI integration, Goyal cautioned that the industry must adapt quickly. “We have to quickly reorient and reimagine, retrain and reskill ourselves, otherwise the stock market will be proven right,” he said.

“It’s not like AI is going to replace everything. AI will support us in our work. I am not worried about job losses. We train, retrain, reskill. I am confident we will add jobs," he said.

However, Goyal warned that complacency could hurt competitiveness. “If you don’t stay alert and active then we might start losing out.”