IT firms bet big on AI deals

Bengaluru: IT services companies are now expanding their partnerships with clients and winning many Artificial Intelligence (AI) deals across various verticals, including healthcare, retail, and BFSI (Banking, Financial Services & Insurance).

These deals are being won amid macroeconomic uncertainty and delayed decision-making by clients.

Recently, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) secured a five-year renewal and expansion of its contract with North America-headquartered Weatherford International, a multinational oilfield service company. The IT firm will introduce advanced AI-driven solutions to streamline Weatherford's finance and accounting processes. Among other partnerships, TCS is collaborating with Owens Corning to co-develop GenAI-powered solutions that enhance knowledge search and enable intelligent automation.

In June, Infosys announced its partnership with Adobe to transform the marketing life cycle of global brands with AI. Recently, it also announced the launch of over 200 enterprise AI agents powered by Infosys Topaz AI offerings and Google Cloud's Vertex AI platform.

Experts point out that not only the top five IT companies, mid-tier IT companies are also winning many AI deals, and this is due to increased preference among clients to use Gen AI and large language models (LLMs) as these emerging tech help in cost optimisation and some cases, AI also help in reducing workforce. 

For mid-tier IT firm Happiest Minds, which reported 18.5% growth in revenues from operations at Rs 550 crore in Q1, Gen AI contributes about 2.4% of the total revenues.

Sachin Alug, CEO, NLB Services, said the economic climate might be throwing challenges in the way of businesses, but their collaboration with AI is nothing less than a shield.

"It is no longer at the pilot stage; today, it is helping businesses make big strategic decisions that deliver clear and measurable results. In the past year alone, global AI investments have jumped by over 40%, and the size of generative AI deals has more than doubled. Some of the agreements taking shape today are valued in the billions, reflecting the strong confidence leaders have in AI’s ability to create sustained value over time. We’re also seeing AI-related spending make a noticeable contribution to GDP growth in leading economies, which says a lot about its role as a productivity driver,” he said.

He added that instead of small pilots scattered across teams, companies are now embedding AI into critical business functions from predictive analytics to intelligent decision-making.

Employees are adopting AI tools three times faster than leaders. This means there’s an untapped wave of AI-driven productivity already inside many organisations, waiting for leadership to recognise and channel it.

Looking ahead, AI deals will continue to move from one-off projects to enterprise-wide programmes that touch every part of the business, he added.

Neeti Sharma, CEO, TeamLease Digital said AI is enabling many companies to stay productive and innovative during these uncertain times. It helps employees to be 25-30% productive in software development and speeds up business processes by about 50%, helping companies retain profits.

"Using AI, IT companies are also helping companies across many sectors, such as Banking, Retail, Engineering, Healthcare, Pharma and Logistics build faster and more flexible solutions for their customers. Today, about 22–30% of Indian businesses are using AI, and over 70% want to use it more, outpacing global trends. Indian IT companies are leading this shift, with over 80% exploring advanced AI agents and nearly 70% using generative AI to improve software, automation, and customer service," she said.