Artificial intelligence is increasingly shaping the technology contracts Indian software services firms are competing for, as companies transition from pilot AI deployments to large-scale implementations, Srini Pallia, Chief Executive Officer of Wipro, said on Tuesday.
Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Pallia said easing budget constraints are allowing Wipro to pursue a mix of small, large, and mega artificial intelligence-driven deals, although he did not disclose specific contract details.
“We’ll go after both small and large deals because clients across industries and markets are at very different stages of maturity,” Pallia said during the Reuters Global Markets Forum.
While acknowledging strong pricing pressure — as AI shortens delivery timelines and reduces team sizes — Pallia noted that AI is also expected to generate a higher volume of smaller projects. These trends are reshaping the deal landscape for Indian IT firms.
India’s IT industry, which generates roughly US$283 billion in annual revenue, faced multiple quarters of slowdown as global companies cut back on technology spending, prioritising essential and cost-efficiency initiatives amid geopolitical tensions and broader macroeconomic uncertainty.
Pallia said enterprise AI spending is now shifting from experimentation to measurable outcomes, with companies demanding clearer accountability and returns. Wipro, he added, provides both AI consulting and traditional IT services to support this transition.
“For many clients, 2025 was about deploying AI proofs of concept and achieving productivity gains,” Pallia said. “That’s changing significantly in 2026, as boards and CEOs are now asking where the return on investment is.”
He does not expect technology budgets to rise sharply but said companies are optimising existing spending while increasingly adopting cost-saving technologies. AI-assisted software development, he noted, can reduce costs by around 25%, delivering substantial productivity gains in coding and testing.
“That efficiency will translate into new and additional projects, which is why IT budgets are unlikely to shrink over the long term,” Pallia said.
Wipro launched a three-year plan in 2023 to invest US$1 billion to strengthen its artificial intelligence capabilities. (Source: Reuters)
