As concerns grow over artificial intelligence disrupting India’s $283 billion IT services industry, a top executive at Wipro has said the fears may be overstated.
Hari Shetty, Chief Strategist and Technology Officer at Wipro, believes AI will dominate the technology landscape for the next 10–20 years without weakening India’s outsourcing-driven IT model. “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.
Indian IT stocks have come under pressure in recent weeks amid worries that automation could reduce the need for large engineering teams. The concern is that if AI systems can write code, migrate data and integrate systems faster than humans, companies may not need thousands of engineers.
Shetty, however, said what is visible today is largely task automation. “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,” he said.
He described AI as “probably the single biggest opportunity” for the industry, comparing its impact to electricity and the internet. According to estimates by the World Economic Forum, AI could create about 170 million jobs globally while displacing around 92 million roles.
Shetty said demand in India will rise for advanced skills such as 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. He added that Wipro continues to hire young engineers skilled in AI tools.
However, not all industry leaders share the same optimism. Vishal Sikka, Founder and CEO of Vianai and former CEO of Infosys, warned that generative AI is already reshaping enterprise work.
“If you look at the application of generative AI to knowledge work, this disruption is real. It is here,” Sikka said, pointing to areas such as code migration and system integration. He added, “I have seen examples of 20, 30x productivity gain.”
Sikka cautioned that such efficiency gains could affect 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,” he said, adding that some clients are already seeking an “AI discount.”
Recent volatility in Indian IT stocks has also followed a global software selloff, intensified after Google-owned Anthropic introduced new automation plug-ins across software functions.
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