AI-driven efficiency paradox creates competitive moat as HCLTech wins higher wallet share while baking in productivity gains, defying industry pricing pressures.

“A very important feature of our wins is that we have now had several instances where we're winning higher wallet share with existing customers, even as we bake in Generative AI-induced productivity gains in our bids... The wallet share gained, in fact, most of the renewals that we have done. This quarter was also a very strong renewal quarter. There was incremental business from almost all the renewals that we signed. It was more than the deflationary impact.”

— C. Vijayakumar, CEO & Managing Director

Geopolitical uncertainty accelerates deal-making instead of delaying it, with 50% of record $3B Q4 bookings happening in March alone.

“It may be contrary to what everybody expects. 50% of our $3 billion booking happened in March. So, we did see a very good closure. There is a sense of urgency. As I said, one of the comments, is quite possible this environment might make people make decisions faster, especially on efficiency-led, AI-led and AI and efficiency-led opportunities.”

— C. Vijayakumar, CEO & Managing Director

Engineering Services transformation delivers 75% booking growth, signaling strategic portfolio shift toward higher-value semiconductor and AI-enabled hardware services.

“Our Engineering and R&D Services business had a record high booking, which is a 75% growth in FY25. This demonstrates the great execution of our integrated GTM organization... we are very happy to report that our year-on-year booking in ER&D has grown 75%.”

— C. Vijayakumar, CEO & Managing Director

“Sophisticated scenario planning reveals confidence beneath conservative guidance, with even "deterioration" scenarios assuming growth and strong pipeline conversion expectations.”

“And our guidance, the lower end, we believe the environment will deteriorate from where we are. And that's what the 2% represents... the midpoint also we assume that the environment will deteriorate, but it assumes that a couple of large deals, which were in the pipeline, we are likely to close in Q1... And at the higher end, we believe the environment could remain the same and we will do well in Q1 based on the pipeline and the deals which are expected to be closed.”

— C. Vijayakumar, CEO & Managing Director

AI Force platform achieves 57 deployments across 22 clients with quantified productivity gains of 20-25% in software development and up to 50% in digital process operations.

“AI Force has gained significant traction with 57 deployments among 22 clients in this financial year. These service transformations have created a significant business impact for our clients, such as a billion-dollar impact for a large insurance company by accelerating their policy modernization using GenAI... in software development, we are looking like 20% to 25% when we are able to implement and the maturity picks up... In digital process operations, agentic solutions are very real. We believe there can be a significant reduction... There it can be anywhere between 20% to even 50%.”

— C. Vijayakumar, CEO & Managing Director

Revenue productivity transformation demonstrates AI execution model evolution, with FY25 delivering 4.8% revenue growth alongside 2% headcount reduction.

“I think if you see this year FY'25, revenue grew in Services 4.8% and headcount declined roughly 2%. So that's the nonlinearity that we want to build on an ongoing basis. And we envisage this execution model to be less location agnostic as we kind of get to a mix of 50% people and 50% agentic resolutions.”

— C. Vijayakumar, CEO & Managing Directo

Demonstrates management’s willingness to address underperforming assets/sectors aggressively, rather than wait for recovery. Also underlines structural workforce transformation as automation takes hold.

“First aspect is acquisitions done in the past—while integration happened, cost rationalization (facilities, etc.) didn't. Automotive has seen a ramp down and is not expected to recover quickly or requires more offshore skills—so further restructuring is needed. And, due to productivity improvements, some released employees are not readily redeployable, especially as automation/AI addresses lower-skill needs.”

— C VIjakumar, CEO

Positions HCLTech not just as a respondent to the AI wave, but as an early mover, embedding AI/automation into core service lines and launching vertical-specific, repeatable solutions.

“Our AI Force platform is deployed across 35 clients and 70-plus deployments, enabling several new wins... AI Engineering is gaining traction in robotics domains, while AI Labs are building Centers of Excellence in emerging tech areas. Platforms like Invoice-to-Payment and Lab-as-a-Service are being launched to accelerate value and deliver measurable ROI.”

“The share of AI and Gen AI is growing as they become central to nearly every deal. Gen AI is now central to IT Services strategy.”

— C VIjakumar, CEO

Hints at management’s intent to preserve long-term margin credibility (signaling this year’s dip is transitory), which is essential for investor confidence—especially when investing aggressively in new technologies.

“We are not setting, structurally, the margin bar lower... will continue to be 19%-20%. This year, for all the reasons explained, there's going to be certain headwinds—so this year, we will be between 17%-18%.”

— C VIjakumar, CEO

Their choice to avoid heavy capital investment in physical data center assets is a critical strategic demarcation versus competitors who may pursue infrastructure-heavy approaches.

“We don’t want to play in the assets kind of game. Pickup will be gradual; even Edge AI is being piloted factory-by-factory, but we see this as a big strength and capability of ours.”

— C VIjakumar, CEO

Signifies a break from traditional mass campus intake, increasing the quality (and cost) of entry talent—reflecting a pivot toward high-complexity digital/AI services rather than commodity IT.

“...Our fresher intake is now based on skills and specialization, no longer just numbers. We have also revised compensation so that specialist or elite freshers earn 3x-4x of the regular base. There is an extreme level of specialization now... major overhaul and recalibration of entry-level talent plans.”

— Ram Sundararajan, Chief People Officer