Wipro CEO says AI is driving fresh demand for India’s IT firms

As enterprises seek ROI from AI, Indian service providers are seeing more deal activity across markets.

Artificial intelligence is influencing technology deals that Indian software services providers are competing for, according to Wipro CEO Srini Pallia, as companies’ progress from AI test deployments to large projects.

Pallia stated, without giving specifics, on the fringes of the World Economic Forum's annual conference in Davos, Switzerland, that Wipro is bidding for a number of modest AI transactions in addition to large and mega deals as budget limits loosen. He stated, they'll go after both (small and large deals) because different clients, different industries, and different markets are at different maturity stages, during the Reuters Global Markets Forum.

Srini Pallia predicted that there will be more small deals as a result of AI but acknowledged that there is major pricing pressure as AI reduces team sizes and delivery schedules.

Corporate cuts to technology spending impacted India's IT sector, which generates about 283 billion dollars in revenue annually, for several quarters as clients concentrated only on necessary or cost-cutting projects amid geopolitical unrest and macro uncertainties.

The Wipro CEO mentioned that enterprise AI spending is shifting from experimentation to accountability, and Wipro provides both IT services and AI consulting for this shift. Also, deploying AI, proving concepts, and increasing efficiency were more important to our clients in 2025. In 2026, that will dramatically shift since CEOs and boards will be questioning them about the ROI.