AI, the purported job-snatcher, is propelling a revival in India's IT hiring

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Also read |IT hiring will return, but with a difference Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, India’s largest software exporter, in May said it had doubled its pipeline of generative artificial intelligence projects to $900 million in the March quarter. Infosys Ltd, India’s second-largest IT services company, has said it is working on 225 GenAI projects.

“There has been a 20% uptick in mandates in the IT sector in the June-end quarter when compared sequentially," said Sunil Chemankotil, country manager at recruitment firm Adecco India. “The bench utilisation is high and, therefore, IT firms are now hiring candidates with experience in larger numbers than in earlier quarters," Sivaram added.

Utilisation rate refers to the proportion of staff actively involved in projects while ‘bench’ refers to employees yet to be assigned a project. Infosys and Wipro Ltd reported a utilisation rate of 83.5% and 86.9%, respectively, as for March.

Industry experts estimate the worst may be over for India’s IT sector although elections in key markets such as the US and the UK could see changes in outsourcing policies, and the Israel-Paliestine and Ukraine-Russia wars could still impact the deal pipeline. “IT sector (coverage universe) continues to transition from a protracted IT upgrade cycle and low discretionary spending to some normalisation in (the second half of FY25), which is our ‘base’ case," HDFC Securities analysts Apurva Prasad, Amit Chandra, and Vinesh Vala wrote in a note dated 3 July.

“We believe that the growth/earnings cut cycle has bottomed out, but the pace of recovery remains uncertain, especially with lingering macro events over the next couple of quarters," the analysts added. Also read |TCS, Infosys witness dip in younger