IT hiring set for upheaval as cos build army of AI agents

Top information technology (IT) services companies are racing to deploy artificial intelligence (AI) agents from specialist firms across their domains, at a time when the debut of advanced AI tools threatens to eat their lunch.

- Jas Bardia

Four of the country's largest IT outsourcers-Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp, Infosys Ltd, HCL Technologies Ltd, and Wipro Ltd-are partnering with smaller firms and adopting their AI agents for software development, data analysis and marketing, highlighting the business transformation unleashed by generative AI three years ago.

While these partnerships could accelerate capability building and bring better economics for clients, the shift could eventually weigh on hiring, particularly for freshers and mid-level, task-oriented roles, experts said.

On 28 January, the fourthlargest Indian IT company, Wipro, announced a partnership with San Francisco-based Factory to deploy AI agents for software development purposes. Wipro would delegate software development work for clients to these AI tools, which would handle functions such as software testing and feature development. The Factory partnership reflects a broader shift among global enterprises, "from Al experimentation towards production-scale adoption," Wipro's chief technology officer Sandhya Arun said in a statement to stock exchanges.