Deal-Rich, Job-Light: How AI Is Repricing Indian IT

The sector that built its empire on human scale is now being forced to reimagine itself in an age that prices intelligence, not effort. The results are in and they are complicated

- By Rohit Chintapali

BY THE TIME Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) filed its FY26 annual results in April 2026, it had already done something it had not done in years: cut 23,460 jobs in a single fiscal year, the largest workforce reduction in its history.

Its rival Infosys, in the same week, crossed the $20 billion revenue threshold for the first time. Both headlines appeared on the same business pages, and they told the same contradictory story. Indian IT in FY26 was an industry posting record revenues while quietly, systematically, dismantling the labour model that created them.

The Numbers

The headline figures look, at first glance, resilient. TCS's full-year revenue came in at $30,017 million, though in dollar terms this represented a 0.5 percent decline year-on-year (YoY) and a 2.4 per cent contraction in constant currency. In rupee terms, however, revenue of Rs 2,67,021 crore represented 4.6 percent growth YoY. TCS’s annualised AI revenue crossed $2.3 billion in Q4 FY26, while its operating margin hit 25 per cent, the highest in four years, and net margin of 19.8 per cent was also a four-year high. The full-year order book TCV stood at $40.7 billion, with five mega deals closed for the year.

Infosys crossed the $20-billion revenue mark with FY26 revenues of $20,158 million, growing 3.1 per cent in constant currency. Its reported IFRS operating margin was 20.3 per cent and adjusted operating margin 21.0 per cent. Free cash flow was $3,733 million and large deal TCV totalled $14.9 billion, with 55 per cent net new.

HCLtech posted dollar revenue of $14.7 billion, up 6 per cent YoY, with services revenue growing 4.8 per cent in constant currency. Its annualised Advanced AI revenue hit $620 million. Total contract value of new deal wins for the year totalled $9.3 billion. The company’s rupee revenue came in at Rs 1,30,144 crore, up 11.2 per cent YoY, with EBIT at Rs 22,397 crore, about 17.2 per cent of revenue.