“We are very optimistic about continuing our effort in inducting freshers. We added 1,600 freshers this quarter and we are going to add more throughout this year as well. AI-assisted coding is the way to go about it,” said Venugopal Lambu.
Lambu said there was more emphasis in terms of the learning ability, and the foundational skill sets that freshers have on which companies can build, using their training and learning methods.
“So those assessments will always improvise it…Whenever we hire people, we take all those aspects, whether it is related to the coding roles, cloud roles or infrastructure roles or data roles,” he said.
Reliance on freshers by building a pyramid-style organisation structure has been key for the over-$283-billion outsourcing industry’s services delivery model. However, over the past more than a year, since AI took centre-stage entry-level jobs and hiring at technology firms was impacted with companies coding 20-25% via AI, reducing the need for junior-level human coders.
As AI technology permeates across functions and solutions, Lambu believes there is a correlation or a non-linearity in the revenue growth and workforce addition.
“Over the last few quarters, when we added revenue, the headcount has not necessarily increased. So, there is a correlation or a non-linearity, but it is too early to call out to what extent it will happen,” he added.
LTIMindtree, formed with the merger of L&T Infotech and Mindtree in November 2022, last week reported a 5.2% year-on-year growth in the first quarter revenue of fiscal year 2026 at $1.15 billion. It was a 1.97% sequential rise boosted by healthy growth from Europe and its consumer or retail clients.
Lambu transitioned to take over the Mumbai-headquartered Larsen & Toubro (L&T) subsidiary’s top seat on May 31, after induction into the firm in January.
The company announced its largest deal with a US-based client worth $450 million in the first quarter.
“We are on the verge of signing a couple of deals, and one of them will actually beat our own record. That gives me the confidence that we will move towards the double-digit growth at some time in the second half of the year,” Lambu said.
The IT industry has been struggling with low single-digit to flat business growth over the past two years after more than two decades of strong double-digit revenue growth rate.
As tariff-led macro uncertainties and the AI-backed efficiencies increase cost pressures, most software service providers are witnessing a demand contraction from top clients. This is lowering revenue contribution from large deals, a key vector for IT firms’ growth.
“Our contribution of top clients’ revenue decreased because it has moved to the other categories. For example, we added two new $50 million-plus accounts on-year basis…The portfolio mix also is changing as we start building larger deals,” Lambu said.
As we are betting big on AI, Lambu said, AI will be net positive for both revenue and margin growth, which it expects to be closer to 16% in the next couple of quarters from 14.3% in the June quarter.
