India's IT industry needs a major change because of artificial intelligence (AI), top executives said at Forum. Speaking at Nasscom's annual Technology and Leadership Forum in Mumbai on February 24, 2025, HCL Technologies CEO C Vijayakumar declared the current business model, which has relied on increasing staff to increase revenue, “obsolete.”

He said companies must change to stay competitive. Vijayakumar stated that the three-decade-old business model of India's IT industry is no longer viable due to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). Vijayakumar emphasised the need for companies to adopt a "paranoid" mindset to stay relevant and drive growth.

Vijayakumar pointed out that the industry has seen a linear increase in revenue and workforce over the past 30 years, but this approach is now being disrupted. He revealed that HCL has been challenging its teams to generate twice the revenue with half the workforce by leveraging AI-driven automation to enhance productivity.

Infosys CEO Salil Parekh agreed with Vijayakumar on the need for vigilance in the evolving technology landscape. "The Indian IT industry needs to be paranoid to be relevant," Parekh said. He also highlighted that a large part of the industry operates on input-based models and stressed the importance of shifting to output and platform-based services.

Vijayakumar also advocated for Indian IT firms to develop their own large language models. He cautioned against relying on existing open-source models due to potential geopolitical risks. He said that building proprietary models could provide a long-term competitive edge as costs decrease.

On growth strategies, Parekh mentioned that Infosys is looking at major acquisitions to expand capabilities. Vijayakumar, however, noted that for HCL, company size is less significant compared to leveraging AI for efficiency and innovation.