LTIMindtree added over $60 million in incremental revenue in the first half of FY26 without net hiring, underscoring a strategic shift toward an AI-led operating model. The growth was powered by the deployment of around 1,500 digital agents working alongside employees, as the company moves to decouple revenue expansion from headcount growth. Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Venu Lambu highlighted this approach as central to LTIMindtree’s long-term transformation.
“In the agentic era, it’s very important that we mature the agentic workforce that can coexist with our human workforce. And that’s why we came up with the digital employees concept,” Lambu said. These digital agents are designed to function like employees, complete with defined personas, employee IDs, assigned managers, task ownership, and structured training programs. According to Lambu, this model allows the organisation to scale productivity while maintaining operational discipline.
India’s sixth-largest IT services company is consciously working to break the traditional linkage between revenue growth and workforce expansion through the increasing use of generative AI. “Even when we talk about doubling the revenue, I’m not looking at doubling the headcount,” Lambu said while outlining the company’s five-year growth strategy. “The digital workforce has a significant role in this transformation that we are undergoing,” he added.
Despite this focus on digital productivity, LTIMindtree plans to continue hiring freshers. Lambu believes that younger talent entering an AI-native environment can create disproportionate value. “For the AI-native workforce, the productivity and the value they can create and the growth they can imagine is much faster,” he said. “So, for them, it’s the best time to be in the tech industry.”
Looking ahead, the company expects macroeconomic challenges to persist through 2026, with AI continuing to exert deflationary pressure on the IT services sector. However, Lambu pointed to early signs of optimism. LTIMindtree’s top five clients have largely realised AI-driven productivity gains and have begun adding incremental revenue streams. “A lot of our deals are coming from vendor consolidation, where clients are reimaging their ecosystem to have fewer partners and higher productivity,” he said, noting that efficiency gains are increasingly shared with customers.
Another area of momentum is focused modernisation, particularly in data and infrastructure, as enterprises prepare for broader AI adoption. LTIMindtree recently crossed the Rs 10,000-crore quarterly revenue milestone and aims to double its topline over the next five years. While AI is now embedded across all service lines, the company does not report AI revenues separately. Lambu also noted that while LTIMindtree has not pursued acquisitions since its 2022 merger, it remains open to opportunities that can accelerate its AI-centric strategy or expand its market presence.
