HCLTech added 6,450 net staff in the September quarter, taking headcount to 230,339, including 6,136 freshers (graduates hired straight from college) against 1,056 three months earlier, while its "Advanced AI" revenue rose 78% year on year at constant exchange rates to $219m1. That reverses the 3,292 it cut in the June quarter. India's IT services firms do coding and back-office work for Western companies, so their hiring is one read on outsourced white-collar work.
Wipro cut 6,716 staff to 236,3282 on flat IT services revenue of $2.61bn and a forecast of between a 1.5% fall and a 0.5% rise next quarter3, three months after it added 888 net staff while saying it would hire no freshers. Chief executive Srini Pallia said: "We see AI as a long-term growth driver that will expand the addressable market for technology and business transformation."4
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) added 4,258 people to reach 598,056, its third straight quarterly rise, according to figures relayed by Business Today, which also reported annualised AI revenue (the current quarter's rate scaled to a year) of $3.1bn5. In July TCS reported shedding 19,271 staff over a year.
HCLTech's headcount and AI revenue both rose; TCS grew modestly; Wipro, on flat revenue, cut. One reading is that the entry-level work France and Canada stopped hiring for has moved to India. No source shows that; a rebound from last year's trough, deal timing and hiring to replace staff who quit explain the same numbers.
