India's largest information technology companies are moving away from the mass hiring model that defined the sector for more than two decades, replacing annual recruitment targets with quarterly workforce planning, selective hiring and internal AI training as productivity improves and demand shifts towards specialised skills.
In the latest earnings season, several companies either declined to give annual hiring targets or said recruitment would depend on business demand, utilisation and specialised skill requirements instead.
TCS has reduced its FY27 fresher commitment to 25,000 from around 40,000-44,000 annually over the previous four years, while Infosys has maintained a target of 20,000. Wipro, HCLTech and Tech Mahindra have not announced FY27 hiring targets.
The shift comes as Indian IT companies adapt to clients seeking faster delivery, productivity gains and AI-led services, while demand for engineers with AI, cloud and cybersecurity skills continues to outpace broader technology hiring.
HCLTech said during its Q1 earnings press conference: “I think for a couple of years now, we have moved away from trying to commit to an annual number and instead create a rolling quarterly plan.”
"Our focus again is going to be not so much on numbers. If I have to compromise on numbers and if that results in increasing the percentage of elite engineers that we will hire, that will be our focus,” HCLTech said.
Tech Mahindra also linked hiring to business demand rather than fixed annual plans.
"So far as our hiring plan is concerned, I think it's going to be in line with the revenue guidance," management said. "As far lateral hiring is concerned, it's always need-based. We don't go in with a fixed plan for a quarter or for that matter, even a month."
The hiring commentary came even as companies continued to report healthy deal pipelines.
TCS reported a $9.5 billion order book, HCLTech posted its highest-ever first-quarter net new bookings of $2.4 billion, Tech Mahindra recorded its third consecutive quarter with more than $1 billion in deal wins, Infosys signed $3.6 billion in large deals and LTM reported order inflow of $1.68 billion.
The headcount changed little. In Q1, TCS and Wipro increased their workforce, while Infosys, HCLTech, Tech Mahindra and LTM reduced theirs.
India's top six IT companies added more than 5,400 employees in Q1 FY27, driven by TCS, which made its biggest quarterly addition in three years by hiring 9,000 employees.
Instead of expanding hiring, companies said they were changing how they build talent.
HCLTech said it plans to develop more forward deployed engineers, or FDEs, internally while continuing to recruit externally where required.
"Specifically recruiting for FDEs, it'll be a mix of both build and buy," the company said. "Every delivery unit will have FDEs built and we are making investments for that."
Happiest Minds said it was prioritising training existing employees instead of hiring ahead of demand.
"Now, hiring for the future, what we are focusing on is training the current workforce through a lot of internal programs to get them AI ready... Our existing people are also changing their roles to become forward deployed engineers because they are becoming AI trained,” management said.
Executives also pointed to higher productivity from AI and tighter workforce planning.
LTM Chief Executive Venu Lambu said: "It is not about reducing employees, restructuring or anything… What we have done is a very smart deployment of the workforce."
