AI shift pushes India IT industry past USD 300 billion milestone

India’s information technology sector is forecast to surpass USD 300 billion in revenue for the first time in the current fiscal year, an industry body said on Tuesday, amid challenges and opportunities arising from artificial intelligence.

Indian IT stocks have slumped in recent weeks, tracking global peers as investors worry that advanced AI tools would disrupt the traditional business models of software firms, shaving billions off their market value.

Nasscom, the Indian IT industry body, expects the sector to grow 6.1 per cent year-on-year to USD 315 billion in the fiscal ending on March 31, as global IT services pick up pace, driven by easing tariff and trade tensions and rising AI investments. Revenue growth will be similar in the next fiscal year, it said.

“AI is compressing traditional work but expanding other areas of work,” said Srikanth Velamakanni, vice chairperson of Nasscom.

“The net balance is what you’re seeing… There is not a single proposal in any tech company anywhere in the world that’s going without AI in it. It is now an inevitable, fundamental part of every proposal in every company.”

Nasscom projects fiscal 2026 AI revenue from services firms around $10 billion to $12 billion, but clarified that this does not include AI-specific revenues for all firms and revenues are set to rise “significantly” in the next few years.

India’s leading IT service providers, including Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, and HCLTech are hopeful about better demand in the next fiscal year.

Overall, the country’s IT industry is expected to add a net 135,000 jobs in the fiscal year, taking the total headcount to 5.95 million, Nasscom said.

(With inputs from Reuters)