Wipro CEO: ‘AI Is No Longer A Niche’

‘We are, in fact, building an AI-first, AI-everywhere, enterprise focused on solving complex challenges, accelerating delivery and re-imagining operations at scale,’ says Wipro CEO and Managing Director Srini Pallia.

Wipro CEO and Managing Director Srini Pallia said AI “is no longer a niche” and is “a force reshaping industries and amplifying human potential.”

Pallia (pictured above) made the comments Thursday to members of the press after the global IT services provider released its latest quarterly earnings.

AI, he said, is “becoming essential to how businesses operate at scale. At Wipro, we see AI as a force reshaping industries and amplifying human potential. We are, in fact, building an AI-first, AI-everywhere, enterprise focused on solving complex challenges, accelerating delivery and re-imagining operations at scale. By embracing autonomous and agentic AI, we are transforming business models and how organizations work.”

The company, which reported a slight year-over-year increase in total revenue for the quarter, also reported that large deal bookings more than doubled in the same period.

Wipro, with dual headquarters in East Brunswick, N.J. and Bangalore, India, is ranked No. 17 on CRN’s 2025 Solution Provider 500.

[Related: Wipro Guides Current Quarter IT Services Revenue Down In Face Of Tariffs, Macroeconomic ‘Uncertainties’]

Pallia said during his prepared remarks that Wipro started the quarter facing significant macroeconomic uncertainty, which kept overall demand muted.

“In fact, our clients prioritized initiatives with immediate impact, focusing on cost optimization and vendor consolidation, and at the same time, they accelerated their AI data and modernization programs,” Pallia said. “We saw a clear trend of many AI projects moving to scale and production. So we quickly aligned with these priorities, deepened our partnerships, and, of course, secured key deals, the large deals we closed this quarter, and of course, the last quarter, along with a strong pipeline, put us in a good position for the second half of the year.”

Those priorities and shifts in client focus were evident in the strategic deals Wipro won during the quarter, including bookings worth $5 billion in total contract value, which was up 51 percent year-over-year, Pallia said. Large deal bookings reached $2.7 billion, up 131 percent, he said. That included 16 large deals in the quarter, including two “mega deals,” he said.

“Several of these wins were driven by vendor consolidation, where we continue to build strong momentum,” he said. “These deals reflect a good balance of extension of work and securing new business. They also highlight our capabilities, our domain expertise, and the progress we have made in AI.”

He cited as examples a global banking leader that selected Wipro as the strategic partner to help its digital ecosystem, modernize its cloud and data platforms, and improve cyber resilience while embedding AI across its software development life cycle; a leading global semiconductor company who signed a multi-year agreement to modernize its entire product life cycle; and a leading North American bank to transform its technology across core banking, wealth management, and retail using Wipro’s AI-powered global delivery framework.

“These examples highlight a clear trend: AI is no longer a niche,” he said.

Wipro’s AI capabilities are integrated into “both industry and cross-industry solutions,” Pallia added.

“By combining domain expertise with AI, we are able to deliver value through solutions such as hyper personalized wealth management for our BFS (banking and financial services) clients [and] predictive industrial insights for our manufacturing clients,” he said. “So far, we have deployed over 200 AI-powered agents using advanced technologies from our leading hyperscalers, who are big partners. Just to give an example, these agents enable smarter lending, intelligent claims processing, and autonomous network management.”

When asked about the macroeconomic environment, Pallia said there certainly is uncertainty.

“So the whole aspect of geopolitics continues,” he said. “The aspect of tariff continues. And each of the industries and each of the countries have a different situation. But broadly from a sector perspective … retail, CPG (consumer product goods), and manufacturing are the three industries specifically impacted by that. But if you look at BFSI (banking, financial services, and insurance), the pipeline is very strong, and also deal momentum and wins are also strong for us. The clients are very focused on cost optimization and vendor consolidation. I think that's where we are winning.”

For its first fiscal quarter 2026, which ended June 30, Wipro reported total revenue of $2.58 billion, up 0.8 percent over its first fiscal quarter 2025 revenue.

Net income for the quarter was reported at $388.4 million or 4 cents per share, up 10.9 percent over last year.

Investors responded positively to Wipro’s financials, sending the company’s shares up 3.38 percent to $3.06 per share by the close of the trading day.