TCS to soon deploy as many AI agents as employees, says Chandrasekaran

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Chairman N. Chandrasekaran said artificial intelligence represents the largest opportunity in the company's history, dismissing concerns that AI could undermine the traditional IT services model as the company reported strong financial performance for FY26.

Addressing shareholders at TCS's 31st Annual General Meeting, Chandrasekaran said AI is expanding, rather than shrinking, the global enterprise technology market by creating new demand for modernisation, governance, sovereign AI infrastructure, and physical AI applications.

TCS reported consolidated revenue of Rs 2.67 lakh crore in FY26, up 4.6% year-on-year, while net profit rose 8.8% to Rs 52,820 crore. Operating margin stood at 25%, the highest level in four years, and total contract value exceeded $40.7 billion. The board has recommended a final dividend of Rs 31 per share, taking the total FY26 dividend payout to Rs 110 per share.

The chairman said fears that AI would disrupt the IT services industry have not materialised, noting that industry deal pipelines remain strong despite market concerns over automation and agentic AI. "AI is infrastructure — an infrastructure of intelligence," he said, arguing that lower intelligence costs would drive higher enterprise technology spending.

According to Chandrasekaran, TCS is already seeing opportunities across five areas: modernisation of enterprise technology stacks, AI-led business process redesign, AI governance, sovereign AI infrastructure, and physical AI systems that connect software with real-world assets such as factories and warehouses.

He said TCS achieved annualised AI revenue of $2.4 billion in the fourth quarter of FY26, growing at a compound quarterly growth rate of 22.4%, and predicted that the company could eventually deploy as many AI agents as it has employees.

The comments come as TCS continues to deepen its AI and cloud transformation portfolio. Recently, the company secured a multi-year, multi-million-euro contract with Canada Life to modernise and manage the insurer's IT infrastructure across Europe, leveraging AI, automation, and advanced service management capabilities.

In its fourth-quarter earnings, TCS had highlighted sustained demand for AI-led transformation programs despite a challenging macroeconomic environment marked by geopolitical tensions and cautious discretionary spending. The company has been expanding partnerships with hyperscalers and investing in sovereign AI offerings in India and Europe as enterprises seek greater control over data, security, and compliance.

Chandrasekaran said the combination of deep client relationships, domain expertise, and trust positions established IT services firms such as TCS to play a central role in the next phase of enterprise AI adoption. "The best of TCS is ahead of us," he told shareholders.