Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is urging employees to prioritise artificial intelligence-led solutions for clients even if doing so reduces existing revenue streams, signalling a shift in how the country’s largest IT services exporter is preparing for AI’s impact on traditional delivery models.
“We are telling our associates that if you find that you can do something faster, better, cheaper with AI, you should probably go and tell your customers, even if it cannibalises your revenue. We are not afraid this technology will take away our livelihood. We believe it is going to open up more so you enjoy the benefits the more you do and not by resisting the change,” K Krithivasan, managing director and chief executive at TCS, said.
Embracing Revenue Cannibalisation
Krithivasan was speaking at the Nasscom Technology and Leadership forum currently underway in Mumbai. He was joined in the discussion by Ashok Vaswani, MD and CEO, Kotak Bank.
He said the company wants teams to focus on long-term customer value and new opportunities emerging from AI adoption rather than protecting legacy revenue streams. The approach forms part of TCS’s broader push to embed an AI-first culture across the organisation as it looks to expand AI-led services and solutions.
Krithivasan said the opportunity from AI goes beyond productivity gains. Many enterprises are still grappling with fragmented data environments and unclear use cases, creating demand for partners who can help prepare data, orchestrate deployments, and build new products and customer experiences powered by AI.
To support this shift, TCS is widening access to AI tools internally and encouraging experimentation across roles.
Bridging the Seniority Gap
“What we find is our associates at the junior level, are probably more proficient, more comfortable with technology (and) they will earn. As people go to senior level, they hear a lot of technology, but they do not dirty their hands. We are insisting that every senior folk has to build something,” Krithivasan said.
The comments come as the IT services sector faces growing debate over whether AI-driven automation could compress traditional effort-based billing, even as it opens new consulting, platform, and transformation-led revenue streams.
On incentivising employees to use AI, Krithivasan said, “We don’t have to really incentivise because everybody wants to learn this tech. We need to tell them that one, I am giving them enough opportunity to learn, two I am encouraging them to ensure that the solution you provide to your customer is AI first.”
Broadening the discussion beyond IT services, Vaswani, said AI’s scale and pace make transformation inevitable across industries, though adoption may not follow a straight path.
He said organisations must first accept that AI will fundamentally change how businesses operate, and then focus on building the internal foundations required to use it effectively. For banks, that begins with strengthening data architecture so information is integrated, accessible, and usable for AI-led decision-making.
“Fundamentally, we have to use AI to get a better understanding of the customer — whether that is underwriting, whether that is control, whether that is propensity modelling,” Vaswani said. Business leaders deploying the technology, he noted, remain responsible for outcomes rather than the tools themselves.
Both executives highlighted that AI adoption will require continuous learning, leadership involvement, and ongoing dialogue at board level as companies refine strategies and investments while the technology evolves.