Tata Sons N Chandrasekaran says ‘GenAI not just another tech cycle, a civilisational shift’ — what's ahead for TCS?

N Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Tata Sons and the board of directors at TCS, has indicated that India's largest IT services company could be more enthusiastic about generative artificial intelligence (GenAI).

Writing to TCS shareholders in the annual report published on 27 May, Chandrasekaran noted that GenAI is “not just another tech cycle”, but a “civilizational shift” which could benefit every industry, PTI reported.

What does this mean for TCS going forward? Well, the $30 billion company will create a “large pool” of AI agents to work alongside humans and deliver solutions in a “human AI” model, it said.

At the time of writing, the stock was down ₹2.80 or 0.08 per cent to ₹3,495.90 apiece on 28 May. It opened at ₹3,520 today. 

N Chandrasekaran's vision for TCS — Outlines the plan

“Achieving near-human reasoning capabilities, GenAI is not just another tech cycle, it is a civilizational shift,” Chandrasekaran wrote, adding that TCS has been proactive in using AI technologies — infusing AI across offerings, and by building intelligent agent solutions throughout the value chain.

“Looking ahead, we plan four distinct progressions. First, we establish a large pool of AI agents working alongside our human workforce. Second, we deliver solutions through a human AI model. TCS will also invest in AI data centres and cloud infrastructure, and forge partnerships with hardware providers, solution innovators, and startups,” he added.

Notably, TCS is India's largest private sector employer, with over 6.07 lakh staff as of March 2025. According to Chandrasekaran, it will also have the largest AI-trained workforce in India in 2025. He noted that the company has launched an enterprise-grade Gen AI platform called ‘TCS Wisdomnext’.

‘New appointments driven by industry shifts due to AI’, says CEO and MD K Krithivasan

Also addressing the topic, K Krithivasan, the company's CEO and MD said clients are increasingly shifting focus from a use case-based approach to return on investment-led scaling of AI, and “TCS is helping them set up AI centres of excellence, AI labs and by providing domain-specific AI solutions for business operations with over 150 AI agents”, among others.

“The appointments of Aarthi Subramanian as the President and Chief Operating Officer, and Mangesh Sathe as our new Chief Strategy Officer, announced earlier, are driven by the industry shifts led by AI,” he added.

TCS executives say no negative impact on jobs

Executives at TCS have continually said that AI will not have a negative impact on jobs, but the nature of jobs will shift. However, the PTI report noted that over the past two years, amid growing GenAI applications, additions to IT companies' employee base have been slow, largely attributed to automation changes and hiring during the COVID period.

In his note, Chandrasekaran also said that “geopolitics and the emergence of a multipolar world” have caused “significant shocks” to businesses in 2025.

(With inputs from PTI)