Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Bob Willen, Chairman and Managing Partner at Kearney, and Siddharth Jain, Country Head and Managing Partner at Kearney India, said AI is already reshaping workforce structures, consulting models and technology spending patterns across the world.
Jain said the future of Indian IT services firms “is in their hands”, adding that the sector faces both disruption and opportunity depending on how companies respond to the AI shift.
“If they don’t innovate and move beyond the old model, there will be disruption, and there will be a decline in the sector for sure,” Jain said.
At the same time, he argued that the broader demand for technology talent and AI-led transformation services is expected to rise globally as businesses redesign operations around automation and digital systems.
“For most organisations going through transformation, you would need fewer people in general to run a business, but you will still need more technology people to build the right AI solutions and interventions in the organisation,” he said.
According to Jain, Indian IT companies will need to move away from the traditional full-time employee or rate-card-based outsourcing structure towards a more consultative and transformation-led business model.
“That’s what needs to happen,” he said. “I do think some of them are on that journey, not all.”
He added that the industry could witness significant market-share shifts over the coming years, with mid-sized firms potentially moving faster than larger incumbents in adapting to AI-led disruption.
“I feel that some of the big ones would struggle, and you could see some consolidation at that level,” Jain said, clarifying that consolidation may not necessarily mean mergers and acquisitions but could instead reflect dramatic market-share losses for some established players.
Cross-border acquisitions by Indian firms are also likely to increase as companies seek global consulting capabilities and stronger international client access, he added.
Willen said Kearney itself is seeing the same trends playing out internally as AI adoption accelerates globally. The firm, which is preparing to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2026, has advised businesses through the Great Depression, post-war reconstruction, the digital revolution and now the AI era.
“We’re seeing a lot of the same dynamics that our clients are seeing with AI — tremendous opportunity and promise, tremendous innovation,” Willen said.
He added that companies across industries are still trying to understand how to scale successful AI experiments into sustainable operating models.
“We are also looking at the workforce issue,” he said. “It’s taking longer than perhaps some of the projections suggested for the workforce to shift.”
Despite concerns over layoffs and restructuring across parts of the technology sector, Willen said Kearney continues to hire, although the focus is increasingly shifting towards employees with stronger data, technology and AI capabilities.
“Our anticipation is that we’ll grow through AI,” he said. “Perhaps we won’t add people at as high a rate as we may have in the past.”
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The comments come at a time when Indian IT firms are grappling with slowing discretionary spending, rising automation and growing pressure from clients to deliver productivity gains through AI tools.
Even as concerns around job displacement continue, Jain said he remains optimistic about the medium-term outlook for the sector if companies successfully adapt.
“I still hope, and I’m optimistic, that at a sectoral level there will still be a net gain in the mid-term,” he said.
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