No layoffs ahead? Infosys CEO Salil Parekh signals steady hiring despite IT slowdown

Infosys CEO and MD Salil Parekh said the company does not foresee any layoffs, even as some industry peers have announced workforce reductions.

“We’ve not had any of that in the last year and we don’t see anything of that sort coming up in the future,” Parekh said in an interview with Moneycontrol.

The company has instead maintained its hiring plans, onboarding around 20,000 college graduates in the past year and targeting a similar intake in the current fiscal.

Shares of Infosys came under pressure last week, falling 7% on Friday after the IT major reported its March-quarter and full-year results and issued a subdued growth outlook for FY27.

Infosys reported a net profit of ₹8,501 crore in the January-March quarter, marking an increase of 21% from ₹7,033 crore in the same period last year. On a sequential basis, the company's profit jumped 28% from ₹6,654 crore in the previous quarter.

For the financial year 2026, Infosys clocked revenue of $20,158 million, registering a growth of 3.1%.

Infosys has guided for revenue growth of 1.5–3.5% for FY27, below market expectations, indicating another year of muted expansion for the IT sector amid global macroeconomic uncertainties and the evolving impact of artificial intelligence (AI).

Parekh, however, said the company’s AI-led strategy is gaining traction and is expected to drive future growth.

“We are now driving AI growth, and as that becomes a larger part of our mix, we’ll see more traction,” he said.

The company has built partnerships with foundational model firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic, alongside its internal AI platform “Topaz Fabric”, to support enterprise transformation and software development.

When asked about Infosys losing some large deals to competitors, Parekh said the company remains disciplined and is avoiding contracts with weak economics or unsustainable pricin.

“We are very competitive in deals, we're very active in the market...these are one or two situations where when the economic profile doesn't match what we want to do, we are much more rigorous about it,” he said.

Addressing concerns around AI-led pricing pressure and potential revenue deflation in IT services, Parekh acknowledged some compression in certain segments but maintained that overall growth remains intact.

“We do see compression, and we showcased where the growth is and some of the services which witness the compression that you mentioned or the deflation. Overall, however, we had growth last year. So, while people may have models on this, the reality is our growth is very strong,” he said.

He added that macroeconomic headwinds, including geopolitical developments in the Middle East, impacted the fourth quarter but are now stabilising, which could support growth going forward.