HCLTech reported flat net income of Rs 4,235 crore in the second quarter of 2025-26 (Q2FY26) compared to last year, even as its revenue was up 10.7 per cent to Rs 31,492 crore helped by financial services and technology business verticals.

Photograph: Dado Ruvic/Reuters

That also helped India’s third-largest information technology (IT) services exporter to raise the lower end of its guidance.

HCLTech now expects to grow between 4 per cent and 5 per cent on a constant currency basis for the full year, up from 3-5 per cent it projected in July.

On a dollar basis, revenue was up 5.8 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) and 4.6 per cent on a constant currency basis, which discounts the volatility of currency movements.

“Our artificial intelligence (AI) strategy is built on vertical lines and intellectual property spread across services and software.

“Over the past few years, we have made significant investments in building intellectual property (IP), deepening partnerships, and strengthening our go-to market strategy as we move from AI pilot to AI monetisation,” said C Vijayakumar, managing director and chief executive officer (MD & CEO) of HCLTech.

HCLTech also disclosed that its revenue from advanced AI is now more than $100 million, representing 3 per cent of its top line, becoming the first Indian IT services company to come out with that metric.

Accenture regularly makes public its revenue and deal pipeline from generative AI.

For HCLTech, advanced AI represents a cohort that includes industry AI solutions, AI engineering, agentic AI, physical AI, AI factory, and even its proprietary IPs for AI.

It excludes classical AI, machine learning and robotic process automation technologies.

The company’s total contract value for Q2FY26 was about $2.6 billion across service lines, verticals, and geographies without any mega deals.

It, however, signed two large deals, which were spillovers from Q1.

“The overall demand environment is more or less similar compared to the first quarter, with some areas looking better. Financial services and technology has good growth momentum while other sectors also saw increased bookings in the past few weeks.

“Auto continues to remain soft,” Vijayakumar added.

Financial services was up 11 per cent on a constant currency basis, and technology 13.9 per cent. Manufacturing and life sciences continued to remain weak, and were down 1.8 per cent and 3 per cent, respectively.

Margins improved 110 basis points (bps) sequentially to 17.4 per cent.