HCLTech reported its Q2 FY27 results on October 12, 2026. The headline number is Advanced AI revenue of $219 million for the quarter, up from $171 million the quarter before. DQ India reports that is up 28.4% sequentially and 78% year on year in constant currency, an annualised run rate of $876 million. Overall revenue was Rs 35,620 crore, up 11.5% year on year, and net profit Rs 5,132 crore.
Two kinds of AI revenue
The useful part is how the company splits it. DQ India explains that AI-driven productivity inside existing contracts sits in the core services business, while "Advanced AI, meanwhile, includes newer offerings such as AI factories, physical AI, agentic AI, and advisory services." That split matters because productivity gains in existing contracts can lower what clients pay for conventional work. CEO C Vijayakumar put numbers on it, as quoted by Forbes India: "This quarter, our services business is growing 3 percent sequentially, which is more than 100 million dollars incremental revenue. Of this, $50 million roughly has come from advanced AI, and $50 million has come from the core business where we are gaining market share after addressing the AI-led deflation."
He was clear that the pricing pressure has not peaked. "I would say we are in the early phases of deflation. It's not that the deflation has really played out," he told the press conference, per DQ India.
The rest of the quarter
- Bookings: $3.26 billion of new deals, up 27% year on year, including a $1.14 billion Mercedes-Benz contract (DQ India).
- Agents in production: AI Force, the company's agentic software engineering platform, now lists more than 900 agents in its agent store, across software engineering, legacy modernisation, data engineering and IT operations.
- Margins: EBIT margin rose to 18.2%. Management attributed about 32 basis points of the sequential improvement to Advanced AI growth.
- People: a net 6,450 hires, taking headcount to 230,339, with 6,136 freshers onboarded. Forbes India reports roughly 10,000 freshers expected for the year.
- Guidance: Forbes India and DQ India report FY27 constant-currency revenue growth guidance of 2.5-4%, with the lower end raised from 1%.
The results came four days after the US Department of Labor suspended several large IT firms from the PERM green card programme. "Regarding the announcement by the U.S. government about the permanent labour certification program, referred to as PERM, we will comply with the directive from the Department of Labor and respond to any questions they may have," Chief People Officer Ramachandran Sundararajan said, per Forbes India.
What remains uncertain. "Advanced AI" is the company's own category, so it is hard to compare with peers who define AI revenue differently. The company also does not say how much core-services revenue deflation has already removed, only that net core growth was positive after it.
Analysis: This is one of the clearest public statements yet of the trade every Indian services firm faces. AI agents make the old work cheaper, so revenue per contract falls even as volume holds. Growth has to come from selling the new AI work. HCLTech's numbers suggest the two roughly balanced this quarter, at about $50 million each. Its CEO's warning that deflation is early means the new business has to keep compounding at this pace just to keep the total growing. For engineering leaders buying these services, it is also a negotiating signal: vendors now expect to pass on productivity gains.
HCLTech's Q2 FY27 results on October 12 showed Advanced AI revenue of $219 million (up 78% year on year) contributing about $50 million of incremental revenue, matched by about $50 million from core services after AI-led price deflation, which the CEO says is only in its early phases.