HCLTech uses AI to enhance jobs, not cut them: Chairperson Roshni Nadar

At HCLTech’s annual general meeting on Tuesday, chairperson Roshni Nadar Malhotra addressed growing concerns about job losses linked to artificial intelligence. According to the Times of India, she reassured shareholders that AI is being used to enhance, not replace, human effort, and that the company is focused on adapting roles rather than cutting them.

"AI is being introduced as a co-pilot to augment human capabilities, not replace them,” she said. “While some roles may be redefined, our focus is on reskilling and upskilling employees to take on higher value tasks. We're committed to a responsible AI adoption strategy that prioritises employee growth and job transformation over job reduction."

Her comments come at a time when the IT sector is seeing slower hiring. In the first quarter of FY26, net additions to staff across India’s top IT companies remained low, indicating a more cautious approach to recruitment. While a few companies reported slight gains, the overall trend suggests hiring has cooled.

HCLTech hired 1,984 freshers in the quarter ended June. Its total headcount stood at 223,151 that quarter, slightly down from 223,420 in the previous quarter. The attrition rate also saw a small drop from 13% in March to 12.8% in June.

Chief people officer Ram Sundararajan recently said that HCLTech aims to make 15% of its fresher intake focused on specialised and AI-related roles. He said that over the past two quarters, the company has also been developing an "elite cadre" of highly skilled employees. These roles come with significantly higher pay, up to three times more in services and four times more in software, than what is offered to regular freshers.

This strategy is in contrast to recent developments at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which last month announced the biggest round of layoffs in India’s IT sector to date, cutting about 2% of its global workforce or roughly 12,000 jobs.

Other IT companies, including Infosys, have also reduced staff—all trainees who didn’t clear internal assessments.