Infosys Ltd (INFY) Q2 2027 Earnings Call Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, greetings and welcome to Infosys Limited Q2-FI27 Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. And now in the conference, over to Mr. Sandeep Mahindro. Thank you, and over to Mr. Mahindro.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to this earnings call to discuss Info's Q2 F527 results. Joining us on this call is CEO and MD Mr. Saril Parekh, CFO Mr. Jayesh Sangrajka, along with other members of the leadership team. We'll start the call with some remarks by Saril and Jayesh on the performance of the company, subsequent to which we'll open up the call for questions. Please note that anything we say that refers to a future outlook is a forward-looking statement that must be read in conjunction with the risks that the company faces. A complete statement explanation of these risks is available in our filings with the SEC, which can be found on www.sec.gov. I would now like to pass on the call to Salil.

Thanks, Sandeep. Good evening and good morning to everyone on the call. Thank you for joining us. Our revenue growth for Q2 was at 1.5% year-on-year and 1.2% sequentially in constant currency terms. Our AI revenue was standout at 1% of our total revenue, growing 29% sequentially. Last quarter, it was at 8.2%. Our large deals were another standout at $5.2 billion for the quarter. This includes two mega deals. One of these mega-deals was for over $2 billion with a large international company for a period of seven years, and it's net new. This deal is expected to contribute over 1% of revenue growth in the coming financial year. The second mega-deal was for $1 billion for a renewal. The large-deal pipeline is healthy and includes some other mega-deals. Operating margin was stable at 21%. Free cash flow was strong at $928 million for the quarter. As enterprises adopt AI at scale, another quarter of strong growth in AI revenues is a recognition of a differentiated market positioning and client confidence. We are advising large global enterprises on their AI to continue to invest in deep domain and technology capabilities to bring new ideas and an integrated ecosystem to help businesses unlock AI value at scale. A premier food services company was processing over 10,000 invoices a day across siloed systems, which made approvals, disputes, and payment tracking difficult. A new solution had to leave existing legacy systems running undisturbed. We used AI to turn business requirements directly into working software and built a single invoicing platform alongside the old systems. The result was 40% faster time to market, 80% less rework, and 30% more defects caught before go live. In another example, by embedding AI agents into the software modernization lifecycle, we helped an education technology company modernize its aging platform with significantly lower risk and effort, achieving 40% effort reduction and a production-ready solution. As an ecosystem integrator, we continue to work closely with frontier model companies, including both open-weight and closed models. Our deep investments in Topaz Fabric help our clients seamlessly navigate between models to ensure token optimization and value realization. Infosys continues to gain market share, especially where economics of the program is aligned to the stakeholder interests. We remain the preferred AI strategy and deployment partner for our top clients. As AI remains central to enterprise transformation in the years ahead, Infosys is well-positioned to help navigate this shift. Based on our Q2 performance and revised outlook for the rest of the year, our revenue growth guidance is 1% to 2% year-on-year in constant currency terms. Our operating margin guidance remains the same at 20% to 22%. Thank you, and with that, let me hand it over to Jayesh for his comments.

Thank you, Salim. Good morning, good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining the call today. Let me begin with some comments about the broader environment. Client spending remains cautious, reflecting geopolitical tensions, inflationary pressures, and shifting technology priorities. Selective discretionary spend also tempered the usual Q2 seasonal growth. Against this backdrop, the key outcomes for the quarter were revenue growth was below our expectations, while AI-first revenue now accounts for 10.5% of our revenues. Operating margin was at 21%. Free cash flow was at $928 million, representing 113% of net profit. Large deal wins were at $5.2 billion with 62% net view. Let me now turn to performance drivers and what it means for Q2 revenues were at $5.145 million, an increase of 1.2% sequentially and 1.5% on year-on-year in constant currency terms. Acquisition contributed approximately 0.4% to sequential growth. Growth was below our expectations, volume was softer, and price increases were lower than anticipated amid high competitive intensity. Q2 AI, AI revenue is now 10.5% of total revenue, with strong sequential growth of over 29%. Clients are expanding enterprise-wide AI adoption, and we are investing in Topaz capabilities and partnerships to support this opportunity. H1 revenue growth was at 1.9% in constant currency terms and 2.1% in reported terms. We won 19 large deals in Q2 with a TCV of 5.2 billion, which is second highest quarterly TCV in last five years. Of this, 62% was net new. This includes an entirely net new 2 billion plus 7-year mega deal with a financial services plan. Transition is expected to begin in the second half of Q4. This deal is expected to contribute over 1% growth for the company in FY28. We also renewed a billion dollar mega deal with an existing financial services plan. Vertical-wise, we won seven deals in financial services, five in manufacturing, two each in communications, EURS, life sciences, and one in high-tech. Region-wise, we signed nine deals, each in North America and Europe, and one in the rest of the world. This takes H1's total large deal wins to $8.8 billion, which is a year-on-year growth of 28% with 62% net news. This will lay a solid foundation for future growth. Q2 operating margins were a 21% decline of 0.1% sequentially. Major components of the changes are as below. Headwinds of 70 basis points from sequential change in post-sales customer support. 20 basis points additional impact from acquisitions due to one month additional consolidation. Offset by tailwinds of 40 basis points from repeat appreciation, 20 from project maximum, and 20 basis points from higher calendar and working days. Additionally, normalization of 40 basis point impact from EURS program terminated in Q1 was offset by lower realization due to high competitive intensities. For H1, operating margins stood at 21% at the midpoint of a guided range. On-site mix reduced further to 22.6%, reflecting a sustained effort to help clients achieve cost reduction. For H1, on-site mix was down by 0.7%. Utilization, including trainees, improved by 0.5%, sequentially to 85.4%, demonstrating continued operational focus. Utilization, including trainees, decreased to 81.9% due to fresher energy. Net headcount increased by about 4,400 employees. We hired about 13,000 freshers in H1, in line with our target of approximately 20,000 for FY27. As mentioned, last quarter, we are rolling out compensation hikes to most of our employees effective October 26, with the next phase effective January 27. Attrition reduced to 12.7% versus 13% sequentially. We expect effective tax rates for the year to be in the range of 29 to 30%. Q2 yield on cash investment balance was at approximately 6.9%. DSO for the quarter was 64, down by 7 days compared to DSO last year. DSO including unbilled net of revenues was 77 days, down by 10 days as compared to last year. Free cash flow generation was strong at 928 million at 113% of net profit. We ended the quarter with cash-in-cash equivalent at 4.7 billion and a debt-free balance sheet. EPS for the quarter stood at 19.32 rupees, up 8.7 on a year-on-year basis. H1 EPS stood at 38.51 rupees, a double-digit growth of 11.7%. The board has announced an interim dividend of rupees 26, an increase of 13% compared to last year. Coming to verticals, we had robust large deal signings in financial services of more than 3.5 billion in Q2 and saw growth momentum across global and regional banks, cards and payments, capital markets, and Europe. Market sectors is expected to see slowdown due to increased rate hike expectations. Clients are prioritizing modernization and AI initiatives focused on cost efficiency and enhanced customer experience. They are also increasingly moving from AI experimentation to enterprise-wide adoption, with Enforces being the preferred AI partner across the vast majority of our stock clients. While geopolitical and interest rate uncertainty continues to drive cautious spending, strong deal wins and a healthy pipeline positions as well for a sustained growth. Manufacturing continues to face near-term pressures, including lower revenue from a large client. Middle East conflict, inflation, and tariffs are constraining discretionary spend and extending decision cycles. Competitive intensity remains high, particularly around AI-led productivity commitment. We are helping clients navigate uncertainty by driving initiatives across supply chain visibility, more efficient factories, and better processes. Clients are re-looking at the partners across the value chain, leading to vendor consolidation opportunities. The EURS segment continues to seize stable demand, with clients spending concentrated on targeted, high-impact programs rather than broad-based distribution initiatives. Cost optimization, vendor consolidation, core modernization, and AI-led transformation remains key priority. While competitive intensity remains high, we are investing in sales and domain capabilities and leveraging differentiated AI-led solutions to improve conversion. Large deal pipeline has grown significantly in the last one year, which provides future growth visibility. Sequential growth in retail segment was primarily impacted by lower third-party revenues. Additionally, subdued environment and macro uncertainty resulted in soft consumer demand, which has led to ramp-downs in some clients. Consumer tech and logistics are most impacted on account of supply chain disruptions. However, there are opportunities around large-cost takeouts as well as transformation programs towards AI. Expectations for AI-led productivity commitments are increasing competitive intensity and reshaping commercial models. Communication segment is witnessing a challenging demand environment with clients maintaining tight control over discretionary signs and prioritizing cost efficiency. AI-led driven productivity expectations are putting pressures on pricing and delivery models. While cost-take-offs and wonder consolidations remain the primary drivers, some opportunities are emerging in transformation, legacy organizations, and AI-led programs. We are strengthening domain capabilities and execution speeds to help clients scale AI and capture these opportunities. High-tech segments were impacted by lower third-party revenues as well as reduced spend in a few large clients due to cost pressures emanating from budget cuts. Clients remain focused on cost control with hardware spending constrained by macro incentives. We are revising our 4-year revenue growth guidance to 1-2%, reflecting softer than expected H1 performance and our updated assessment for the rest of the year. The lower end assumes further deterioration in macro, while the upper end assumes improvement. FS and EURS are expected to grow higher than the company average. Our assumptions regarding acquisitions of the large deal European manufacturing client and the shift towards offshore delivery remains broadly unchanged. Our operating margin guidance is 20 to 22%. Edge 2 margins will be impacted by compensation hikes, softer revenue seasonality, continued sharing of AI-driven productivity benefits, and ramp-up of large deals. These headwinds will be partly offset by initiatives under Project Maximus. In summary, while growth in the first half was lower than expectations, Deal signing during the period and a strong large deal pipeline with few mega deals provide a solid foundation for future growth. With that, we can open up for the question. Thank you.

Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and 1 or detach on telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and 2. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question.

Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The question is from the line of Kumar Rakesh from BNP Paraba Mitchell Fund.

Please go ahead.

Hi, good evening. Thank you for taking my question. My first question was, this year, understandably, you had multiple impacts from macroeconomy, offshoring, and client-specific issues as well. Now, as we go into the next year now, especially with the last deal also which you announced, there hopefully will be no large offshoring impact the way it is having this year. We'll have additional contribution from the meta deal as well. Now, assuming Cetra's Paribas, right, I'm assuming everything else being equal is a great work-building model, but a terrible way of planning a business. But just humor me for a minute. Based on the deals that you have logged in so far and the visibility that you have on the flux of your existing deals, Salil, do you think you can see next year organic growth, which is flat this year? Do you see some recovery? The purpose of this question is not for you to give a guidance or anything next year, just to understand if the headwinds are still emerging or you think that we are largely passing.

Rakeh, this is Salil. I think we feel with the two big sort of movements of this quarter, first on the AI, which is looking very strong at 29% growth quarter on quarter, And that builds on something that has been going on, strong growth over the last few quarters, and the mega deal win that we shared, which gives us support for next year, plus the pipeline that we see on the mega deals and large deals overall. We feel good that the organization is in good shape in next year.

Thanks, Zalil, for that. And next question, second question was around margin. So, we are consistently running a high level of subcontractors. So, what is the business need to run this at a higher level, and what is stopping us to bring it down to the pre-COVID levels, which used to be about 6-odd percent?

So, Anitin, this is Jayesh here. You know, if you look at what we have been directing is there's an endeavor to bring our subcontractor costs down over a period of time. It has come down and then slightly it has inched up again on the back of, you know, it is a factor of at what utilization you are, at what the volume growth comes in, what kind of skills that you need and what geography that you need, right? And sometimes some of these programs where you need them may be short-term, immediate kind of a demand, and that's where the subcontractor comes in. But our endeavor is to keep it in the tap, keep it, you know, within a broad band, and that's where we are right now.

So my understanding is right if I see that it's a trade-off between running higher utilization and running higher subcontracting costs, and may not necessarily be margin imperative if we bring that down also.

So, yeah, I mean, if you are able to bring the subcontractor down by one person, we have kind of stated in the past, it gives you around, you know, 15 to 20 basis points on margin. So, yeah, to that extent, there is, you know, opportunity, but it will never come down to zero. So, even in the best years, we've been in the range of, you know, five, six percent. So, you know, that's a delta that we have here.

Thank you, Dr. for answering my question.

Next question is from Lionel Diane Bergen from 2D Cohen. Please go ahead.

Hi. Good evening. Thank you. I was hoping to isolate what changed most in the growth guidance revision versus last quarter. So you gave a lot of details. You talked about volume and price, high tech and retail as verticals that have seen pressure. But if we look at the midpoint of the growth guidance for 2027, Can you unpack what may be most different by, like, the largest drivers?

If you look at the last couple of years, we have been getting, you know, price increase, or, you know, RPP increase, as we call it. If you look at what we are seeing today is, you know, the pricing pressure on the back of competitive intensity, which has increased in the last, you know, couple of quarters. And therefore, that pricing expansion that we are expecting at the beginning of the year that has not materialized, so that's one impact for sure. We saw softer than expected revenue growth or a volume growth in the quarter, so that was the second reason. And slower discretionary spend in some of the sectors, especially the retail and high-tech that we called out. So those are the three specific reasons that led to lower than our expected revenue in this quarter. Again, when you look at the overall guidance for the year, I would want you to remind that there were certain factors that impacted our overall revenue. When you compare that to the rest of the peers, we had a lower – we expect a lower revenue from offshoring. There was a large deal that we walked out of or we did not pursue because it did not meet our return expectations. So those were the things that impacted our overall guidance, even at the beginning of the year and as we continue to deliver this year. You know, both of them put together were in the range of 1.8 to 2% impact for the year. So that is the overall guidance in my mind. And as we look forward, like Salil said, we have a strong deal pipeline with a couple of mega deals in it. We have already signed $5.2 billion with 62% net new. So that gives us, you know, a stronger belief in the year that we see coming up.

Okay, that's helpful. Thank you. And then my follow-up is on the AI-driven productivity. So when we think about a like-for-like basis, would you say that has worsened since the start of the fiscal year, meaning clients are demanding more productivity in just the past six months, Or is it more so just getting more prevalent across your client portfolio as AI program scale?

Hi, this is Salil. I think what we see is the effect or the expectation on the productivity is about similar. And we also see some parts of our portfolio have already been exposed to it and others are getting exposed to it. There is broader sort of uptick, so as revenue has also gone from 8% or 10%, there's just more awareness of this, especially in some industries, and so we see that coming into play, but it's not, the intensity doesn't seem to have changed.

Okay, thanks a lot. Thank you.

The question is from line of view, Geshagarwan, from HSBC Securities. Please, go ahead.

Just a couple of questions. Firstly, you guys did well in banking, and it's been a similar result from most companies, and high-tech has been weak. So, how to read this for you and at the sector level? Because both these sectors are leading tech adopters. So, is this a second round of deflation at high-tech, and can it spread to other sectors, or banking strength is more relevant and positive for other sectors?

So what we saw there is first banking, financial services is done well. Then we have energy utilities is done well. Then we have parts of manufacturing, what we also saw in healthcare. So it's a broader base, multiple sectors which are looking quite strong. And then we have high-tech, which essentially, I would say for the most part, is focused on one client in the US. And then we have retail, which is seeing a change in the segment vis-a-vis the client footprint that we have. So, we see actually there's a lot more industries or sectors which are showing good traction, good adoption of the AI, and also good discretionary like financial services, energy utilities. And we think that that's more of what is likely to happen across the entire set of industries.

Got it. Got it. And just a quick one. I know it is less relevant now, but for the next two quarters now, only five months are left. So, any potential risk to the midpoint of the guidance or any push-pulls you can talk about?

You know, as you know, we are entering the seasonally weaker part of the year. There will be photos that will impact the H2. There will be, you know, lower working days and all of those implications, all of those impacts. So, that will definitely be there. And like always, we don't have one model that leads to guidance, right? There are always multiple models that lead to multiple points of the guidance. At the lower end of the guidance, we have baked in higher uncertainty. At the upper end of the guidance, we have baked in an improvement in the environment. At this point in time, we can't really say where we will end up. I mean, that's how things play out.

Thank you.

Next question is from the line of Surinder Goyal from Citi. Please go ahead.

Yeah, hi. Good evening. Could you just talk a bit about the nature of work in this net new mega-deal, and does it also have any margin implications during the ramp-up phase? Thanks.

What we are seeing is it's a business transformation opportunity where we are really using AI to make sure that all of that tech and ops work is better service. The approach is really taking some real benefits from AI to apply into it. This was a situation where our teams worked directly with the client teams to shape how this is being developed in terms of the opportunity and the resulting deal itself. We don't see any real margin impact on the transition in this year at all on this one.

Okay, and does it involve asset and people takeover as well?

Sure, there are no asset takeovers.

There will be some people takeover. Again, we don't really give too much detail deal by deal, but yeah, on an overall basis, there are no asset takeovers.

Understood. Thank you.

Next question is from Lionel Jonathan Lee from Yuchen Hotels.

Please go ahead.

This quarter, currency and working days contributed about 60 basis points on Maximus, contributed only 20 bps. With the October and January wage hikes, acquisition, amortization, and continued pricing pressure hitting the back half, what would keep fiscal 27 margins above the 21% midpoint, and what would push it below? And how much runway is left on Maximus? And if those savings slow, which other levers can hold margins near that midpoint?

So, Jonathan, if you look at what we have delivered over the last multiple years, we've been able to run a ship with a steady margin. FI25, we had expansion of margin FI26 and H1 of FI27. We've been able to maintain the margins at 21% despite investing in business, Whether it is sales and marketing, whether it is building our AI talent or investment in technology, and all of that we have assumed and absorbed within the margin that we have declared. Having said that, if you recall at the beginning of the year, I did call out that the acquisition that we have made will have 50 basis points impact on our margins overall. So that's a headwind from a whole year perspective. As we look forward in the H2, we will have compensation rollout. A large part of that will be in effective October and the second phase will be effective January. So we have headwinds coming from compensation. We have headwinds coming from acquisition related amortization, et cetera, the seasonally slower part of the year. So, yeah, we'll be able to partially offset that through Project Maximus, but at this point in time, for the year, we are very confident of the guidance that we have given.

Thank you. And then on the verticals, look, high-tech and retail both softened this quarter. Obviously, high-tech tied to a U.S. client ramp-down. Retail hurt by lower discretionary spending in smaller third-party. Can you size each impact and say whether it's fully run-through, or should we expect further ramp-downs in the back half? And do you see the weakness spreading to other clients in either sector, or is it isolated?

So, Jonathan, I mean, we don't really give a vertical specific, you know, guidance or forecast from that perspective. At this point in time, what we have guided for is, you know, one to two percent on an overall basis, you know, in terms of revenue growth for the year. And just to clarify, the impact of all the headwinds that we see has been baked in the guidance.

Next question is from the line of Ankur Ruddha from JPMorgan. Please, go ahead.

Hey, thank you for taking my questions. Just a couple of questions on pricing. The pricing pressure you mentioned, is this broad based across clients or is this very client specific or sector specific? And what kind of incremental pricing assumptions are you making in for the second half of the year?

Hi, Ankur. This is Salih. Let me start off. So on the pricing, what we are seeing is that across the client base, there is demand or request requirement, which is focused on productivity benefits from the AI that are getting passed on. And then we see also sometimes those are beyond the sort of thresholds of economic return that we are looking at. So what we are seeing in the ones while we are taking on the bulk of the deals, there are some small number where we see that is even higher. On the ones that we are taking on, we see, because of that productivity push, the pricing pressure coming through across in different clients across the industries. And I'm good just to add to your second question.

You know, at the lower end of the guidance, we have assumed similar to slightly deterioration on the pricing. At the upper end, we have assumed an improvement.

So midpoint is no change in pricing. You basically assume the same pricing continues?

I mean, it's very difficult to call out each factor that will relate to which point of guidance. As far as I always say, there are multiple models that lead to multiple points of guidance, right? So, directionally, lower end is deterioration and upper end would be improvement.

Understood. Just a follow-up question was on the margin profile of your AI revenues. How is that versus the rest of the portfolio now that has grown to 10%? And secondly, if you can just comment also on the large deal we have signed and pursuing, we've mentioned a couple of mechaneels as well. How should we think about the margin pricing profile of those contracts?

So on the large deal sign, the margin profile is similar to what we have signed. So we have not seen that this set of large deals, and especially on the mega deal, is any different from what we've seen in the past. And we've also mentioned that in general, we've been quite disciplined about the contracts we sign in terms of the economic guideline or return. Similar to that point on the pipeline, the couple of the mega deals or the large deals in that pipeline, we are seeing similar margin profile, so we feel comfortable to look at how that plays out.

And finally, if you comment about the AI revenue, is the margin similar?

Sorry, yeah. On the AI revenue, we don't share externally the margin of that and the overall of the company. Having said that, we are getting good pricing on those deals. We feel confident that the value that we are showing, that the clients are seeing it. And also, we are very competitive in the market in terms of building the capacity because that capacity is at a slightly different cost point also. But overall, we don't look external. We don't share externally the margin of that revenue, but as Jayesh said earlier, the overall company margin, we remain quite comfortable with the guidance on that.

Understood. Thank you. And best of luck.

Thank you.

Next question is from the line of James Friedman from Sasquatch International. Please go ahead.

Hi. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity, Salil. Thank you for the use cases in AI and your prepared remarks. They're quite illustrative. Very illustrative. My question is, could you share some perspective on whether those are informing and helping you win these large transactions? Are they part of the large transactions? Are they typically shorter duration? Any perspective on the AI dimension from this perspective would be helpful. Thank you.

On that, what we see is any large transaction today has either some elements of AI or, in the example of a couple of our large deals we gave color on, it's really a business transformation which is driven by AI. So, those examples are significant value contracts in themselves, and in general, the AI is forming part of almost every large transaction that we're looking at today, where there's an impact on customer service levels, improvement in quality internally, driving growth for the client, doing the cost optimization, Or modernizing technology, putting agents in for processes and so on. So in any of those business areas, there is an impact of the AI.

And then in terms of how the go-to-market on the AI side has evolved for the company, Can you share with us your perspective as to how you think the services like Foundry are resonating in the market and how the strategy in the go-to-market on AI has evolved? Thank you.

So there we have an approach which is of multiple components. So first, there is a group which is working very actively on building the partnerships, especially with the leading AI companies, the frontier companies, the open-weight model companies, and other in the AI infrastructure, AI coding areas. Second is within each of our segments, we have a dedicated group of individuals who work with our client teams who are infusing the AI into their discussions to bring the best thinking on what can be done with that AI impact for that client. And there are different industries, have a different, like, approach within that, which processes are being impacted, what outcomes are being looked at. Then, in the delivery organization, in each of our large groupings of service lines, we have specialists who are very skilled on AI, and then a group which is more dedicated across all of the service lines. Then we have people who have been trained and certified on the different model technologies and on different capabilities with our partner companies. And then finally, we have the architecture group, which looks at how the AI is being used in a client situation for transformation, even if part of it is being done at the first phase, but the overall picture is being looked at. And we have examples where, like, for a bank in Europe, for a global company in the U.S., we made these, telco in the U.S., we made these sort of changes, AI outlook, then parts of it getting implemented. Fusion across the whole company within Infosys, which is interacting with different elements of the client.

Thank you so much, Suhail.

Thank you. Next question is from the line of the board, single, from Nuama Institutional Equities.

Yeah, hi. Thanks for taking my question.

We were sorry to interrupt you. Can I request to come in about the reception area? Your voice is breaking.

Yeah, sure. Is it better now? Am I audible?

Yes, yes.

Sorry for that. Yeah, hi, sir. On the AI front, you mentioned that AI revenue is now at almost 10% of the revenue, growing at 29% Q&Q. So, just wondering if there are numbers that we can provide in terms of what is the Y1Y growth rate that we are looking at this number? The reason that I'm asking in the context here is that, is it the right way to look at this AI revenue as a new revenue, which basically keeps on adding up and can possibly mitigate the deflation in the existing legacy books that we are seeing, just like we saw in the digital cycle. Eventually, when the AI revenue becomes, or the growth in the AI revenue becomes large enough to compensate the depreciation and revenue, that is where we can expect the overall growth to getting positively impacted by AI against the negative impact right now. So, any color on that, and if there is a number that you can provide in the viral growth in the AI path?

I think like how you describe the approach is exactly the evolution of the market. We see that the AI percentage is becoming larger and larger. We are not sharing externally the year on year, but I think you can make some assumptions on that based on the data we have already provided. It's a very strong growth year on year that is visible today. We feel, so we know this is new revenue. Some of the examples I shared were things which we were not able to do that without AI. Some of the business transformation also new revenue. So the revenue of 10.5% AI we are sharing is new revenue. So the way you described it, that is the path that is growing, and that really is the place where the maximum attention of the company and the people is. It's falling within that hexagon that we have described of the six areas, and the more we invest and scale up on the capability, partnerships, and the client work, the more we will see that continuing. And at 29% Q on Q, with the assumptions you can make for year on year, that's exactly how we see this scaling out and addressing what we are seeing in the AI productivity on the other piece of the revenue.

If I can just add to what Sanil was saying, the first number that we had published was on our AI day for Q3 of last year, which was five and a half. So, that's a close proxy you can get.

Quartet, yeah, I think I was trying to use that. Maybe that was missing one quarter, but I think reasonable assumption to make on that part is that. So yeah, I think that number will make loose. Really helpful, Jayesh, on that. Only the second question is on the legacy part of the book. Now, I know I'm kind of taking a long shot here, but the kind of deflation that we are seeing in our legacy book, which of course the entire industry is facing, is there a broad number of broad calculations that we might have done or that we might have done? Okay, sir, this is the part of our order book that has already undergone deflation, and this is the remaining order book that is yet to go under deflation in terms of renewal of contracts, in terms of new contracts that we've gone through. Is it possible to calculate and maybe share that number, or am I asking for a moment here?

Looking at it, we have a fairly detailed sort of work inside the company, but I'll give you a little bit of a color. If you look at projects or contracts which are, I'd say, smaller, below $50 million in our case, and they could be for one or two years' duration, typically if they are being signed now or in the recent past, that is already built in the benefit of the AI. So that is already in the mix, if you will. Then if you have the larger things which are multi-year, then depending on where it is in the cycle of the renewal or discussion with the client, if that has already happened, then a vast majority of the benefit of the AI productivity is already baked in. If it's not happened, it's not. So, that's how we have built an internal model of that, but we have not got anything beyond that sort of color that I can share externally.

Got it, got it. That was helpful.

So, one thing I would add, sorry, is that at the end, it's a finite period. It is not an ongoing thing. That is the main, I would say, the element there, because that is finite, whereas the AI growth is secular, At least in our minds right now, looking quite open.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sure we all hope that that's a finite number that we are dealing with right now. So, sure. Thanks for your views on that. Just one last question. Again, kind of a very, or should I say, a pointed question. You mentioned that we are facing a lot of pricing pressure because of the high competitive intensity. The remark has actually been green to say by a couple of other players also in the industry. So, is it a pricing competition that we have seen across the board, across the deals, and across the type of deals? Is it pertaining to really a few players which are being aggressive, or are we seeing the basically high competitive intensity from almost all the players in the industry, regardless of their size and capabilities?

I think what we see today is there is definitely some of our peers who are putting, I would say, more intense effort into the pricing pressure, but it is also across the board because of the environment. And also, the discussion on AI productivity, if you're talking with clients today on large programs, it's a three- or five-year outlook. So, there, small changes and assumptions could make big differences in year three, four, and five. And so we are seeing some companies are taking that sort of a view, whereas what we shared earlier, I think we are being a little bit more disciplined in what we can see that the benefit of the productivity can be realized, as opposed to just imagining what can be realized.

Got it. Thank you so much for taking my question, Steve, and I wish you all the best.

Thank you. Next question is from Randall Cora from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Hi. Congrats on great deal win numbers. My question is actually around the conversion of the deal win into revenues. If you look at our fiscal 25, we ended the year with almost $6.6 billion of net new deal wins, which translated into certain growth in fiscal 26. If you were fiscal 26, that number was probably upwards of $8 billion, but that did not translate into, you know, a better revenue growth from FI27 perspective, probably because of the, you know, weakness in discretionary and leakages in your existing book of business. So is there any indication to say that these leakages kind of have peaked out and from here on are not likely to deteriorate further and any improvement in conversion ratio could drive, you know, further better revenue growth in future?

I think the way you described it is how we are seeing it, which is that there is a significant amount of net new which is getting converted. That conversion ratio is about similar in terms of the year duration. In terms of the leakages, what I would call it slightly different is the productivity impact. So there, what we had that discussion in an earlier question, which is some parts of the portfolio have already witnessed it. So obviously, those parts are not going to witness it again in that same way, if at all. So we feel quite good now that the next year, that's why we were sharing that from the mega deal, we estimate something like a 1% revenue growth outlook of that one deal that we have signed in Q2. And what we see in the pipeline, we see more of that in this year in terms of potential deals and then the translation onto the revenue into the next year. So we feel quite good that the conversion ratio is stable and the productivity while it's going on. At least some part of the portfolio has already witnessed it.

Got it. My second question is a follow-up on this one on productivity part. I know different companies will have their own different business mix and will go through their own cycle based on where their clients are in the journey of adoption and deployment of AI. Based on where we stand today, like, you know, where are we in the cycle? Let's say if you look at the cloud and digital cycle, there were two years of such phase, right, that where we kind of saw some deflation on existing book and then, you know, digital revenues ramped up very, very rapidly. And I've been listening from various experts that the cycle in AI is even more compressed compared to the digital cycle. So based on that corollary, where would you position in terms of in the cycle compared to the last time in cloud and digital?

First, I would say that what your experts are saying is probably correct. But from our perspective, what we are seeing is that the way that the AI is moving, it's the first part, which is how much are you getting of the new. That part with the hexagon and with the 29% and the growth, I think we have got a pretty decent handle on it, and we feel quite good that that will continue in that way. For the second part, we have some understanding of the productivity benefits. We've also been a little bit disciplined on some of the deals. So that also has a play in it. And then, as we were discussing earlier, part of the portfolio has already seen it. So overall, we feel that the outlook is quite good in the overall mix of where the business is. We don't have at least to share externally like a number of, you know, where are we, in which year and when it will happen, but we feel pretty positive as we look out into the next financial year.

Got it. Last question, Sahil, on new AI revenues. I know that you would not give any externally, any numbers and margins, but is it fair to say that, you know, from a productivity perspective, from a profit per employee perspective, these will be higher than the company average?

What we can say is that, so in the six groups of the AI and the hexagon of ours, each has slightly different approach in terms of how it's being done with the client. So what we are seeing is the client is realizing the value of some of that, and what we are also seeing is some of that work is the business transformation driven by AI. That is getting, I would say, much better sort of value from the client, and that will continue on, and we will also do within the hexagon more of that work. You know, that's like a shift within the mix itself that we will be trying that. Now, the cost of that, which is what your sort of question then gets back to, is also we are competitive in the market where we are finding that we are scaling the teams, we are training our people. So that part is also something we are, I would say, managing quite okay. And therefore, the economics of that business are pretty decent, but I would not say more than that.

Got it. Thank you. All the very best.

Next question is from the line of Sandeep Shah from Equitas Securities. Please, go ahead.

Thanks for the opportunity. One of your larger peers have called out the AI-led deals leads to lower tenure.

Sandeep, for each interrupt, can I request you to speak through the handset, please? Yes, go ahead.

Yeah. So, one of your peers has called out that the AI-led deal has a lower tenure and faster conversion in the revenue. So, can you give some qualitative outlook whether we are witnessing an uptick in the deal velocity below $50 million, which we do not disclose in the TCE?

So there, I think what we are seeing is that the AI deals are like different types of deals within the hexagon, and we are not specifically calling out whether that's a shorter or a longer. But any of the large deals what we are doing today has a significant part of the AI in it. So it gives you some color, but we are not sort of calling out specifically what you call the velocity and the duration.

Okay, okay. And there is just a clarification regarding the manufacturing client. And is it fair to assume the bulk of the impact of close to 1% impact, which we are calling out in the guidance for the full year, will come in the fourth quarter? And that could also lead to a lower third-party cost because the third-party cost in the first half is just similar to the last year at closure to 7.4. And second, if that happens in the fourth quarter of this year, it may have a full year impact in the next year.

So, Sandeep, yes, the large portion of the impact will come in Q4, which is what we had clarified. Beyond that, we do not really call out client-specific contours of the deal in terms of how much of that is third party, how much of that is not. So, I wouldn't be able to comment on that.

Okay. And just the last thing, the press release mentions that our AI-led strategy stands out versus peers. So, Salim, you might have partly explained this, but what is one or two things which differentiate to state that the strategy stands out versus earlier, which leads to ramp up in the growth in AI-led revenues?

So here what we are seeing is there are some elements of the approach. So first, we have a few months ago in the Investor Day shared the strategy we put in place where we see the addressable market of 300 billion over the next several years in six broad areas. And we feel that is one of the more distinct ways of looking at it. And the AI revenue what we are sharing is coming from those six areas, which is a net new. The second is we have built the Topaz Fabric, which is, at least in my mind, very distinct from what anyone else has. We have the ability for clients to come and use it. We have several clients that have implemented it, many clients that are in the process of scaling that up. We have the ability in that Topaz fabric where we have 15 different foundation models where a client can choose different foundation models, even the different versions, so you can do the sonnet or you can do the fable and pick the one that is most suitable for the task of which it is. They're looking at the most token-efficient cost. They can then do the work in a way where the data is protected in a sovereign way in their environment, which is very distinct from what anyone else is doing. Then we have the partnerships, which are very strong with all of the frontier model companies, plus several of the data and cloud companies with the focus on AI. And then we have the certification and training, which is quite extensive within our system. We are building out the FDE capability. And then if you look at the analyst ratings, we are the market analyst ratings. We are the leading places in most of the ratings on side of the AI. So all in all, I feel it's probably the most comprehensive AI sort of approach that there is. But of course, being inside, we feel that, but we also see with 29% Q on Q growth, there is some sort of client comfort on that as well.

Yeah, thanks. Thanks for the detailed answer and all the best.

Thank you very much. Next question is from line of Keith Backman from BMO and Company. Please go ahead.

Hi, thank you very much. Could you talk about, are you seeing any signs or are customers actually insourcing more? That is to say, the advent of AI, is it making it easier to take more deals in-house rather than going to third-party providers like yourself? Are you seeing that any in your order book?

What we see is over the past time horizon, there are instances where some companies or clients take a view to in-source, pre-AI and with AI. We don't see a difference because of AI. So typically other factors trigger that at some time or the other. And equally, in many cases, we see also with AI that things which were done internally, there's an interest for clients to have us do it, but take on the task and use AI to do it more efficiently. So we don't see a pattern that more insourcing is happening because of the AI.

Okay. My second question is broader than that is just how do you see the competitive landscape changing in terms of the second half of calendar year 26, but more broadly into calendar year 27? And the reason I ask is your results were different than, say, a large provider like Accenture. And so what I think a lot of investors are trying to do is understand what's leading to Infosys having weaker results than a company like Accenture. And I'm extracting out M&A from that equation, but any thoughts on how, more broadly, the competitive dynamics may be changing today and as you look forward into calendar year 27? Thank you.

So one of the things we've noticed is, you know, if you look back over the last two or three years, we've had a consistent, even if low growth, but growth every year, organic year on year. Whereas some of our peers have had years which have been negative and positive. I don't know specifically about the company you mentioned. So that sometimes gives a different sort of complexion on what is going on with that. In addition, what we see is that our capability and strength is very much focused on the AI becoming real within a client organization, and that is the strength of Infosys even on the past cycles of the technology. We have, at least in our instance, a couple of things which are more distinct. For example, with the changes in the global environment, we have seen offshore percentages higher. That, even though the volume remains more similar, the revenue looks a little bit different. And we've also had, which we've shared, that we've been a little bit more disciplined on some client situations where we've chosen not to take some deals where the economics didn't make sense. So when I put all of that in the mix, I see that our competitive differentiation is pretty strong. We also see that the way we compete when we are head-to-head with many of our peers on AI, we seem to have a tremendous advantage in what sort of dynamics we are seeing. So, that's how we would see it with this sort of large mega deal that we've just announced. We see that in addition to the AI giving us some support for the growth next year as well. Keith, if I just add.

Okay, thank you. You know, but both the factors, the offshoring and the large deal, a Europe manufacturing client that we did not pursue beyond a point, we had called out that both of them put together would roughly mean 1.8 to 2% for the year. So when you compare with anybody else, I think you should keep that in mind.

Yeah, fair enough. Okay, thank you. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll take that as our last question. I'll now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.

Thank you. That was really incredible, the questions. Thank you for that. We are really happy with the work we're doing on AI. To summarize, the 29% growth, the distinct approach, 10%, 10.5% of our revenue. That's really the primary focus, to make sure that that secular trend is something that we lead and we believe that's what we're doing today. We also have a good traction on mega deals, the second aspect of what is driving growth, and we can see the conversion coming through now, especially as we see in many ways some parts of a portfolio have already seen some of the AI productivity impacts. And then we have good headcount growth of 4,000 people in the quarter and continued focus on recruitment at college, 8,000 in the quarter and 20,000 for the full year. And we do remain quite selective in terms of the economics of the contracts we're pursuing. So all of that put together gives us a pretty strong feeling about what we see coming in the future with our business. Thanks very much for all your questions and for participating.

Thank you very much, members of the management. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Infosys Limited, we conclude today's conference call. Thank you all for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you all.