Infosys says 80,000 employees use AI coding tools. Why is it still hiring 20,000 graduates?

Infosys is expanding its artificial intelligence (AI) business while preparing to recruit another 20,000 graduates, even as 80,000 of its employees already use AI coding tools. Infosys' chief executive and managing director Salil Parekh expects AI services to account for almost half of the company's work within two to three years.

Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum 2026 on Tuesday, Parekh said AI services contributed more than 8% of Infosys' revenue in the previous quarter and were growing at a double-digit rate sequentially.

The company hired 20,000 college graduates last year and plans to recruit another 20,000 in the current financial year. The recruits are trained in AI before working with clients to deploy the technology and manage organisational change.

Of Infosys' approximately 300,000 employees, around 80,000 are already using coding tools on client assignments and internal projects.

New graduates are trained to help clients deploy AI systems and manage changes to existing business processes. This reflects a growing need for employees who can integrate AI into software development, modernise older technology and build AI agents.

However, the hiring figures do not establish how AI adoption will affect overall employment at Infosys. Parekh's projection concerns the proportion of work represented by AI services, not the share of employees who could be replaced by automation.

The business includes developing AI agents, coding and modernising legacy technology for clients. Parekh said AI services could account for 20% to 30% of the company's work within a few quarters if the current pace of growth continues.

"It (AI services) is growing at a fantastic pace. If you sort of extrapolate that by a few quarters, you already start to see that's 20-30 per cent of our work in a few quarters, and maybe in two or three years, almost half of our work," Parekh said.

The projection points to a change in how IT services companies deliver technology solutions, with AI increasingly involved in software development, maintenance and business transformation.

Responding to questions about the future of India's IT services industry as AI advances, Parekh said: "My own sense is it is good news for Infosys, and by sort of that same view, good news for the tech services in India".

Salil Parekh said enterprise clients were already making good use of AI services. With demand strong and computing capacity still being built, companies are examining whether cheaper tokens and alternative models can deliver comparable results at lower cost.

Businesses could increasingly consider open-weight models and less expensive alternatives rather than automatically selecting the newest systems.

For Infosys, this creates opportunities to help clients choose suitable models, manage computing expenses and integrate AI into existing operations. At the same time, lower costs could change the economics of delivering AI services.

Chips are "massively expensive" and face intense competition, he said. It is also unclear how long the computing capacity being built today will remain useful.

New foundation models using approaches different from those of the two major closed-model companies could make inference costs several times cheaper. That could change future demand for computing capacity and affect the returns on infrastructure investments.

"Today the demand is fantastic, but these are some of the risks that could play out," Parekh said, adding that the impact could become visible five to ten years later.

Parekh warned of a potential backlash against AI development, particularly in Western markets, as societies respond to its economic and social consequences.

He said the social response needed to be balanced against the economic drivers, which "may be out of sync right now".