TCS hires ahead of demand with a bigger bench and more subcontractors (opens the source in a new tab)
- TCS added 4,258 people in the quarter to reach 598,056, and says it is deliberately carrying a larger bench and more subcontractors in India and abroad to match skills to expected demand.
- Management said new deals are staffed first and deployed later. Higher visa costs played some part in the subcontracting rise, but not the main one.
- Quarterly deal value was $9.6 billion, excluding two large deals. Operating margin was 24% against a 26-28% goal, and annualised AI revenue reached $3.1 billion, over a tenth of the total.
- $3.1bn
- annualised AI revenue
- 24%
- margin vs 26-28% goal
Why it matters Hiring before contracts land is a bet that AI work is coming. Subcontractors keep it flexible, but a larger bench costs money until it is billed. For job-seekers, the demand is for AI and domain skills.
Watch next TCS called overall demand largely unchanged from last quarter. If new work deploys slowly, a paid but idle bench weighs on margins, and trimming subcontractors is the lever management itself named.
Source:The Hindu (free to read) ↗