Anand Mahindra's Counter To Citrini Report That Triggered Global IT Stock Sell-off

In the backdrop of IT stocks recovering from a major sell-off earlier this week, Mahindra Group Chairman, Anand Mahindra, countered the glim picture forecasted by Citrini Report on the basis hypothetical AI led disruptions. 

The viral report that sent shockwaves through IT industry, setting expectations that corporations will sharply reduce or cancel outsourcing contracts.

This would directly see revenues at major Indian IT firms declining, IT exports shrinking, India’s balance of payments coming under strain & in its most dramatic passage, even the IMF is imagined to be in preliminary discussions with New Delhi.

Responding to the spooky future projected by the viral Citrini report, Mahindra tweeted, " But I can’t resist quoting Mark Twain who once said, “Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”

"Let me add another possible scenario to the debate. I do not claim to have a foolproof counter-scenario. The future remains magically uncertain. Markets are swinging because they are trying to price that uncertainty & in that sense, perhaps they are behaving rationally, AI will undoubtedly put pressure on IT services companies. Yes, they will need to become more efficient, reduce cost structures, rethink headcount models and move away from pure effort-based pricing toward outcomes & value delivery," he noted.

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Anand Mahindra Dispels Citrini Report's Hypothetical AI Disruptions

"But what if AI does not eliminate service providers & instead makes the best ones even more central? As AI systems scale across enterprises, someone still has to ensure secure data foundations; integration across legacy and cloud systems; governance, compliance and auditability; mission-critical reliability, " he said.

"Especially for medium and large enterprises, integration is messy, regulation is heavy, and failure costs are high. The differentiator may not be who supplies effort, but who can deliver outcomes, manage risk and help deliver ‘Scale at Speed’," he added.

While noting that his alternate scenario was not embedded in certainty, he stated that the future would belong to "services firms that pivot decisively toward AI orchestration and outcome-based delivery will remain extremely relevant."

Earlier, Zoho Corporation's Co-Founder Sridhar Vembu speaking to Republic Media Network's Editor-in-Chief, Arnab Goswami, had brushed off 'apocalyptic' fears that AI will replace human work, saying that despite rapid advances in AI, customers fundamentally prefer to do business with people rather than machines. He emphasised that India must leverage its youthful population which is adopting AI faster than many parts of the world. This rapid adoption, he said, represents India's real competitive edge in the global AI landscape.

At 11:06 am, Nifty IT was up 0.85% at 30,786.65. Among Nifty 50 gainers, HCL Technologies surged 3.7% to Rs 1,388.5. TCS increased nearly 3% to Rs 2,649.9, On the other hand, Tech Mahindra rose 2.5% to Rs 1,379.5. Infosys surged over 2% to Rs 1,302.2.