Wipro’s Rishad Premji flags IT demand risks amid tariff-fuelled uncertainty

Rishad Premji, the executive chairman of Wipro , India’s fourth-largest IT company by revenue, showed a grim outlook for demand in India’s IT sector, as it is fraught with uncertainty fuelled by risks of tariffs imposed by the U.S. and the global geopolitical factors, at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, ahead of its first-quarter results on Thursday.

“Customers are getting acclimatised to living in a world that is uncertain. The (overall) environment remains uncertain. It has not gotten any worse, but has not gotten significantly better at the moment,” Premji said, quoted by Reuters. He added that clients have tightened non-essential or discretionary spending and are focusing more on cost-cutting projects enabled through technology.

According to a BCG report, in the face of recent tariff proposals by U.S. President Trump—in tandem with widespread economic uncertainty—IT leaders are prioritising truncating costs, along with doubling down on investments in AI to boost productivity and efficiently managing budgets. 44% of the surveyed IT leaders by BCG said that they have either paused or delayed a variety of discretionary IT projects, while almost 60% of the leaders believe that a recession is either imminent or already underway in 2025.

Earlier this week, Noida-headquartered HCLTech , the third-largest IT services company in India, stated that it anticipates a more upbeat FY26 compared to its peer, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which announced its results for the first quarter of FY26 last week.

While TCS management was dovish, indicating greater caution among clients with discretionary spends and ramp-up delays, HCLTech has seen a dip in its total contract value (TCV) of new bookings in the first quarter on a year-on-year basis, from $1.9 billion last year to $1.8 billion this year. Amidst the global trade and tariff uncertainty, HCLTech sees FY26 momentum to be positive and has, as a result, raised the lower end of its guidance.

According to an earnings preview by Equirus Securities earlier this month, India’s IT services sector is expected to report muted first-quarter earnings for FY26, as persistent macroeconomic uncertainty, global tariff concerns, and geopolitical volatility weigh on enterprise spending, particularly in discretionary and engineering, research, and development (ER&D) segments.