A Challenger Mindset Transforms HCLTech’s Approach to Financial Services to Achieve Success Through AI

HCLTech hosted industry analysts and advisers on May 13 at the ASPIRE at One World Observatory in New York City. Throughout the afternoon, HCLTech executives, leaders and clients spoke at length about the company’s financial services positioning, direction and activities amid disruption from AI and digital acceleration.

Introduction

During the event, HCLTech leaders consistently highlighted how the company’s culture, deep engineering expertise and unique approach to AI set it apart from its peers and strengthen client relationships. These points were echoed by two financial services clients during a panel discussion. Differentiation remains a challenge for all vendors, yet HCLTech emphasized that although the company may not be different in what it does, it is unique in its approach.

Balancing risk, innovation and talent investment

The event began with a presentation by HCLTech CEO and Managing Director C Vijayakumar (CVK), who gave an overview of the company’s current positioning and future plans. The session centered on HCLTech’s evolution toward an engineering and platform-based mindset and its transformation from a traditional model that no longer remains relevant amid a changing balance between revenue and talent volumes. To adapt its business model and better align itself with the needs of clients and the market, CVK announced HCLTech’s goal of doubling its revenue with only half of its previous headcount.

 

As roles within the organization have begun to change with the integration of new technology, including AI, HCLTech has had to begin transforming the company’s structure. Revenue per employee has always been a KPI for HCLTech to ensure the company decouples revenue growth from headcount growth. HCLTech’s attention to the metric is reflected in its ability to maintain peer-leading levels relative to Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Wipro IT Services (ITS), whose trailing 12-month (TTM) revenue per employee was $59,304, $60,338, 49,692 and 45,270, respectively, in 1Q25 — each below HCLTech’s figure of $62,360.

 

It is a lofty goal to deliver the same quality of service at the same speed with fewer people, even with the support of AI tools and strong partnerships. To achieve this goal, HCLTech will rely on its culture and talent, combined with its strategic technology investments including AI, digital and software solutions. CVK emphasized that HCLTech’s culture is deeply embedded in the company’s DNA, making it difficult for competitors to replicate. This culture fosters strong client trust and deepens relationships, as it consistently comes through in conversations with clients. By building on this foundation, HCLTech effectively leverages AI technologies to strengthen existing partnerships and secure new projects.

 

HCLTech’s client management and retention strategy reflects the company’s ability to embed itself within the client environment and serve as a key partner. HCLTech’s deep relationships have enabled the company to better identify and address client challenges as well as opportunities to recommend transformations to clients. As complexity increases across the technology landscape, HCLTech has had to evolve its approach to both new and existing clients. Client willingness to adopt AI tools can be tempered by concerns over managing multiple platforms and the associated risks.

 

As a result, HCLTech often takes a more measured and gradual approach with new clients, focusing on building trust and easing them into transformation. In contrast, with existing clients, HCLTech adopts a more assertive strategy — leveraging its deep understanding of their technology landscapes and industry-specific needs to drive adoption and deliver results more rapidly.

 

CVK closed his presentation by emphasizing the need to be proactive and carry a “paranoid mindset” to stay ahead of technology trends and remain relevant. HCLTech’s ability to build strong relationships with clients enables the company to guide transformations, equipping clients with the tools and services to be proactive and effectively leverage technology across their organizations. With a greater focus on outcomes, HCLTech’s positioning and relationships with clients provide a foundation for the company to grow its wallet share with clients as it balances risks with innovation and invests for future growth.

Demand for modernization and AI influences client needs within the financial services space

Srinivasan (Srini) Seshadri, HCLTech’s chief growth officer and Financial Services lead, discussed the company’s 50,000-person Financial Services practice, which as HCLTech’s largest industry group generated $2.9 billion in revenue during FY25. During the presentation, Seshadri emphasized five main features of the company’s Financial Services practice that help it drive value for clients: engineering DNA, outcome orientation, challenger mindset, verticalized services and innovation. The benefit of verticalized services stood out to TBR. A few years ago, HCLTech moved all its service lines under one vertical, creating a unified go-to-market strategy, enabling it to deepen its client relationships and positioning around transformation. As vertical and industry expertise does not provide differentiation on its own, HCLTech took it a step further, pairing its industry experience with service lines to better communicate its portfolio and drive value. Taking this approach pulls together HCLTech’s strengths and drives outcomes.

 

Key items influencing HCLTech’s Financial Services activities include adapting to changing regulations, increasing use of Global Capability Centers, and creating and implementing composable products. Aligning its portfolio and resources to help clients navigate current trends and operate more effectively guides HCLTech’s client approach.

 

For example, with the permeation of generative AI (GenAI) and increased adoption of the technology by clients seeking to remain relevant, Seshadri spoke about the evolution of GenAI from a buzzword to actual engagement and usage, including using GenAI to reimagine an autonomous future for Financial Services. HCLTech seeks to integrate GenAI solutions and tools within its clients’ operations, depending on maturity level and understanding, to drive end-to-end value chain transformation.

 

Helping clients use AI to make internal processes better and more efficient and to achieve their goals enhances HCLTech’s value proposition in the financial services industry and enables the company to gain new projects in sensitive areas such as regulation, governance and security.

Prioritizing the main areas within engineering, platform modernization and GenAI aligns HCLTech’s financial services expertise with its key service line strengths around business optimization, design and innovation and enables the company to support client transformations. Seshadri closed his presentation by acknowledging that transformation “is up to the client to implement.” HCLTech’s approach to deal generation is shaped by its deep understanding of culture and clients’ readiness to sustain transformation. By viewing AI as a means to enhance processes and operations — and by factoring in the longevity of each client relationship — HCLTech tailors the pace and intensity of technology integration. This ability to meet clients where they are and ensure lasting transformation distinguishes HCLTech from its peers.

Experience is key to client engagement

Building on Srini’s discussion, Ananth Subramanya, HCLTech’s EVP of Digital Business Services, talked about the industrywide shift in consumer loyalty from a physical product to the experience, with the experience driving the engagement. As clients increasingly demand rapid, relevant transformations that drive business outcomes, Subramanya emphasized the importance of balancing speed with stability — acknowledging that while stability may at times constrain velocity, it is essential for sustainable progress. The strategy helps users build resilience, enabling the customer experience (CX) to permeate the product and platform layers to ensure it influences each aspect of the client transformation.

 

HCLTech’s CX-centric delivery approach — anchored in both business processes and user interface (UI) design — deeply embeds the experience within clients’ operations and functions. This foundation empowers clients to engage more effectively and drive meaningful change. Additionally, by enabling end users to experience improvements more rapidly, the approach fosters stronger client loyalty and supports the development of long-term, strategic projects.

AI permeates approach to transformation

Diving more deeply into the impact of AI on financial services activities and client investments, Vijay Guntur, HCLTech’s CTO and head of Ecosystems, discussed the primary needs within financial operations: operational efficiency, accelerated innovation, CX and risk management. Key challenges around data quality and collection, the use of legacy system, and scalability also remain critical within the financial services space. HCLTech’s investments across AI platforms and solutions have enabled the company to deliver on these needs while embedding industry knowledge to address key client concerns. The company’s four main AI and GenAI offerings are AI Force, AI Foundry, AI Labs and AI/GenAI Engineering. Through these offerings, HCLTech helps clients execute on decision making and handle complex workflows.

 

Using its AI Labs, with six different locations in the U.S., the U.K., Germany, India and Singapore, HCLTech can build and scale AI for clients, helping them work through early stages and identify where they can add value through the use of technology. The labs encapsulate HCLTech’s AI portfolio offerings and create opportunities for the implementation of tools and solutions with the goal of driving value. As clients undergo transformation and modernization services, lowering risk while increasing AI efficiency across IT operations, the labs showcase HCLTech’s portfolio offerings and solutions, helping clients lead AI transformations.

 

The primary AI offering, AI Force, launched in March 2024, takes a platform approach to apply AI technologies within software development and engineering life cycle processes. Further development of the platform has enabled interoperability and greater adoption and AI usage. Guntur emphasized that the platform improves efficiency and shortens time to market, allowing clients to more quickly respond to market needs and remain relevant against peers. With agentic AI emerging as a much-needed use of the technology, AI Force’s ability to embed agentic workflows enhances efficiency and adds value.

 

The second product, AI Foundry, accelerates product development and remodels the value stream using AI and data. With a focus on value streams, modernizing data, and AI that is built within a cognitive infrastructure, AI Foundry uses technology to help clients improve their business operations.

 

HCLTech has a long history working with AI, building off its DRYiCE platform, the company’s original automation platform. This heritage equips HCLTech with the background and trusted technical expertise, backed by its engineering prowess. to deliver on clients’ AI transformation needs. Further, HCLTech can pursue larger-scale and more aggressive AI-led transformations, helping the company accelerate ahead of its peers in terms of client engagement and growth.

Consulting serves as an entry point to broader financial services activities

In a panel discussion with financial services clients, HCLTech leaders discussed the company’s consulting services and main service line areas. Although consulting has not been a primary investment focus for HCLTech, the company has selectively built out consulting capabilities to address clients’ end-to-end modernization and technology needs. For example, in March 2019, HCLTech acquired Strong-Bridge Envision, a digital consulting firm that complemented its digital and analytics capabilities. Embedding this expertise across its portfolio strengthens the company’s ability to drive AI and platform adoption.

 

The company’s AI Labs are a central part of HCLTech’s consulting offerings. Through the labs, HCLTech delivers technology consulting services, helping clients to identify areas where they would most benefit from AI. As many clients, particularly within the financial services space, look to accelerate innovation to create new products and business models that enable them to remain relevant, technology consulting services bring in essential offerings to help address key areas of client transformations.

 

Looking at the data aspect, consulting is required for many clients to organize and manage datasets. Ensuring data is protected and structured remains vital to valuable and trusted AI usage, increasing the importance of HCLTech’s ability to deliver on data needs in a timely manner.

While these consulting investments may offer limited scale, they are sufficient to remain competitive with peers and to guide clients effectively on AI adoption. This expertise aligns well with the company’s client management strategy, particularly in expanding relationships with existing clients — where HCLTech can lead with a proactive and open-minded approach.

Conclusion

HCLTech concluded the event with a wrap-up by CMO Jill Kouri, who noted key points about HCLTech’s positioning and direction as the company navigates client needs around AI. The main comment that struck TBR analysts referenced the need for a challenger mindset companywide. This approach will help HCLTech transform the way it delivers services and solutions to clients. Leading with a proactive and paranoid mindset embodies the challenger focus, allowing HCLTech to stay ahead of AI and technology trends while complementing its existing strengths.

 

The goal of doubling revenue with half the people will certainly present challenges for HCLTech, but the company’s culture and robust AI portfolio, which provides the technology, engineering expertise and resources needed to deliver on consulting services, will help the company move in the right direction. Further, leveraging an AI-intrinsic point of view, as opposed to an AI-first point of view, secures HCLTech’s positioning around AI and its trust-based relationships with clients, to effectively address key market needs around efficiency and modernization.