TLDR: Hemant Jhajhria, Head of Consulting at KPMG in India, predicts that Artificial Intelligence will be a catalyst for steady, long-term growth in the IT and consulting industries. He emphasizes that this transformation will be gradual, focusing on adoption and change management rather than immediate, explosive revenue spikes seen in hardware sectors. The integration of AI into business processes, though slower, is expected to yield significant and sustained value over time.
Hemant Jhajhria, KPMG in India’s Head of Consulting, has articulated a vision for the IT and consulting sectors where Artificial Intelligence (AI) serves as a foundation for consistent, prolonged growth. In an exclusive interview with Outlook Business on November 2, 2025, Jhajhria highlighted that while the AI landscape currently resembles an ‘arms race’ with substantial investments in infrastructure and data, the real value for consulting and IT firms will emerge from the slower, more intricate processes of adoption, change management, and deriving tangible benefits from AI.
Jhajhria contrasts this with the rapid revenue and profit surges experienced by AI chipmakers and hyperscaler giants, suggesting that the impact on consulting and IT will manifest as ‘a period of steady, high growth over a longer duration.’ He elaborated, “You have to realise that much of the work involves adoption, change management, and deriving real value from AI, and that’s a slower process than just building infrastructure. You can build a highway in a year, but teaching people how to drive on it takes longer. It’s the same with AI; we’re still learning how to drive on those highways.”
The KPMG executive also pointed out that quantifying AI-driven productivity within the consulting business is challenging because the core issue isn’t just about building sophisticated models. He stated, “That’s only 20% of the problem,” explaining that the remaining 80% revolves around people, processes, and successful adoption. “It’s not like you build a cool model and everyone immediately jumps on it. No technology works that way. You might build a great model with strong ROI potential, but it still has to go through a process of integration within firms and businesses.”
He further noted that the return on investment (ROI) from these business cases will take time, particularly as ‘middle managers’ who are crucial to organizational operations require more time to adapt to new technologies. Jhajhria drew parallels to past technological shifts, such as electricity a century ago, the internet 30 years prior, and the advent of IT, digitalization, and cloud computing in the early 2010s, underscoring that such transformations are inherently gradual.
Addressing current economic uncertainties, including trade disruptions under the new Trump administration in the US, Jhajhria acknowledged these challenges but maintained optimism regarding AI. He believes AI transformation is comparatively easier due to a clearer understanding of its trajectory and how to leverage ‘agentic AI’ and autonomous agents. He emphasized that while investment volatility exists, there is significant clarity and substantial investment flowing into AI, particularly in training models, data centers, and infrastructure, rather than immediate enterprise system deployment. The full enterprise-level impact, though not yet fully visible, is anticipated to materialize over time.
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Recent reports from other IT firms support the growing focus on AI. Accenture, for instance, reported approximately $900 million in generative AI bookings in a recent quarter, with the majority attributed to consulting. TCS secured $100 million in AI deals, driven by client demand for ‘AI-infused productivity.’ HCLTech recorded $100 million in ‘advanced AI’ revenue in Q2 FY26, representing nearly 3% of its total revenue. Happiest Minds Technologies projected its generative AI business to double by year-end from a 1.6% revenue base in FY25, generating about $4 million in the first half of the year.
