New Delhi, July 14 -- Artificial intelligence (AI) is forcing India's IT services companies to rethink how they grow.

HCL Technologies Ltd (HCLTech) is entering the data-centre business, becoming only the second Indian IT services company after Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) to do so. But while TCS is taking an infrastructure-led approach, HCLTech is betting on a full-stack AI strategy spanning data-centre infrastructure, compute and applications.

Investors, however, remain more concerned about HCLTech's slowing growth than its longer-term AI strategy. HCLTech's shares were down over 4% on Tuesday, a day after the company unveiled the strategy alongside its weakest full-year growth guidance in four years.

The company plans to inve...