MUMBAI, Aug. 28 -- When Tata Consultancy Services disclosed its Q1 FY27 results on July 9, the dividend was Rs.12 per share and the headline was Rs.72,275 crore in revenue, up 13.9 percent. The number that deserved more attention appeared inside the segment disclosure: $2.6 billion in annualised AI revenue, already running on live customer contracts. Wipro filed its results eight days later with net profit of Rs.3,356 crore - up 0.6 percent in a year - absorbing salary increases, deal ramp-up costs, and the same AI investments TCS was already converting into billed revenue. The distance between those two positions is the story of Indian IT in Q1 FY27.

The four largest listed Indian IT companies - TCS, Infosys, Wipro, and HCL Technologies...