C Vijayakumar, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of HCL Technologies, stated that the traditional three-decade-old business model of India's IT (Information Technology) industry has become outmoded as a result of the advent of artificial intelligence (AI).

On February 24, 2025, Vijayakumar spoke at Nasscom's annual Technology and Leadership Forum in Mumbai, emphasising the importance of firms adopting a "paranoid" mindset to remain relevant and drive growth, Times of India reports.

Vijayakumar emphasised that the sector has seen a linear scaling of revenues and personnel over the last 30 years, a model that is now primed for upheaval.

He added that HCL has challenged teams to double revenue with half the staff, using AI-driven automation to boost productivity.

Salil Parekh, the CEO of Infosys, echoed this sentiment, saying that being vigilant is necessary to remain relevant in the changing environment. According to him, the Indian IT sector must be paranoid in order to remain relevant.

Parekh also emphasised the significance of switching to output and platform-based services, pointing out that a sizable section of the sector uses input-based models.

Vijayakumar also urged Indian tech companies to create their own massive language models, warning that depending too much on open-source models could be dangerous because of possible geopolitical repercussions.

He underlined that when costs come down, using proprietary models might provide a sustained competitive edge.