LTM Ltd.'s (previously LTIMindtree) growing focus on artificial intelligence is beginning to alter the nature of the deals it wins, with the company saying AI-led engagements are typically shorter in duration and more iterative than traditional outsourcing contracts.
Speaking after the company's second-quarter earnings, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Venu Lamba said AI-related work now accounts for 13.4% of the company's revenue.
\The portfolio spans enterprise AI and business AI projects, including small language model development, agentic transformation initiatives, business process redesign and offerings under the company's BlueVerse ecosystem.
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The comments come as investors assess the company's order inflows of $1.26 billion during the quarter. According to Lamba, the changing deal mix reflects LTM's strategic focus on capturing AI spending rather than an indication of weakening demand.
"We are making a hard pivot towards AI business," Lamba said, adding that the company has trained its delivery and sales teams and aligned incentives to pursue AI-led opportunities.
Lamba said AI projects differ from conventional IT services contracts in both structure and duration. While traditional outsourcing engagements are often large and multi-year in nature, AI deals tend to begin with specific use cases before expanding across functions and business processes.
"The deals are short tenured in nature, iterative or progressive in the way that they come around subsequently," he said, adding that such engagements can also translate into revenue more quickly.
The company's comments offer a glimpse into how AI adoption is reshaping spending patterns across the technology services sector. According to Lamba, many clients are not increasing overall technology budgets but are instead reallocating existing spending towards AI initiatives.
"Customers are reallocating the budget," he said. "The money is going to come from the efficiency and the productivity that you can extract on the traditional side of the business."
That shift is also influencing LTM's internal priorities. Lamba said the company is investing more heavily in AI capabilities and is hiring for data and AI-focused roles to meet growing demand.
The company plans to launch a hiring campaign across multiple cities in India focused on data and AI talent. Despite concerns that shorter-duration projects could affect workforce utilisation, Lamba said utilisation levels have remained stable and that he does not expect any material impact going forward.
"We need more people, especially the ones in data and AI skills," he said.
Lamba also suggested that the company's transition towards AI may require a reallocation of resources away from some areas that have historically driven growth.
"You'll have to let go of something that we have been doing over the years and make sure that we invest and double down on our focus on the new areas," he said.
While the company views the evolving deal mix as evidence of progress in its AI strategy, Lamba said it may be too early to conclude whether the current trend represents a lasting shift. He said he would prefer to wait for another quarter before providing more clarity on how traditional revenue streams and AI-native opportunities are likely to balance out.
Separately, the CEO said LTM's Saudi Arabia business had a 0.6% to 0.7% impact on revenue during the quarter. The company is not factoring in significant growth from the market over the next two quarters and is focused on supporting existing customers while awaiting greater stability in the region.
For now, LTM is positioning itself around what it sees as the next phase of enterprise technology spending, even as customers continue to work out how much of their budgets should be directed towards AI adoption.
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