Wipro has consciously reduced utilisation levels year-on-year to free up staff for deals in the pipeline, chief financial officer Aparna Iyer said, adding that the metric is expected to improve through the rest of the financial year as those deals ramp up.
"If you look at utilisation year on year, we have decreased our utilisation in order to invest for some of the deals that we're looking at," Iyer said. "That will also go up through the year. That will also be a lever."
Utilisation was one of several margin levers Iyer flagged for the year ahead, alongside productivity gains from fixed-price programmes, pyramid optimisation and cost discipline on general and administrative overheads. She said Wipro's operating margin had improved substantially over the past eight quarters, moving from around 15% to the 17-17.5% range, but a return to that aspirational band would depend on the pace of investment required for artificial intelligence.
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On hiring, chief human resources officer Saurabh Govil said headcount growth would stay closely tied to demand, which remains subdued, even as the company continues to invest in scarce AI talent.
"Our overall headcount and hiring will be linked more to the demand environment, which is right now a bit muted," Govil said. "But I don't see a headcount going up drastically. I see that the gains of productivity, which we're talking about, will have a play as we move forward."
Govil said Wipro would need to balance investment in existing employees against the cost of acquiring niche AI skills, which he said were commanding a premium in the market. "Some of the AI skills are rare, so they are coming at a premium. So all forces are in play. We'll have to invest, grow, and make sure we maintain our margins."
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The commentary comes against a backdrop of gradual headcount addition and rising attrition at the company. Wipro's headcount rose by 888 employees in the June quarter to 2.43 lakh, from 2.42 lakh in the previous quarter, according to its earnings results released post-market hours on Thursday. The company's attrition rate ticked up to 13.9%, from 13.8% in the preceding quarter.
Wipro reported a 0.9% year-on-year rise in revenue for the June quarter, with margins down 120 basis points on account of a client-specific deal and continued investment in AI capabilities. The company secured $3.3 billion in bookings during the quarter, including 13 large deals worth $1.6 billion.
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