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By Sai Ishwarbharath B and Abhirami G

BENGALURU, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Wipro's AI initiatives have increased productivity equivalent to the output of 20,000 employees, who have since been redeployed ‌within the Indian IT firm, its chief technology officer said.

The comments come as India's $315 ‌billion software services industry grapples with adoption of AI, which is reshaping hiring, software development and contracts.

Wipro, with about ​243,000 employees in June, is shifting to a "human-AI operating model," with more than 100,000 employees receiving advanced AI-related training and certifications, Sandhya Arun said in an interview.

"It could be the same engineer managing a bunch of agents, deployed on other projects or being trained for some other role. It doesn't ‌necessarily mean person-to-person replacement by an ⁠agent."

Arun's comments underscore Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji's views from last week.

India's largest software services exporter, Tata Consultancy Services, had said in June that IT firms ⁠would slow down hiring as the company moves towards having an equal number of employees and AI agents in its workforce.

TCS plans to build a team of up to 8,900 forward-deployed engineers, and Infosys ​about ​6,000 over the next few years. These engineers embed ​with clients to accelerate AI adoption.

Wipro ‌is also expanding its pool of forward-deployed engineers. While Arun declined to provide a specific target, she said Wipro's forward-deployed workforce would likely be in line with peers.

Arun cautioned against focusing too much on the role, saying the broader challenge was ensuring all engineers develop the skills needed to work effectively with AI systems.

"The shift has to be from productivity to outcomes," Arun said, ‌arguing that AI should be evaluated on whether it ​improves customer experience, creates new revenue opportunities and helps ​deliver business goals.

Wipro is the only IT ​company among India's top four that does not reveal its AI revenue.

The ‌firm is still in the earlier, cost-absorbing ​phase of AI monetisation relative ​to peers and the real test would come when these deals start converting to revenue and margin recovery, said Manoj Chandra Jha, principal analyst at Nord-IQ Research.

The company's investment ​intensity across AI-related training and ‌ecosystem partnerships is comparable with peers including TCS, Infosys and HCLTech, but Wipro trails ​in commercialization maturity, he added.

(Reporting by Sai Ishwarbharath B and Abhirami G in ​Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Skariachan and Mrigank Dhaniwala)