This makes Happiest Minds the first Indian IT firm to issue a revenue forecast tied specifically to generative AI and the second in the $283 billion Indian IT sector to report AI-related earnings after HCLTech.
Earlier this month, HCLTech said its advanced AI revenue surpassed $100 million in the September quarter, accounting for around 2.7% of total sales.
“Today, all the new businesses we are signing, there is a huge amount of AI at play,” said Managing Director Venkatraman Narayanan. “When our sales teams go to pitch clients, they get an entry at the table only through AI — that’s the flavour of the season.”
The company said its GenAI projects command a 20%–25% premium over standard rates and identified 22 use cases with a combined sales potential of $50 million. Five projects are already live, including three valued at over $1 million each.
The company raked in about $4 million in the first half of the current fiscal year from GenAI-led services and expects the revenue to double by the end of the year.
Use cases span from student onboarding and grade management in the ed-tech sector to automating inventory and invoicing in consumer goods, Narayanan said.
The company's GenAI growth target looks challenging but is feasible due to the low base, said Centrum Broking analyst Piyush Pandey, adding "it is possible because the GenAI unit is growing faster than the rest of the business."
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology study in August found that 95% of organisations globally saw no returns on $30 billion–$40 billion in GenAI investments, citing integration challenges and user skill gaps.
