Davos 2026 | Deal conversion key to unlocking AI revenue: Wipro's Rishad Premji

Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji said the key challenge for the industry is not identifying AI-led ideas but scaling them into real impact inside organisations, adding that the long-term opportunity remains intact despite a difficult growth phase.

“There’s a little bit of challenges on deals converting into revenue,” Premji told CNBC-TV18 on the sidelines of Davos, adding that Wipro’s latest quarter came in at the midpoint of guidance with “a great job on margin expansion” even as forward commentary was “arguably a little soft compared to what the market was expecting.”

He expects deal conversions to unlock revenue upside.

“Once that revenue, once that order booking converts to revenue, things will look different,” he said, flagging a healthy pipeline across transformation, cost and AI.

Navigating a bumpy growth phase 

Premji noted that the latest quarter landed in the midpoint of guidance with “a great job on margin expansion,” though the forward guidance was “arguably a little soft compared to what the market was expecting.”

It is pertinent to note that the IT major's revenue for the quarter stood at $2.63 bn, up 1.2% QoQ in constant currency, broadly in line with its guided –0.5% to +1.5% range though below the 1.6% forecast.

Margins

expanded ~100 bps to 17.6% QoQ — surpassing poll estimates — aided by reconciled items and stronger EBIT at ₹4,118 cr.

Read More: Wipro Q3 Results: Fourth quarter revenue growth seen between 0% to 2%; Deal wins at $871 million

Deal conversion delays remain the biggest bottleneck for growth. “Customers are just delaying in starting up the ramp up… once that delay unfolds, you’ll start to see it,” he said.

Key drivers in the order pipeline span transformation, cost optimisation and AI. Order bookings are up 25% year-on-year and large deal bookings are up 75% year-to-date. Vendor consolidation remains a feature of the environment, but Wipro is winning its “fair share.”

Premji admitted the near-term would remain “a bit bumpy” but maintained that once deal conversions kick in, revenue upside should follow.

Scaling ideas into real AI outcomes

Premji framed AI as a utility whose value lies in implementability. “The challenge today is context understanding, domain understanding and workflow understanding,” he said.

He added that Wipro has reorganised delivery around two platforms- Wings for running and operating customer work and Vega for building software, models, products and agents.

Every customer engagement now runs on one of these platforms. The company is also building industry platforms in finance, healthcare and aviation.

The strategy is deliberately consulting-led. He added that the Capco acquisition has deepened financial services expertise, and Wipro is expanding domain depth in energy and other heavy industries to make horizontal AI technology relevant inside large organisations.

Adding that AI fluency sits at the centre of Wipro’s execution plan, he mentioned that 100% employees are trained on basic AI skills, 95,000 on advanced skills, 80,000 on mastery, and 1,000 are building AI-specific platforms. Premji expects 2026 to mark an inflexion from pilots to production at clients.