Artificial intelligence (AI) enabled by agentic and generative AI is now becoming part of the large deals for top tier IT services company LTIMindtree, although with slightly longer closure cycle than the traditional vendor consolidation projects, its new chief executive officer and managing director Venugopal Lambu told ET. He also pointed out how an increasing use of AI will mean that companies will be delivering more work with less effort and therefore headcount will be decoupled from revenue growth.Large deals for LTIMindtree, country鈥檚 sixth largest IT services company with an annual revenue size of $4.5 billion (approximately Rs 38,730 crore), typically are projects above $50 million deals.鈥淭here is an immediate cost benefit that clients are asking for through AI. But at the same time, they are also using this opportunity to decide who’s going to be my partner for the next five years in the AI economy.鈥漈his came on the back of Accenture鈥檚 March to May quarter financials last week showing a marginal slowness in GenAI deal momentum.鈥淚t will take through multiple iteration before it gets into a closing point. So, the speed of closure is slower than the traditional deals. I would say that, but there is a huge amount of interest and potential that exists in that space,鈥 added Lambu, who took charge as the chief on May 31 following an early retirement by his predecessor Debashis Chatterjee.Lambu is focusing on three big pivots of making LTIMindtree more 鈥淎I centric鈥 with the launch of its BlueVerse platform, focus on grabbing vendor consolidation deal share with more agility and emphasis on newer growth areas for LTIMindtree. Since making a comeback at LTIMindtree after being appointed as the CEO designate in January, he has conducted over 20 townhalls focusing on growth mindset for the workforce amid assuaging concerns of senior leadership exits and macroeconomic impact.Also Read: Incoming LTIMindtree CEO Venugopal Lambu lays out 90-day fit-for-future planLambu, who rejoined the company after a three-year stint with talent management firm Randstad Digital, also pointed out that the technology services are entering into a phase where companies are delivering more work with less effort.鈥淓ssentially, don’t expect that revenue and headcount linkage will be linear. Going forward, it will not be. We are already seeing the science of it, the non-linearity will only increase with time. So, if I had a choice, I would say, can I keep the same headcount and increase the revenue significantly. That would be the good thing to plan for in the new world,鈥 Lambu said.Moreover, like most IT firms, the company will continue skilling its existing employees, deploying them into new projects, and doing selective hiring on the lateral side for specific skills sets along with its fresher hiring program.LTIMindtree, with over 84,300 employees as on March 2025, plans to onboard 1,500 freshers in the coming months as part of the first batch for the year.To diversify in other growth regions, LTIMindtree also set up an IT services arm named NextEra in Saudi Arabia in a joint venture with Aramco Digital, the digital and technology arm of the middle eastern country鈥檚 oil behemoth Aramco.