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When the floods came, the rocks trembled. “This river will sweep us away,” they groaned, clutching each other in defiance. But a few chose differently, they rolled with the current, letting the water polish and move them. Over time, those rocks became smooth pebbles, lining the shore and nourishing new life around them. The river did not destroy them. It reshaped them.
Right now, the Tech Services industry is standing in that river and the flood is AI.
The last few months have brought more noise than clarity: layoffs, visa reforms, AI disruption narratives, and endless speculation about what gets automated next.
It’s easy to think this is an existential moment for the industry. But not every flood is a catastrophe. Some are just long-overdue renewals. Let’s start with what it’s not.
The visa debate may dominate headlines today, but it’s not the real disruption. Only 7 of the Top 20 H1B issuers are Tech Services firms; the immediate hit is felt by U.S. giants like Amazon, Meta, Apple, JP Morgan, and Intel. The ripple effect, however, is worth watching. If broader H1B lottery reforms go through, some of the lower-end delivery work may move offshore, a structural adjustment, not an existential threat.
The real transformation is driven by AI reshaping Tech Services from within.
At Zinnov, after speaking with more than 500 Enterprises, 200 CEOs, and 150 Private Equity investors, the picture is clear: AI is reshaping the contours of Tech Services: how work flows, where value pools, and what capabilities will define tomorrow’s winners.
Despite all the talk about Automation and efficiency, 93% of Enterprise tech spenders say their budgets will not shrink. Why? Because AI creates as much work as it accelerates.
In other words, AI is redistributing demand. The flow of work is shifting downstream, into data modernization, AI integration, and domain-led transformation. The current is stronger than ever.
The Tech Services operating model has long been built on a pyramid, broad at the base, tapering at the top. Armies of L1 and L2 engineers formed the foundation, and scale drove margin. That model won’t survive the next decade.
As AI agents, co-pilots, and Automation platforms take over repetitive tasks, the base will shrink, and the middle will expand. The new structure looks more like a diamond. Mid-level specialists, domain experts, and contextual problem solvers will define where margins sit. Scale won’t be about headcount; it’ll be about knowledge density.
Margins will move upward, from efficiency to expertise.
As delivery becomes automated, differentiation moves upstream. The winners will be those who sell outcomes, not hours, who can take risk–reward contracts because they know their client’s business better than anyone else.
That confidence doesn’t come from clever pricing models; it comes from deep domain strength.
It’s why moves like the WNS–Capgemini deal suddenly look prescient. They’re about specialization. AI is amplifying the firms that already own industry context.
So what does a USD 1 Bn Tech Services firm look like in 2030?
A 2030 firm will:
This is the evolution of what being a Tech Services company even means.
Every wave of disruption has sounded familiar: Offshoring, Cloud, Automation. Each time, the industry adapted, not by standing still, but by moving faster.
AI is no different. The firms that cling to the old pyramid will stay lodged in the riverbed. The ones that learn to flow, to reimagine their structures, their pricing, their people models will end up downstream, stronger and smoother.
Because the river never destroys. It only reshapes those ready to move.
For the full playbook on the how Tech Services Firms of 2030 should look like, grab our whitepaper: “The 2030 Tech Services Firm.” Download the whitepaper here.
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