New Delhi, Feb. 6 -- Top information technology (IT) services companies are racing to deploy artificial intelligence agents from specialist firms across their domains, at a time when the debut of advanced AI tools threatens to eat their lunch.

Four of the country's largest IT outsourcers-Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp, Infosys Ltd, HCL Technologies Ltd, and Wipro Ltd-are partnering with smaller firms and adopting their AI agents for software development, data analysis and marketing, highlighting the business transformation unleashed by generative AI three years ago.

While these partnerships could accelerate capability building and bring better economics for clients, the shift could eventually weigh on hiring, particularly for fresh...