Wipro’s Great Squander — From India’s First Computer-Maker to a Service-Provider at Risk of Irrelevance

The recent Infosys share buyback has reignited debates around Indian IT’s long-term strategy. While buybacks boost valuations temporarily, critics have rightly contrasted Indian IT majors with their Western counterparts. Companies like Oracle, Microsoft, or Salesforce use financial engineering alongside innovation, whereas Indian IT often leans on financial maneuvers in place of sustained innovation. BusinessLine, among others, has highlighted this growing gap — and the criticism was overdue.

But to understand what’s at stake, we need to go back to the history of one of India’s IT bellwethers — Wipro. Unlike Infosys, Wipro was not always a services-only company. It has a product-building DNA that it has all but abandoned.

Wipro’s Legacy of Product-Building

Wipro was an Indian pioneer in personal computing. In the 1980s, it made one of India’s earliest PCs, well before mass-market computing became common. In the 2000s and 2010s, Wipro used to make desktop and laptop PCs. Beyond IT services, Wipro has continued to build and sell a variety of consumer and industrial products:-

FMCG: from soaps and oils to lighting, switches, and fans.

Industrial products: hydraulic equipment and, in partnership with GE, medical devices.

This is not surprising, given that the company’s roots lie in FMCG, under founder Hashim Premji. In short, Wipro once had both the instinct and capability to build products.

The Squandered Opportunity

And yet, in its biggest revenue stream — IT — Wipro has built a grand total of zero enduring software products over the past four decades. Imagine what could have been:

A homegrown ERP system in the 1990s, like SAP.

A cloud suite in the 2000s, like Salesforce.

An AI platform in the 2020s, like OpenAI or Anthropic.

Wipro had the breadth of product-making experience to attempt this. But it chose the safe and profitable route of IT services, ignoring the harder but more rewarding path of technological innovation. What a squandering of opportunity! 

The company’s transition from product pioneer to services-only giant has left it vulnerable in a world where AI is eating into service margins, multinational GCCs are scaling rapidly in India, and global tech companies are unveiling pathbreaking innovations almost every month.

Mounting Threats to Indian IT

The pressures on Indian IT are intensifying on three fronts:

1. AI disruption: With billions in funding, Western and Chinese AI firms are pushing out groundbreaking innovations nearly every month. These platforms threaten to automate large swathes of outsourced work — the very foundation of Indian IT’s service model.

2. The rise of GCCs: Multinational corporations are expanding their Global Capability Centers (GCCs) in India at a rapid pace. From banking to consumer tech, these in-house units are displacing the traditional outsourceeing model that Wipro and peers have long depended on.

3. Political headwinds in the US: Wipro has been a major beneficiary of foreign professional mobility into the US. But rising political intolerance and tightening visa regimes pose a serious threat to its access to high-value overseas markets.

Together, these forces mean that clinging to the old services-only model is not just complacent — it is dangerous.

A Way Forward

Wipro still has options. It can draw upon its legacy of building products, and reimagine itself for the AI era. The way forward lies in two steps:

1. From AI tailor to AI co-developer: Stop merely stitching together Microsoft, Google, or OpenAI models for clients. Begin building original AI tools, frameworks, and platforms.

2. Anchor in the Indian economy: Apply these AI innovations to India’s growing industries — real estate, mining, refining, consumer goods, food processing, logistics, e-commerce, BFSI, etc; as well as in public education, healthcare, and e-governance. 

Unlike Infosys, Wipro is uniquely placed to try this, because it straddles both industrial and consumer businesses. It has real-world domains to test and deploy India-centric AI products. If it can make the pivot, Wipro could yet reclaim its pioneering role in Indian industry.

Wipro's Crossroad 

Wipro’s journey is a cautionary tale. Once a trailblazer that built some of India’s first personal computers, it abandoned its tech product building DNA for the easy comfort of outsourceeing. That choice brought decades of profit, but it also eroded imagination, originality, and depth.

Now, with AI reshaping global IT almost monthly, MNC GCCs eating into its core business, and political intolerance in the US threatening its overseas model, Wipro faces an existential crossroad. It can cling to the old ways and risk sliding into irrelevance, or it can rediscover its pioneering spirit and become India’s first true global tech product powerhouse.

The lesson from abroad is clear: IBM reinvented itself from hardware into a hybrid cloud and AI company; Microsoft pivoted aggressively to cloud and then doubled down on AI with OpenAI. Both show that reinvention is possible — but only with bold bets and deep product innovation.

The stakes are higher than ever. Wipro’s decision will not only determine its own destiny, but could also set the tone for the future credibility of Indian IT on the world stage.