Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is building a team of up to 8,900 forward-deployed engineers to expand its artificial intelligence (AI) business, putting it in direct competition with OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, and Amazon. TCS CEO K Krithivasan said the company wants 1% to 1.5% of its workforce to become forward-deployed engineers (FDEs), which, based on TCS' workforce at the end of June, would mean around 5,900 to 8,900 employees. He did not say whether the company would hire new employees or retrain existing staff. TCS is also evaluating acquisitions in AI, cybersecurity, and data security, with CFO Samir Seksaria stating the company is looking for things that will help enable or enhance its strategic positioning. Krithivasan dismissed concerns that AI would weaken the outsourcing industry, arguing that companies will still need partners like TCS to connect AI models with their existing systems and manage data, emphasizing that "what you need is a deep knowledge of the customer environment to make it work."