At Larsen & Toubro Ltd, the number of AI agents could nearly match its headcount by the end of 2026, as it rolls out Microsoft Copilot licences to over four-fifths of its 172,000 employees, making it one of India’s first conglomerates to deploy AI tools across the entire workforce.
LTM Ltd, one of the two information technology (IT) arms of the country’s largest engineering conglomerate, announced on Wednesday that it is spearheading a drive to equip about 140,000 employees with Microsoft Copilot licences.
“The initiative is empowering teams to work more productively, resolve issues faster, and deliver superior customer outcomes through AI-assisted workflows, decision-making, and collaboration,” read LTM’s filing to the stock exchanges.
Microsoft launched Copilot, an AI assistant, in November 2023. It can respond to user queries and assist with tasks ranging from human resources to sales.
LTM and L&T Technology Services Ltd have already used almost 100,000 licences, according to two people close to the deal. “The remaining AI tools will be given to the group’s employees by December 2026,” said one of the two people on condition of anonymity.
The announcement comes as three of the country’s largest IT services firms—Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, Infosys Ltd, and Wipro Ltd—doubled their Copilot deployments to about 300,000 licenses by June. That is equivalent to about a fourth of their combined workforce of 1.15 million. The three firms together reported nearly $60 billion in revenue in FY26.
Taking the lead
L&T’s push suggests that AI is now being used by non-IT companies as well. “L&T could be among the first conglomerates equipping almost all its employees with AI tools and agents,” said Karan Uppal, lead IT analyst of PhillipCapital (India) Pvt. Ltd.
L&T ended FY26 with 59,403, LTM with 87,950 and LTTS with 23,830 employees, taking the group’s total headcount to about 171,183. To be sure, the engineering group also has about 378,000 contract workers.
The group’s objective is to enable employees to work faster, make better-informed decisions, access organizational knowledge more easily, and collaborate more effectively, regardless of their location or role, said an LTM spokesperson in response to a Mint’s email.
LTM has been given the mandate of deploying these licenses across the group through its Copilot-supported AI tools including its sales agent and its conversational AI tool that answers queries related to employee support.
“The deployment reflects the group’s commitment to embedding AI into everyday work and accelerating adoption across businesses,” read the LTM filing.
Experts said that AI tools would help improve productivity, but would come with their own set of challenges. “We need to consider the AI token costs. If AI usage crosses a certain unit, licence renewals may get expensive and increase costs,” Uppal added.
Shubham Dalia, lead IT analyst at Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities, also said the biggest factor in such large-scale AI skilling is cost. “If the AI tools are subscription-based, which seems the case for Microsoft’s Copilot, costs won’t be an issue. However, if these AI tools come with high token costs, then that might raise alarm bells.”
Dalia expects more large businesses to equip their employees with AI skills and AI tools.
The AI deployment would help construction managers focus on core work rather than managing information, said Phil Fersht, chief executive of HFS Research. “The value comes from allowing highly skilled professionals to spend more time solving engineering problems instead of managing information.”
Another brokerage said the push to equip employees with AI tools comes in the backdrop of emerging markets, including India, lagging in productivity.
“Emerging markets have historically lagged in productivity, yet they appear to extract greater value from AI. Users in EMs report average time savings of 4.6 hours per task versus 3.8 hours in developed markets,” said Bernstein analysts Venugopal Garre and Nikhil Arela, in a 15 July note.
New ambitions
The ambitious push follows the conglomerate’s new five-year plan, Lakshya 31, which targets a 12-15% compound annual growth rate in revenue between FY26 and FY31. At the upper end, the top line would reach about ₹5.8 trillion by FY31, nearly double the FY26 level.
The Mumbai-based group ended FY26 with ₹2.86 trillion, up 12% year-on-year, beating the revenue and order inflow targets under the previous five-year plan. Its revenue grew at a 16% CAGR between FY21 and FY26, against its target of 15%.
The group’s IT businesses have also doubled their revenue targets. LTM and LTTS, which ended last fiscal with $4.76 billion and $1.23 billion in revenue, respectively, aim to double their top lines by FY31. For LTM, this is a year ahead of its earlier guidance.
The L&T group has made multiple tech forays in the past.
It first entered the IT space in December 1996 when it launched L&T Infotech. Two decades later, the engineering group carved a separate engineering research and development unit called L&T Technology Services Ltd.
In 2024, it launched the data centre business under the name L&T-Cloudfinitiand, a year later, rebranded it as L&T Vyoma.