Client spending on artificial intelligence (AI) has moved beyond experiments or proofs of concept to a concrete roadmap that signposts investment returns, Hexaware chief executive R Srikrishna said, pointing to the altered budget allocation priorities for the technology that now dominates Wall Street market cap sweepstakes.

"The difference compared with last year in how clients are spending on AI is that they no longer want experimentation alone and expect a measurable return on investment immediately, sometimes within one or two months," Srikrishna told ET.

The chief of the Carlyle-backed firm, however, said AI model companies entering the services business are not in a position to threaten large IT firms.

"Capabilities from companies like Anthropic or OpenAI will not automatically translate into being able to deliver transformation for enterprises," he said.

"That is only one element in the value chain. Our industry has specialised for decades in translating technology capabilities into real-world implementation and use cases for complex enterprises," Srikrishna said.

In the post-AI world, the most defensible moat is trust in customer relationships, Srikrisna highlighted, adding that service providers will need to understand the customer's domain, systems, where the data resides, the company culture and how quickly they can change.