Infosys-Anthropic tie-up signals AI growth opportunities, not market disruption: Sumit Pokharna

The recent collaboration between Infosys and US-based AI startup Anthropic has sparked excitement on the Street, but industry experts urge investors to separate hype from long-term fundamentals.

Speaking on ET Now, Sumit Pokharna from Kotak Securities described the partnership as “a step in the right direction” and “the need of the hour.” He explained, “The goal of this partnership is to help companies in complex and regulated industries use AI safely. Industries like telecommunications, banking, insurance, manufacturing, and software development cannot experiment freely with AI. They need governance, transparency, compliance, reliability, and security.”

On whether larger IT companies would have an advantage over midcaps in AI collaborations, Pokharna said, “Large companies will have an upper hand because of the bandwidth they have, but we cannot ignore midcap companies who have specialization in niche areas, like Coforge or Hexaware Technologies. They have unique skills, strong focus, and deep customer relationships. They will also benefit—it is not just that larger companies will take the entire cake.”

Regarding potential revenue impact and AI-driven growth, Pokharna noted, “So far what we have pencilled, we believe we have already pencilled a part of it, and we expect 2% to 3% lower growth over the next three years because of GenAI. AI risk is not being ignored. The worst impact is expected in 2027, which could be the year when investor pessimism about IT stocks will be at its highest.”

On the market’s reaction to AI and valuations, he added, “Markets are currently discounting too much disruption. AI improvements are meaningful but incremental. Current stock prices already reflect low long-term growth. Some quality challengers may benefit from AI rather than suffer from it. We believe the market is pricing long-term AI disruption more aggressively than the evidence justifies, and that overreaction may create investment opportunities for smart investors who can buy value or quality stocks at reasonable valuations.”

On whether valuations could compress further, Pokharna warned, “The narrative that AI will disrupt and reduce working hours and billing rates has created pessimism. IT sector stocks have corrected significantly. It is a falling sword—we cannot rule it out. But this is an overreaction, as full evidence is not yet available. Whenever such negative expectations build up, it often gives opportunities to smart investors.”With AI partnerships gaining momentum, industry watchers say investors should focus on fundamentals and sector specialization rather than short-term market noise. The Infosys-Anthropic collaboration may mark just the beginning of a wave of AI-driven alliances in the Indian IT sector.