Wipro on Thursday posted a 12 per cent year-on-year rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 2,870 crore for the June quarter but the IT company missed analysts’ estimates as reduced discretionary spending by clients impacted its financial performance.

The software exporter’s guidance for IT services revenue for the September quarter is in the range of “-2 per cent to +1 per cent”.

Wipro saw robust deal closures in the first quarter of this fiscal and in terms of total contract value, it closed large deal bookings at $1.2 billion, up by 9 per cent year-on-year.

The bookings in the June quarter were also the “highest bookings in eight quarters”. The total bookings stood at $3.7 billion.

“All around us, in almost every industry, businesses are reducing discretionary spends in response to the weaker macro environment. That has had an impact on our revenues as well,” Wipro CEO and managing director Thierry Delaporte said during an earnings conference.

The Bangalore-based IT services company posted a 12 per cent rise in its consolidated net profit at about Rs 2,870 crore for the June quarter. Seen sequentially, however, the net profit was 6.6 per cent lower compared with the March quarter.

Wipro’s income from operations in the three months ended June increased 6 per cent to Rs 22,831 crore.

The topline numbers came “very much within the previously guided range”, Delaporte said but added that there is “some softness in revenue”. The company managed better operating margins, by improving productivity, utilisation of talent and managing fixed costs.

“This quarter, we closed our largest ever buyback allowing us to return $1.5 billion to our shareholders,” he said. The company’s head count came down by 8,812 in the June quarter compared with the previous three months.

Further, the Wipro chief said the IT industry like all other sectors is undergoing a “seismic shift” with advancements in artificial intelligence (AI).

“AI can and will fundamentally change every aspect of business,” he said.

The company is using generative AI for multiple use cases such as enterprise knowledge mining, virtual assistants, content optimisation, automation in software development and for synthetic data generation as well.

“To accelerate innovation in this space yesterday, we announced $1 billion investment in AI and launched a new AI-first innovation ecosystem Wipro ai360,” he said.