EXL raises 2026 forecast as data and AI revenue jumps 36%

EXL, a US-listed company that provides data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and digital operations services to businesses, reported on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, that its revenue for the July-September quarter rose 19.7% from a year earlier to $634.0 million, from $529.6 million. Revenue from its data and AI-led services, which now make up nearly two-thirds of the business, grew 36%. The company raised its full-year revenue forecast to $2.430 billion to $2.440 billion, from $2.390 billion to $2.415 billion earlier.

EXL's results are a useful signal of where corporate technology spending is going. Companies are paying more for help to organise their data and put AI to work, from automating paperwork and checking documents to predicting risk. EXL's data and AI-led business grew at nearly twice the pace of its overall revenue, which shows that this kind of work, rather than traditional back-office outsourcing, is now driving growth.

The term "data and AI-led" covers services where analytics or AI is at the centre of what the company delivers, for example building models that read insurance claims or flag fraud, rather than simply processing paperwork by hand. When such work becomes two-thirds of a company's revenue, it shows how quickly the outsourcing and IT services industry is changing its business.

There is a cost side too. EXL's gross and operating margins fell, even as revenue grew. Building AI capabilities requires investment in people with specialised skills, in technology and sometimes in acquisitions, and that spending can squeeze margins before it pays off. The company's decision to raise its full-year forecast suggests it expects demand to remain strong enough to justify that investment. Investors also look at two measures of profit. The reported, or GAAP, figure follows standard accounting rules and rose to $0.45 a share from $0.36. The adjusted figure, which leaves out certain items the company excludes from its core results, rose 28.5% to $0.62. Both moved up, which shows the profit growth was not only an accounting effect.

For India's large IT and business-services industry, the results point in the same direction as many recent reports: clients are moving money towards data and AI work, and providers that can deliver it are growing faster. That shift shapes which skills are in demand among the engineers, analysts and domain experts that such companies hire.

Short-term: EXL's higher forecast signals continued client demand for data and AI services through the rest of 2026, even as margins come under pressure.

Long-term: If the shift continues, services firms will keep reorganising around AI and data work, with traditional process outsourcing a shrinking share of their business.

Who is affected: EXL's business clients; its employees and shareholders; competing IT and business-services firms; and professionals with data and AI skills.

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