As enterprises move from AI pilots to fleets of autonomous agents that schedule meetings, write and fix code and even pitch customers, a new question has moved to the top of the CIO agenda: who keeps these digital workers in check? India’s largest IT services companies believe the answer is a fresh line of business, and they are moving quickly to own it.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Cognizant, HCLTech and Tech Mahindra have each flagged the governance and orchestration of AI agents as an emerging growth opportunity, according to a report in Mint. Their approaches differ, from in-house platforms to acquisitions, but the underlying message to enterprise technology leaders is the same: scaling agentic AI safely needs a dedicated control layer.

The “agentic control plane” becomes a priority

During its post-earnings analyst call on 8 October, TCS management said strong AI governance on secure AI platforms is becoming a top enterprise need. Chief Operating Officer Aarthi Subramanian described the “agentic control plane” as a key layer not only for governance but also for cost management, agent performance tracking and management of the full agent lifecycle.

Analysts say the urgency is real. HFS Research chief executive Phil Fersht pointed out that agents typically inherit the access rights of the application or person that deployed them, often operate in silos tied to a single vendor’s platform, and are still largely governed through manual controls when it comes to preventing duplicated work or access to data they should never touch.

Build, buy and embed

Cognizant unveiled Cognizant AI Nexus on 23 October, a software layer that measures AI spend, governs the quality of AI output and documents results across teams. Under the platform, every AI agent is assigned its own identity, permissions and memory, every task is logged, and humans continue to sign off on important decisions and compliance checks. The platform also turns proven IT processes into reusable templates for both teams and agents.

HCLTech has taken the acquisition route. On 28 September it announced its intent to acquire Croatia-based Robotiq.ai to strengthen orchestration across AI agents and enterprise applications.

Tech Mahindra has acknowledged heightened concerns around the security and reliability of AI agents. Chief Operating Officer Atul Soneja said on the company’s 15 October earnings call that trust is fundamental to scaling AI, with red teaming, trusted data, traceability, security and IP provenance built into how the company designs, deploys and operates AI solutions.

Orchestration: the next big opportunity

Namratha Dharshan, chief business leader for India research at Information Services Group (ISG), said orchestration is the next significant opportunity because agentic AI has moved beyond isolated deployments. Much like human teams, agents must work together to complete tasks end to end. She added that Indian technology services firms are well placed thanks to their process, domain and industry expertise, and that continuous monitoring will become critical as more agents enter enterprise systems, especially in regulated sectors.

Fersht, however, cautioned that the real test for Indian IT firms is whether they can move beyond reselling hyperscaler orchestration stacks to owning a clear point of view on how enterprises should govern intelligence across their entire estate. That, he said, will require investment in forward-deployed talent, proprietary IP and commercial models linked to measurable outcomes rather than headcount.

What it means for CIOs

For CIOs and CISOs, the shift signals that agent identity, access control, audit trails, cost visibility and human-in-the-loop approvals are fast becoming baseline requirements for any agentic AI rollout. As vendors race to package these capabilities, technology leaders will need to evaluate governance platforms as carefully as the AI models and agents they are meant to oversee.

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