Capgemini’s full-year 2025 results, released on 13 February, offered one of the clearest snapshots yet of how a major IT consultancy is repositioning itself around artificial intelligence — and the distance still to travel.
The French group reported revenues of €22.5 billion, up 3.4% at constant currency. Growth was modest by historical standards, weighed down by cautious enterprise spending across Continental Europe. But the fourth quarter told a different story: 10.6% growth, suggesting that client hesitancy may be starting to ease.
From hype to realism
CEO Aiman Ezzat framed the company’s direction as a shift “from AI hype to AI realism” — a phrase that carries weight given how frequently the consultancy sector has leaned on AI as a growth narrative without always delivering measurable outcomes.
The numbers behind the claim are worth examining. Generative AI bookings exceeded 8% of Capgemini’s total for the year, rising above 10% in Q4. The company has trained 310,000 employees on generative AI and 194,000 on agentic AI — the emerging category of AI systems designed to take autonomous actions rather than simply generate content.
These are significant investments in capability. Whether they translate into proportional revenue growth remains the open question. Capgemini’s 2026 guidance of 6.5% to 8.5% revenue growth fell slightly below the 7.2% analyst consensus, suggesting the market expected more from a company positioning AI at the centre of its strategy.
The sovereignty opportunity
Beyond AI, Capgemini is betting on a second structural trend: digital sovereignty. The company estimates that over 50% of service contracts will include sovereignty requirements by 2029, up from just 5% in 2025. For a European-headquartered firm, this represents a genuine competitive advantage over US-based rivals.
Ezzat was notably pragmatic on the sovereignty question, dismissing calls for full European tech autonomy. “There is no such thing as absolute sovereignty,” he told journalists. “Nobody has it, because no one has sovereignty over the entire value chain required to deliver services.” Instead, he advocated for finding “the right sovereignty solution based on the use case, the client environment, the government.”
This positions Capgemini as a bridge between European regulatory ambitions and the practical reality that most enterprise infrastructure still runs on AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. The company has signed partnerships with all three US hyperscalers to deliver what it calls “sovereign” AI solutions — European-managed services running on American infrastructure.
The uncomfortable parts
Not everything in the results paints a straightforward growth picture. Net income declined 4.2% year-on-year to €1.6 billion. The stock has fallen approximately 29% so far in 2026, caught in a broader selloff of companies perceived as vulnerable to AI-driven disruption — an ironic position for a firm making AI the centrepiece of its strategy.
There is also the matter of Capgemini Government Solutions, the US subsidiary the company announced it would sell following public backlash over a $4.8 million contract with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It is a reminder that the consulting business operates in political as well as commercial environments, and reputational risk can force strategic decisions that have little to do with market fundamentals.
France, Capgemini’s home market, contracted by 4.1% — a concern for a company headquartered in Paris. The bright spots were North America (7.3% growth), the UK and Ireland (10.5%), and Asia Pacific and Latin America (13.8%). Financial Services led sectors with 9.2% growth, accelerating sharply to 20.4% in Q4.
What to watch
Capgemini’s results matter beyond its own balance sheet because they reflect broader dynamics affecting the consultancy and IT services sector. The shift from selling AI as a concept to delivering AI as an operational capability is where the next wave of value — and differentiation — will come from.
Three things are worth tracking. First, whether GenAI bookings continue to accelerate past the 10% threshold reached in Q4, or whether that was an end-of-year surge. Second, how the sovereignty proposition develops as European regulation tightens — this could become a meaningful differentiator for European-headquartered firms. Third, whether the “Fit-for-growth” restructuring programme, which will cost an additional €200 million in cash outflow, delivers the operational efficiency the company is banking on.
The consultancy sector has spent the better part of two years talking about AI. Capgemini’s latest results suggest it is now moving into the phase of proving it can deliver.