The artificial intelligence boom is looking less and less like a race to get the latest model, and more and more like a costly modernisation of a company’s IT systems. Capgemini estimates that companies wishing to implement autonomous AI systems must first organise their data, integrate disparate solutions and overhaul applications that have been built up over decades.
This view is borne out by the company’s results. In the first half of 2026, Capgemini’s revenue rose by 11.3 per cent at constant exchange rates to €12.08 billion, whilst the value of orders reached €12.6 billion. The company has raised its full-year growth forecast to 8.5–9 per cent. At the same time, part of the improvement stems from the acquisitions of WNS and Cloud4C, whilst net profit fell by 31.3 per cent. This shows that the transformation and integration of new businesses remain costly.
The wider market is conducive to this scenario. Gartner forecasts that global IT spending will rise by 13.5 per cent in 2026, to $6.31 trillion, with particularly rapid growth in spending on data centres, software and services. In Europe, technology budgets are set to increase by around 11 per cent, despite cost pressures and weak economic growth.
The most significant consequence may be a shift in funding from individual AI pilot projects towards large-scale programmes covering the cloud, data, cybersecurity and process re-engineering. System integrators, cloud service providers and data management firms stand to benefit. For customers, however, this means higher costs, a longer wait for a return on investment and the risk of becoming dependent on selected suppliers.
