MW Capgemini CEO has a message for skeptical investors: AI is a catalyst, not a killer

By Steve Goldstein

Capgemini reported results that came in ahead of guidance, but its stock is still down by more than 25% this year.

Capgemini shares have lost a quarter of their value this year, sending its price-to-earnings ratio down to single digits, as investors fear the impact of artificial intelligence on the technology consultant's business.

Those investors want to know what is the point of a company like the technology consultant if artificial intelligence can answer the same questions at a fraction of the cost.

But the CEO of Capgemini, Aiman Ezzat, insists that's not what its actual paying customers are saying.

"I don't think clients are thinking this way about reduction, etcetera," he said after the company's fourth-quarter earnings presentation, according to a transcript from FactSet. "Clients are looking at how critical it is for them to adopt AI and where it can have an impact."

For now, Capgemini's clients are not communicating any plans to stop or reduce activity with them. "I think clients are really around, you know, where is the value creation? This is moving fast, how I can adopt it, where can I deploy it, how do I get benefit out of it whether it's savings or, you know, time to market, innovation, better customer relationship, etcetera. And this is really what the focus is a lot more, than predicting what they will do in three or four years," he said.

Capgemini (FR:CAP) shares rose 5% in Paris trade, though the stock is still down 26% this year.

The company said its "normalized" earnings per share grew 6% to EUR12.95 as revenue at constant currencies rose 3.4% to EUR22.47 billion. Analysts polled by the company expected normalized earnings of EUR12.17 on revenue of EUR22.3 billion.

It's forecasting revenue growth between 6.5% and 8.5% on an operating margin between 13.6% and 13.8%. UBS said expectations were for 7.6% growth and 13.6% margins.

Capgemini said its headcount was 423,400 at the end of last year after adding 82,300 offshore workers.

-Steve Goldstein

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February 13, 2026 06:15 ET (11:15 GMT)

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