Capgemini acquires WNS: Accelerating the arms race for operating model reimagination

Capgemini ended months of speculation and announced the acquisition of WNS, a tier-one BPS vendor. The strategic intent of the deal is the “creation of a leader in Intelligent Operations to capture enterprise investment in Agentic AI to transform their end-to-end business processes”. One way of looking at this is that the deal accelerates the arms race for operating model reimagination. The acquisition is a significant investment for Capgemini ($3.3bn in cash) and more than doubles its BPS revenues (€2.1bn). It also opens new opportunities around vertical BPO, cross-selling prospects, and cost synergies. Capgemini says it is creating a new BPS service category, which it calls Intelligent Operations, based on deploying GenAI and Agentic AI. Therefore, how is AI driving the future for BPS services? Will more BPS providers pivot toward a consulting-led approach? Will standalone BPS vendors lose ground to transformation-focused peers?

Capgemini’s vision for BPS services, aka Intelligent Operations, is a fundamental shift in the market where Generative and Agentic AI automate and reimagine entire business processes. From a capabilities point of view, that could be plausible, yet in previous secular technology shifts, such as cloud and automation, the supply side struggled to articulate what operating model reimagination could mean. From a narrower point of view, trying to gauge the state of Agentic AI, most of what we currently see is task automation and employee productivity. Very few organizations are mature enough to deal with the complexity of Agentic AI. The North Star, if not the Holy Grail, is likely to be Agentic Orchestration. SIs, ISVs, hyperscalers, and workflow specialists are all vying for positioning here. Against the background of Agentic Orchestration, Capgemini is adding significant muscle with the acquisition, as it would add significant operational muscle.

Looking at the deal through the lens of provider rankings, Capgemini would re-enter the Top 5 IT Services worldwide (nudging out NTT Data). The acquisition would mainly impact the US revenues, as 47% of their revenues come from the US.  Capgemini would move from rank 18 to rank 14 in the US.  Conversely, the UK is the second largest market for WNS, representing 28% of its global revenue. Nonetheless, in EMEA, Capgemini would remain in position two behind Accenture. However, for PAC, the data point that is jumping out is the difference in revenue per employee. In 2024, Capgemini achieved around $71.000 per employee, while WNS only got to around $21.000. This appears to reflect the more commoditized nature of WNS’s business. And this is important to keep in mind when assessing the opportunity to infuse WNS’ solutions with Capgemini’s Generative and Agentic AI chops.

From a positioning point of view, Capgemini’s Intelligent Operations vision shares a common analysis of market trends with Accenture, which recently announced its reorganization, creating a new business unit, Reinvention Services, bringing together Strategy, Consulting, Song, Technology, and Operations. By the same token, with this acquisition, Capgemini gains more credibility to pitch against the Big 4. Zooming in on BPS services, industries and geos are highly complementary; thus, PAC expects Capgemini to be able to unlock value and drive up- and cross-selling. Looking across the BPS sector, the deal accelerates the shift toward a consulting-led approach, geared toward end-to-end transformation. Or as one BPO CEO put it, it is a “a declaration of war on traditional silos”.

Then again, the cultural differences are significant. Much will depend on the lessons learned from the iGate acquisition. If Capgemini can build on those lessons, then even the price premium might be justified. While cultural change management will take time, one thing is for certain: innovation cycles are compressed to frightening levels. Therefore, Capgemini must ensure that the ambition to excel in innovation does not derail the integration efforts.

So, is Capgemini overselling the WNS acquisition by announcing the area of Intelligent Operations? Yes and no. Regarding the latter, if anything, it fills the void Accenture has left as they pivoted from Intelligent Operations toward Reinvention Services. But Capgemini is not the only SI with an Intelligent Operations vision. Cognizant and HCLTech are using the same branding for their BPS activities.

Where Capgemini is in danger of overselling is the short to medium-term impact of Agentic AI. Very few clients are mature enough to deploy Agentic AI at scale. And more importantly, Capgemini can’t just port its suite of AI services easily into WNS offerings. Just as its clients, the company must reimagine its operating model. Furthermore, Capgemini will need to beef up its consulting capabilities in Intelligent Operations as customer requirements will pivot from the run business to operating model transformation.  Echoing Accenture’s move, this might require breaking down its own operational silos. Capgemini has presented the WNS acquisition as complementary to its own Business Services capabilities. Yet, PAC expects the transaction to be more transformative than most people think and will require the bundling of domain expertise, data, and AI skills. This transformation must be bold and focus on business and operating model reimagination. Just tinkering with productivity gains will neither justify the price premium nor move Capgemini up the value chain.