Despite the generative AI (artificial intelligence) market hype, some big IT consulting companies are experiencing top-line revenue slowdowns while expressing business optimism for the second half of 2024.
A case in point: At global IT services firm Capgemini, revenue was roughly €11.2 billion (US$12.1 billion) in the first-half of 2024, down 2.5% compared to the first-half of 2023. In a July 26, 2024, earnings statement, Capgemini CEO Aiman Ezzat said business has been improving on multiple fronts, and he sees opportunities involving generative AI, energy optimization and sustainable energy management. Still, challenges lurk in the automotive and aerospace sectors, he added.
Among the business anecdotes Ezzat shared in the financial statement, Capgemini:
- Trained 120,000 employees on generative AI tools.
- Sees traction for value-added services in the fields of cloud, data & AI, sustainability, and intelligent industry remains strong.
- Headcount is roughly 337,000 as of June 2024, down 4% compared to 12 months earlier but stable since March 2024.
On the sustainability front, all Capgemini employees must now complete a recently launched Sustainability awareness module. Also, Energy Command Center (CC) technology -- developed with Schneider Electric -- is now available as a service to customers. The overall platform can "monitor, control and optimize all building assets consuming energy including data centers or critical environment rooms," the two companies assert.
Demand for such services appears to be growing. For instance, roughly 50% of organizations will leverage sustainability monitoring technology to manage hybrid cloud energy consumption by 2026, Gartner predicts.
