French technology consulting services giant Capgemini SE said today it has agreed to buy the Indian business process automation firm WNS Holdings Ltd. in a $3.3 billion cash deal, as part of an effort to expand the range of artificial intelligence tools it can offer to customers.

The acquisition will enable Capgemini to create a consulting service that’s focused on helping companies boost business process and cost efficiency through the use of generative AI and agentic AI technology.

Capgemini said it’s buying WNS for $76.50 per share, which represents a 17% premium over its last closing price on July 3. The deal does not include WNS’ financial debt.

WNS, which is based in India and specializes in business process outsourcing and data analytics, will bring its “high growth, margin accretive and resilient Digital Business Process Services while further increasing our exposure to the U.S. market,” said Capgemini Chief Executive Aiman Ezzat.

WNS counts major customers including Coca-Cola Co., T-Mobile USA Inc. and United Airlines Inc. When the acquisition closes, it’s expected to position Capgemini as a leader in digital business process services, blending WNS’ horizontal and vertical expertise with a global footprint. The two companies generated combined revenues in digital BPS of more than $1.9 billion.

One of the largest opportunities for companies to create value with generative AI and AI agents is said to be in the redesign of business processes and operations. This is likely to attract a significant amount of AI investment budgets, as the technology promises to transform organizations into AI-powered companies with dramatically increased productivity through a new type of service known as intelligent operations.

Intelligent operations is a consulting-led approach that aims to transform horizontal and vertical business processes with AI agents and generative AI, seeking to improve companies’ efficiency, speed and agility and improve business outcomes through process automation.

Capgemini and WNS already dabble in intelligent operations. Capgemini offers consulting-led transformation of business processes, advanced AI tools and BPS platforms, while WNS has built a number of industry-specific BPS offerings.

Capgemini said the addition of WNS will act like a catalyst, transforming it into an intelligent operations leader, with both the required scale and unique capabilities ranging from strategy and transformation to horizontal and vertical sector expertise.

“The mix of WNS and Capgemini’s complementary offerings and clients will immediately unlock cross-selling opportunities,” Ezzat said in a statement. “It will also lay down the foundations to build the capabilities to seize the Intelligent Operations strategic market opportunity.”

Forrester Research Inc. analyst Charlie Dai told Computerworld that hybrid automation and agentic AI will be major priorities for enterprise decision makers in the next three years. He said WNS’s domain-specific AI agents and platforms such as its AI.Agentic suite and WNS Expirus will substantially improve Capgemini’s own agent-focused BPS offerings.

There’s also a strategic angle to the acquisition, said Everest Group Managing Partner Rajesh Ranjan. He pointed out that agentic AI is still a nascent technology, and that most implementations up until now are pilot projects.

“The key driver is less to do with the tools and software, but rather the access to business process operations expertise that WNS brings to the table,” Ranjan told Computerworld. “This is a pre-requisite to develop and deploy real-world AI solutions.”

Capgemini said it expects the acquisition to be finalized by the end of the year, adding that it will be immediately accretive to both its revenue and its operating margin.

The markets didn’t react too kindly to the news, though. Capgemini’s stock fell 5% on Europe’s benchmark STOXX 600 index, as analysts from Morgan Stanley warned that the acquisition would have a negative effect on its balance sheet flexibility, without adding any significant revenue boost.

Photo: Capgemini