AI is only as good as your data

The four IT services companies featured in this FourCast were selected because of their strong engineering and industry-specific capabilities, maturity of advanced AI solutions, and exposure to the manufacturing, industrials, automotive and energy sectors. These qualities place these companies in a rather unique position to capture demand for emerging technologies, industry-specific solutions, agentic AI and, eventually, physical AI, which TBR believes will all become defining growth characteristics over the next five years. As clients and vendors have realized, AI is only as good as the data, and vendors have been forced to refine their data capabilities. The four companies have augmented their data capabilities mainly through acquisitions.
 
Accenture has also worked closely with partners. According to TBR’s 4Q25 Accenture report, “using data-led discussions to drive both transformation and generative AI (GenAI)-specific opportunities will fuel Accenture’s next wave of revenue growth.” Accenture, flexing its strength in alliance structure, launched the Accenture Palantir Business Group, equipped with Accenture’s and Palantir’s forward deployed engineers (FDEs) as well as 2,000 Accenture professionals trained in Palantir’s technology. The collaboration brings data integration and platform engineering deeper into operations.
 
Additionally, Accenture acquired Faculty, which focuses on applied AI, data science and decision intelligence and could be viewed as the U.K.’s equivalent of Palantir. IBM acquired Confluent, equipping the company with data-streaming and real-time data integration capabilities. IBM’s purchase of Hakkoda enhanced IBM Consulting’s data transformation services. Both of these purchases will help IBM pursue additional consulting work. Capgemini’s acquisition of Syniti improves its enterprise data management software, and the purchase of WNS provides a large base for agentic AI delivery. Integrating agentic AI capabilities into the company’s fabric will help improve Capgemini’s performance and productivity. HCLTech’s recent acquisitions of Wobby, Jaspersoft and Telco Solutions will all bring new data and analytics capabilities.

FDEs, physical AI, and the next industrial revolution

After building out strong data capabilities, the next step is to industrialize solutions by adding engineering skills and establishing greater proximity to manufacturing and heavy industry clients. Capgemini and Accenture have a significant portion of their revenue in industrial solutions, manufacturing, automotive, energy, utilities & chemicals, at 29% and 24% of revenue in 4Q25, respectively. With Capgemini’s most recent announced acquisition of Piterion, the company will integrate AI and analytics capabilities with Piterion’s product lifecycle management and manufacturing operations management.
 
Capgemini also uses technology partners to innovate. For example, the collaboration with Orano on a humanoid robot for nuclear environments enhances Capgemini’s credibility around critical national infrastructure and sovereign industries, particularly the nuclear energy sector in France and in Europe, where the company has an established position. Accenture has built out its Industry X capabilities with acquisitions like AOX and SYSTEM, which have supported growth within its industrial solutions, manufacturing, automotive, energy, utilities & chemicals segment. Accenture’s investments in engineering and manufacturing reflect an effort to move toward higher-value projects and future demand.
 
A focus on industry-specific solutions in manufacturing and engineering will manifest in two important ways: FDEs and physical AI. FDEs enable vendors to work more closely with clients and offer a more embedded approach. Palantir was the first to popularize the model. According to a former Palantir software engineer, “At Palantir, they say ‘Do whatever it takes to make the client happy.’ … If it means like short-term losses for Palantir … building out a whole new feature or software product just for that one specific customer … they say, ‘Go for it.’ … [we] work with them side by side and gain a lot of political leverage and capital, which just essentially means trust with these customers to then land these bigger contracts.”
 
Clients in heavy industry will need support with orchestration across complex ecosystems and with integrating robotics, automation and advanced AI technologies across supply chain, production and management. Vendors need to offer these capabilities to ensure clients can understand the promised productivity boosts of AI and to achieve sufficient cohesion across operations. Although Accenture leads the pack in establishing FDEs, TBR expects the other three featured companies to follow, particularly Capgemini. New alliance and operating models bring new commercial models, such as Accenture’s Palantir Business Group, which highlights its efforts to productize services.
 
Second, opportunities to deploy physical AI are emerging due to the knowledge gaps created by staffing shortages as well as the rapid demand for new energy resources, particularly nuclear. The need for quick construction and operations will lend itself to using AI decision making and sensors enabled by physical AI. Accenture is perhaps the best positioned to capture demand for physical AI, given the company’s engineering capabilities, exposure to the sector, and most importantly, its traction. The company partnered with the Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission, which focuses on AI and data center technologies. HCLTech is also well positioned to capture physical AI revenue, with its focus on industry-specific solutions and the launch of its Physical AI Innovation Lab with NVIDIA. If Accenture, Capgemini, HCLTech and IBM Consulting can build physical AI capabilities, they will be the first to benefit from the next AI wave and potentially the next industrial revolution.