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Steve Vachon, Senior Analyst2026-08-24 13:17:542026-08-26 08:01:20Convergence Takes Center Stage as U.S. Telecom Operators Pursue the Next Phase of GrowthYou are here: Home1 / Competitive Insights – Analyst Perspectives – TBR2 / Competitive Insights and Analyses Blog
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Steve Vachon, Senior Analyst
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Steve Vachon, Senior Analyst2026-08-24 13:17:542026-08-26 08:01:20Convergence Takes Center Stage as U.S. Telecom Operators Pursue the Next Phase of Growth
A Winning Strategy in IT Services and Consulting
We have voluminous data at TBR, 30-plus years of data and analysis on the largest and leading companies across the technology stack, from McKinsey & Co. to Wipro, from Amazon Web Services to Verizon. Because we publish data and analysis quarterly, looking back one year and forward two to five years, we don’t often take the longitudinal view. Looking at our research since October 2021 (18 months after the start of the pandemic) to today, what can we say about the strategies, business models and investments that have separated leaders from laggards, particularly in the IT services and consulting space?

AI-wrapped IT Modernization Opportunities Will Serve as Both Marketing and Revenue-generating Engines as Infosys Builds Verticalized Use Cases Tied to Outcomes to Expand AI Revenue Share
Infosys’ opportunity is not simply to sell more AI tools but also to use AI as the reason clients modernize applications, clean data, rethink workflows and consolidate vendors. That positioning matters because buyers remain practical: They want productivity, measurable outcomes and lower operating complexity, not another layer of technology hype.

The Paradox of AI Infrastructure: Hyperscalers’ Ambition Collides With the Power Grid and What This Means for Telcos
The AI infrastructure supercycle is entering a new phase. The central question is no longer whether hyperscalers have the capital or appetite to build AI infrastructure but whether the power grid can support what they intend to build.
Canva ProHidden Costs of AI Market Intelligence
The enterprises that succeed will not be those that provide unrestricted AI access to every employee. The winners will build trusted intelligence architectures enabled with proprietary, non-public data and analysis that prevent organizations from paying thousands of times for the same expensive thought. The future of enterprise AI is not simply broader access. It is governed intelligence aligned to enterprise strategy, with CFO approved efficiency. And increasingly, that efficiency may prove more valuable than the AI models themselves.

The Race for Digital Sovereignty: How 4 IT Services Leaders Are Positioned
TBR Fourcast is a quarterly blog series examining and comparing the performance, strategies and industry standing of four IT services companies. The series also highlights standouts and laggards according to TBR’s quarterly revenue projections as well as its geographic and segment estimates. With discussions about sovereignty in Europe only becoming louder, TBR thinks it is worthwhile to examine Atos Group, CGI, Fujitsu and Kyndryl. Our intent is to shine light on these similarly sized companies that have a strong presence in Europe and/or a strong presence in ITO and consulting and to discuss where each company’s opportunity lies.
Getty Images via Canva ProTelecom Infrastructure Services Market Expected to Become More Dependent on Hyperscalers and Fiber Technology Deployments
TBR research shows hyperscaler investment across multiple network domains will intensify through the forecast period, both to support cloud and AI as well as for general connectivity, driving TIS spend growth for this customer segment
Aflo Images via Canva ProIn the Agentic Era, Teradata’s Hybrid Strategy Will Drive Its Success
As enterprises look to operationalize AI across distributed environments, scale becomes less about where the infrastructure sits and more about how effectively the underlying data can be governed, accessed and turned into value. Teradata’s ability to deliver AI to where customers’ data already lives — without the need to modernize their infrastructure — will become more relevant.
Getty Images, via Canva ProWill C&SI Revenue Growth Accelerate Significantly Due to AI Adoption at Scale?
Nearly all IT services companies and consultancies have adopted a customer-zero approach to emerging technologies. With enough experience and scale, they should move into the latter half of the 2020s with compelling use cases for clients and opportunities to benefit from their internal AI adoption.
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GenAI Outcomes or Autonomous AI Architecture: Where Should CIOs Focus?Â
/by Patrick Heffernan, Practice Manager and Principal AnalystWhat good are AI-enabled solutions if an enterprise’s IT environment and architecture can’t handle the data orchestration demands and IT becomes a roadblock to faster, better, clearer insights from AI, rather than the business accelerator expected of IT departments in the AI era? After more than a decade of consultancies and IT services companies helping IT departments become business drivers, will inadequate architecture slow down AI adoption and AI agents at scale?
Amdocs Is Well Positioned to Continue Absorbing Market Share in the Telecom Industry; AI Is a Key Growth Vector
/by Chris Antlitz, Principal AnalystAlthough TBR believes it is very early days for agentic AI branding, Amdocs’ early foray into this emerging area and thought leadership underscore how the company is seeking to move into new and adjacent areas as it expands its offerings, especially around consulting, design and transformation enablement.
HCLTech’s Expanding KYC Journey: From Technology Provider to Trusted Compliance Partner
/by Patrick Heffernan, Practice Manager and Principal AnalystBy evolving its KYC offerings across platforms and clients, HCLTech has shifted from tech implementer to outcomes-driven partner.
DOGE drives civil sector slowdown; defense contractors gear up as Trump’s budget shifts billions to military priorities
/by John Caucis, Senior AnalystThe Trump administration’s recent “skinny” budget proposal for FFY26 suggests that nondefense spending will fall from around $720 billion in FFY25 to approximately $557 billion in FFY26, representing a 23% decline. Contractors with any level of exposure to the civilian sector can expect agency reorganizations, layoffs, budget reductions and in-depth contract reviews within civil agencies for the remainder of FFY25 and likely into at least the first half of FFY26. The pace of new awards has already slowed significantly at some civilian agencies, as has the rate of new bookings on existing civilian engagements.
Geopolitics with Purpose: EY-Parthenon Drives Strategy, Not Just Awareness
/by Patrick Heffernan, Practice Manager and Principal AnalystTBR has long maintained that the Big Four firms have an inherent advantage against all competitors when it comes to understanding and advising on geopolitical risk. Perhaps only the U.S. government has the same global spread of talent, with professionals in nearly every country, most intimately aware of local business, economic and even political trends. When EY-Parthenon showed off its Geopolitical Advisory team recently, TBR wanted to know: Is this something special?
Manufacturing Growth Slows, But EMEA IT Services Vendors Find Lifeline in Public Sector WinsÂ
/by Jill Cookinham, Research AnalystThis quarter, we look at Accenture, Atos, Capgemini and IBM Consulting in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) market, and compare how their industry diversification, portfolios and localization strategies position them for revenue growth. Atos and Capgemini, the two IT services companies whose EMEA revenue makes up over half of total revenue, experienced a steady decline in trailing 12-month (TTM) year-to-year revenue growth in recent quarters. Yet, Accenture and IBM were better able to maintain growth as macroeconomic conditions deteriorated in recent quarters.
Capgemini to Acquire WNS for $3.3B, Tripling BPO Revenue and Accelerating AI Ambitions
/by Jill Cookinham, Research AnalystThe acquisition undoubtedly serves as an important stepping stone to transform Capgemini’s BPO offerings, which are housed in its Operations & Engineering segment, yet Capgemini must be strategic with its approach, balancing new clients’ expectations with the introduction of incremental GenAI and agentic AI capabilities. Capgemini’s recent investments in partner-enabled portfolio offerings position the company well for a large change in the segment, such as its new agentic AI offerings announced with Google Cloud in April and its NVIDIA NIM-powered industry-specific agentic AI solutions and agentic gallery.
DOGE Federal IT Vendor Impact Series: Maximus
/by John Caucis, Senior AnalystPartnerships will be integral as vendors across the federal IT market look to quickly demonstrate their value to the new administration. While Maximus has historically been quiet regarding its alliance activity, this could change as the vendor aims to avoid falling behind. For example, Maximus recently announced a partnership with Salesforce to augment its CX as a Service efforts. The Maximus Total Experience Management solution is being augmented with the Agentforce platform to provide clients with AI agents tailored to their needs that use data to adapt to citizens’ needs and simplify interactions.
DOGE Federal IT Vendor Impact Series: ICF International
/by John Caucis, Senior AnalystTBR anticipates ICF will also explore ways to make its IT modernization and digital transformation work more agile while increasingly booking these types of engagements as fixed-price, outcome-based contracts, given the Trump administration’s preference for this contracting method. At least 50% of ICF’s IT modernization and digital transformation engagements are already fixed-price, outcome-based contracts.
Atos Is Starting to Regain Client Trust and Develop Commercial Opportunities That Will Generate Revenue in 2025
/by Elitsa Bakalova, Senior AnalystAfter years of instability and declining performance, Atos enters 2025 with new leadership, improved liquidity and early signs of commercial momentum, positioning the company for gradual recovery and long-term stabilization.