Exadel acquires London-based consultancy Tangent to enhance its AI engineering offerings with experience design.

      The software services firm based in Tampa and owned by Sun Capital is integrating the UK digital agency Tangent, which is trusted by SAP and IWG, into its Digital Experiences division. Details of the deal have not been made public.

      On Monday, Exadel, a Tampa-based software development and consulting company, announced its acquisition of Tangent, a London-based digital experience consultancy. The terms of the agreement have not been revealed.

      Tangent will continue to function under its current brand within Exadel’s Digital Experiences division, with CEO Leigh Gammons transitioning to a role as managing director and senior vice president to oversee the business.

      According to Exadel's perspective, this acquisition connects two components of enterprise transformation activities that have historically been categorized under different vendors.

      Exadel specializes in what it terms AI-native engineering: data infrastructure, applications, and backend operations for managing an enterprise technology stack, supported by a workforce of over 2,000 across the US, Europe, and LATAM.

      Conversely, Tangent focuses on frontend disciplines, such as UX, product development, web experience, and MarTech engineering, operating on a boutique scale centered around what its website refers to as enterprise digital product work. This acquisition integrates strategy, design, and engineering into one contract.

      “Brands increasingly succeed or fail based on the AI-driven digital experiences they offer customers,” Exadel’s chief operating officer, James Dalziel, mentioned in the announcement. “By incorporating Tangent into our organization, we enhance our capabilities to assist global clients not only in designing outstanding experiences but also in continually optimizing and scaling them through AI.”

      Gammons highlighted the importance of the merger from another angle: “Businesses are seeking more than just exceptional digital experiences. They need to provide experiences that can continuously evolve and yield measurable results.”

      Established in 2001, Tangent counts SAP, IWG, and UK Power Networks among its enterprise clients, according to its own promotional materials, which also mention New Balance and Vodafone in Exadel’s announcement.

      Its team is based in London, with an office in Newcastle and a service footprint that extends across Spain, South Africa, Poland, Egypt, and Pakistan. Gammons took over as CEO after leaving a senior position at WPP.

      Exadel’s strategy for mergers and acquisitions is well-defined. After a take-private transaction, the company, owned by an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners, has spent recent years enhancing its capabilities through strategic acquisitions.

      Previous acquisitions include Motion Software, CPQi, and Coppei. Tangent represents the latest addition, specifically targeting the design and strategy aspects of the enterprise stack, rather than engineering or sector-specific components.

      The two companies have also announced a collaborative AI accelerator program for enterprise clients, positioned as a means to progress from ‘AI ambition to real-world execution.’

      Details surrounding the structural aspects, pricing, and initial customers remain unpublished. This positioning establishes Exadel as an AI-native alternative to the Big Four and global systems integrators for projects where Tangent's experience design has been traditionally outsourced.

      This acquisition occurs amid a broader re-evaluation within the enterprise services sector that has become evident over the last few quarters. AI products from foundational labs have begun directly impacting workflows historically billed by consultancies.

      Earlier this month, Anthropic released ten financial services agent templates, incorporated Moody’s data into its workspace, and established distribution through Microsoft 365 and Snowflake.

      At its Sapphire event, SAP introduced an Autonomous Enterprise framework featuring over 200 AI agents developed in collaboration with Anthropic. The crucial competitive question for a services firm with Exadel’s profile is no longer whether the AI component of the stack will hold the most value; it is whether the integrator capable of linking the model layer to the customer experience layer end-to-end can maintain pricing power against the model layer itself.

      The upcoming 18 months, characterized by customer acquisitions, will reveal whether the Exadel-Tangent partnership has the necessary scale to act as that integrator.

      Exadel's recently launched ‘Exadel Colleague’ AI delivery product reflects the company's belief that its engineering segment will not be devalued by these models. The customer base of Tangent will ultimately determine if the design aspect, when paired with the engineering component, provides the combined entity a structural advantage in front-end-intensive enterprise projects.