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

      The Tampa-based software services firm, owned by Sun Capital, is integrating the UK digital agency trusted by SAP and IWG into its Digital Experiences practice. The specific terms of the deal have not been revealed.

      Exadel, a software-development and consulting company located in Tampa, has acquired Tangent, a London-based digital experience consultancy, as announced on Monday. The financial details of the acquisition were not shared.

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

      According to Exadel's perspective, this acquisition aims to merge two components of enterprise transformation that have historically existed within separate vendor categories.

      Exadel specializes in what it describes as AI-native engineering, focusing on data infrastructure, applications, and the backend operations of managing an enterprise’s technology stack, with a workforce exceeding 2,000 across the US, Europe, and LATAM.

      In contrast, Tangent focuses on front-end disciplines, including UX, product, web experience, and MarTech engineering, operating on a smaller boutique level centered on enterprise digital-product work. This acquisition combines strategy, design, and engineering under one contract.

      “Brands are increasingly succeeding or failing based on the AI-driven digital experiences they deliver to customers,” stated James Dalziel, Exadel’s chief operating officer. “By incorporating Tangent into our organization, we are enhancing our capability to assist global clients in designing not only exceptional experiences but also continuously optimizing and scaling them through AI.”

      From Gammons' perspective, the value of this merger lies in the demand for companies to provide not just excellent digital experiences, but experiences that can continuously evolve and achieve measurable outcomes.

      Tangent has been operational since 2001 and lists enterprise clients such as SAP, IWG, and UK Power Networks, as well as New Balance and Vodafone in Exadel's announcement. The team is based in London, with an office in Newcastle and delivery capabilities extending across Spain, South Africa, Poland, Egypt, and Pakistan. Gammons previously held a senior position at WPP before becoming CEO of Tangent.

      Exadel’s approach to mergers and acquisitions is clear; owned by an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners following a take-private deal, the company has focused on enhancing its capabilities through acquisitions in recent years. Previous acquisitions include Motion Software, CPQi, and Coppei. Tangent marks the latest addition, specifically aimed at the design and strategy aspect of the enterprise stack, rather than the engineering or sector-specific backend.

      Both companies have also rolled out a joint AI accelerator program for enterprise clients, framed as a means to transition from “AI ambition to real-world delivery.” Details regarding the structure, pricing, and pilot customers of this program have not been disclosed. This positioning highlights Exadel as an AI-native alternative to the Big Four and global systems integrators for engagements where Tangent’s experience-design front-end has typically been outsourced to other vendors.

      This acquisition reflects a broader recalibration within the enterprise services sector, which has been apparent for several quarters. AI agent products from foundational labs are beginning to integrate directly into workflows typically billed by consultancies.

      Earlier this month, Anthropic released ten financial-services agent templates, incorporated Moody’s data within the workspace, and established distribution through Microsoft 365 and Snowflake. SAP introduced an Autonomous Enterprise framework featuring over 200 AI agents at Sapphire in collaboration with Anthropic. The pivotal question for a services firm like Exadel is no longer whether the AI component of the stack will hold the most value; rather, it is whether the integrator capable of bridging the model layer with the customer experience layer, seamlessly end-to-end, will maintain pricing power against the model layer itself.

      Whether the Exadel-Tangent partnership possesses the scale to serve as that integrator will be determined by the customer successes achieved over the next 18 months.

      Exadel’s recently launched 'Exadel Colleague' AI delivery product reflects the company's confidence that its engineering capabilities will not be overshadowed by AI models. The clientele of Tangent will influence whether the design component integrated with the engineering side provides a contractual structural advantage for the combined business in front-end-heavy enterprise projects.