Most companies no longer need to be told what generative AI is. They need to know where to start, what it will bring, and how to avoid a collection of POCs that never make it to production. This is the role of an AI consultancy: to audit the existing situation, prioritise use cases, write a roadmap that management can sign off on, then ensure the tools are adopted by the teams.
Here is our 2026 selection of the top ten consultancies in France for framing and leading an AI-driven transformation.
Our selection criteria
To be included in this Top 10, a consultancy must combine:
A structured AI consulting offering: maturity audit, use case prioritisation, quantified roadmap.
An ability to go beyond the deliverable: in-house production deployment, or an identified execution chain.
A clear human dimension: training, manager support, adoption monitoring.
Mastery of governance topics: GDPR, AI Act, data sovereignty, cost control.
Public and verifiable references.
Teams and contacts in France.
Ranking compiled by Galadrim. We feature in our own selection by applying the six public criteria above.
Comparison of the 10 best artificial intelligence consultancies in France in 2026| Consultancy | Founded | Size | AI consulting specialty | Ideal Profile |
|---|
| 1. Galadrim | 2017 | 170+ | Audit, AI roadmap, and production deployment by the same team | SMEs, mid-caps, and large groups looking to move from framing to results |
|---|
| 2. Artefact | 2014 | 2 500 | Data & AI strategy, GenAI Factory, at-scale adoption | International large groups, customer and marketing data |
|---|
| 3. Wavestone | 1990 | 6 000+ | AI Transformation, governance and AI Act compliance | Key accounts, multi-year transformation programmes |
|---|
| 4. We Call Shotgun | 2024 | 5 to 10 | Adoption of AI by business teams, usage rules and governance | Companies where AI licences are deployed but rarely used |
|---|
| 5. BCG X | 2022 | ~3,000 (worldwide) | AI strategy and building at-scale solutions | General management of large industrial groups |
|---|
| 6. Sia Partners | 1999 | 3 000+ | AI-augmented management consulting, business agents | Banking, insurance, energy, public sector |
|---|
| 7. Capgemini Invent | 2018 | Several thousands | Data & AI consulting, industrialisation by the Capgemini group | Large accounts wanting a single end-to-end service provider |
|---|
| 8. Ekimetrics | 2006 | ~400 | Data science and AI applied to decision-making | Marketing, sales, and financial departments |
|---|
| 9. Eleven | 2008 | ~75 | Business strategy in the age of AI | General management and investment funds |
|---|
| 10. Converteo | 2007 | 450+ | Data, AI, and marketing, from strategy to cloud integration | Consumer brands, luxury, and retail |
|---|
1. Galadrim
The firm that writes the AI roadmap and delivers it into production with the same team.
Year founded : 2017
Size : 170+ consultants and engineers, including 40 AI engineers from Polytechnique, Centrale, or ENS. Founded by two former Polytechnicians (ex-Meta, ex-Microsoft).
Headquarters : Paris (HQ), Nantes, Lyon.
AI consulting expertise: Maturity audit (data, tools, skills), prioritisation of use cases by impact and feasibility, one-page scoping per topic, ROI steering, GDPR and AI Act compliance, assistance in arbitrating between developing and buying. Team training, from the executive committee to AI referents. Impact-oriented audit methodology published for Bpifrance's Diag Data AI.
Key clients : Stellantis, Compass Group France, OGF, IGA, Toyota Financial Services, Effy, Mercialys, SNCF.
Signature client case : Stellantis / Spoticar: AI roadmap and prioritisation of use cases for a network of over 3,000 sales outlets, then conversational agents, RAG, and visual analysis. Compass Group France: a four-person AI Tech team integrated into the group's teams, five use cases in deployment. IGA (publisher of the Veos ERP, 13,000 users): three missions in six months, including an Oracle to SQL migration conducted by AI agents. OGF: 70 DSI employees trained in agentic systems.
Why it features in this ranking: Over 150 AI solutions deployed and operated, and 30 M€ in measured gains for its clients in 2025: Galadrim's consultancy is judged on what works, not on the deliverable. The consultants who write the roadmap work with the engineers who deliver it, which avoids the classic disconnect between the firm that recommends and the provider that implements. Intellectual property is handed over to the client, and a reversibility plan is in place.
2. Artefact
The French data & AI firm that has become a global player, from strategy to large-scale adoption.
Year founded : 2014, by three Polytechnicians: Vincent Luciani, Guillaume de Roquemaurel and Philippe Rolet.
Size : 2,500 experts in 36 offices, including over 700 engineers deployed at client sites.
Headquarters : Paris.
AI consulting expertise: Data & AI Strategy, maturity assessment, data organisation and governance, AI & GenAI Factory, GenAI Academy for team training, bespoke generative AI applications.
Key clients : Over 1,000 companies supported, including Accor, Bpifrance, Carrefour, Legrand, Nexans, Vinci Airports, and FDJ United.
Signature client case : Pictet: adoption and training programme for Claude Code for approximately 500 developers. Artefact has been a Select partner of Anthropic's Claude Partner Network since June 2026, and 1,500 of its consultants and engineers use Claude daily.
Why it features in this ranking: The most comprehensive data & AI specialist in the French market: strategy, engineering, training, and a depth in customer and marketing data that few players can match. The format suits large international groups; an SME will rarely find the local point of contact it needs.
3. Wavestone
The listed transformation consultancy that has made AI the primary pillar of its offering.
Year founded : 1990, under the name Solucom. Became Wavestone in 2016, merged with Q_PERIOR in 2023.
Size : Over 6,000 employees. Listed on Euronext Paris.
Headquarters : Paris (La Défense) and Munich.
AI consulting expertise: Detection and prioritisation of use cases, platform design, AI governance models, AI Act compliance: mapping of AI systems, risk level assessment, estimation of compliance budgets.
Key clients : Large enterprises and public organisations, in France and Europe.
Signature client case : Co-authored in 2024, with France Digitale and the Gide firm, a practical guide for applying the AI Act for businesses.
Why it features in this ranking: AI projects represent 17% of its turnover for the 2025/26 financial year, compared to 8% a year earlier: the shift is real and measured. Wavestone is the right point of contact when AI affects the governance, cybersecurity, and compliance of a large group. For a first use case to be delivered quickly in a mid-cap, the setup is oversized.
The boutique consultancy that genuinely gets business teams to use AI.
Year founded : 2024, by Toni Dos Santos and Meera Sanghvi.
Size : 5 to 10 people.
Headquarters : Paris and London. Projects in France and the United Kingdom, in French and English.
AI consulting expertise: Diagnosis of usage and barriers, executive alignment, practical work on each team's documents and processes, usage rules and governance.
Key clients : L'Oréal, UTMB, Société Générale, EssilorLuxottica, Tatton, Neat.
Signature client case : Short, fixed-scope projects with business teams, conducted in France and the United Kingdom, in French and English: diagnosis, work on each team's actual documents and processes, then usage rules.
Why it features in this ranking: Many companies have paid for licences without teams using them. We Call Shotgun precisely addresses this gap between trial and daily use, with short, fixed-scope projects and gains measured in time, quality, and autonomy.
5. BCG X
The tech and AI unit of the Boston Consulting Group, for transformations decided at general management level.
Year founded : 2022, by regrouping BCG Gamma (AI and Data Science), BCG Platinion, and BCG Digital Ventures.
Size : Around 3,000 technologists, Data Scientists, engineers, and designers worldwide.
Headquarters : Boston. Paris is one of BCG X's most important offices worldwide.
AI consulting expertise: AI strategy linked to business strategy, solution design and construction, generative and agentic AI applied to operations, integration of projects involving multiple technology players.
Key clients : Large groups, particularly industrial ones, supported by BCG's strategy teams.
Signature client case : Generative AI assistants that guide industry technicians in real-time based on knowledge bases, and agentic solutions that automate industrial processes.
Why it features in this ranking: The player that combines the legitimacy of a strategy consultancy with executive committees and a genuine capacity for construction. It's the relevant choice when AI reshapes the operational model of an entire group. The fees are those of a top-tier strategy consultancy: beyond the reach of most SMEs and mid-caps.
6. Sia Partners
The management consulting firm that has industrialised its own AI agents.
Year founded : 1999
Size : Over 3,000 consultants in 48 offices and 19 countries, including over 200 Data Scientists.
Headquarters : Paris.
AI consulting expertise: Sectoral management consulting coupled with eight Data Science excellence centres, design of autonomous agents and business assistants, Heka AI solutions catalogue, SiaGPT generative AI platform launched in June 2023.
Key clients : Players in finance, energy, the public sector, life sciences, and distribution.
Signature client case : Agent Store launched in September 2025: over 400 agents available in early 2026, including RegMatcher (discrepancies between internal policies and regulation) and a fund classifier for FRTB compliance.
Why it features in this ranking: Sia Partners combines the business knowledge of a sectoral firm and a catalogue of reusable agents, which shortens the path between diagnosis and a first tool in hand. Profile particularly suited to regulated sectors. The agents remain those from the Sia catalogue: to be checked when the need goes off the beaten track.
7. Capgemini Invent
The consulting brand of the Capgemini group, for those who want a single service provider from scoping to industrialisation.
Year founded : 2018, as the consulting and innovation brand of the Capgemini group (founded in 1967).
Size : Several thousand consultants worldwide, backed by the entire Capgemini group.
Headquarters : Paris. French teams in Issy-les-Moulineaux.
AI consulting expertise: AI transformation roadmaps, agentic AI and multi-agent architectures, data and analytics transformation, with the group's execution capability behind the consulting.
Key clients : Major French players in industry, energy, distribution, consumer goods, and insurance.
Signature client case : Acquisition in 2022 of Quantmetry, a Parisian AI consulting firm founded in 2011, to strengthen Capgemini Invent's AI and data expertise in France. Group partnership with Mistral AI since 2024.
Why it features in this ranking: The advantage of an integrated group: the firm that writes the roadmap can rely on the teams that will industrialise it on a large account scale. The flip side is that of all large groups: heavy processes, and a team whose composition can evolve throughout the programme.
8. Ekimetrics
The Data Science specialist applied to marketing, sales, and financial decisions.
Year founded : 2006
Size : Around 400 Data Science experts; over 1,000 projects carried out for over 350 clients.
Headquarters : Paris, with offices in London, New York, Hong Kong, and Shanghai.
AI consulting expertise: Marketing mix modeling, sales effectiveness, Eki.Decisions decision support platform, responsible and resource-efficient AI. LabelIA Advanced certified in 2025.
Key clients : Nestlé, Renault, Groupe SEB, Auchan, BlaBlaCar, Leroy Merlin, Eurostar, Bpifrance.
Signature client case : Cited among the leaders of the Forrester Wave 2026 on marketing measurement and optimisation, and Google's measurement partner.
Why it features in this ranking: The most rigorous firm in the selection on the touchy subject: how much does AI truly bring in? Ekimetrics excels when the decision to improve is measured in euros, typically the allocation of marketing budgets. Less suitable for automating back-office processes or deploying internal assistants.
9. Eleven
The strategy consultancy dedicated to the AI revolution.
Year founded : 2008
Size : Around 75 people, including partners.
Headquarters : Paris (16th).
AI consulting expertise: Business and growth strategy in the age of AI, generative AI, technological due diligence for investment funds.
Key clients : LVMH, Vinci, Accor and Axa on the corporate side; Ardian, Eurazeo, Carlyle and SoftBank on the fund side.
Signature client case : A portfolio shared between large corporations (around 70% of activity) and investment funds (30%), which leads it to assess the AI exposure of entire companies, both before and after an acquisition.
Why it features in this ranking: The smallest strategy consultancy in the selection, and the one that has placed AI at the centre of its positioning. The right choice when the question is 'what is AI doing to our market?' rather than 'what tool should we deploy?'. For implementation, an execution partner will be needed.
10. Converteo
The data, AI and marketing consultancy for major consumer brands.
Year founded : 2007, by Raphaël Fétique and Thomas Faivre-Duboz. Subsidiary of the Dékuple group.
Size : Over 450 consultants, engineers, and data scientists.
Headquarters : Paris, with offices in New York, Toronto, Madrid and Milan.
AI consulting expertise: Data management and AI adoption strategy, design of generative and agentic AI products, integration of cloud and data platforms into processes. Google Cloud Partner.
Key clients : LVMH, Kering, L'Oréal, Michelin, Crédit Agricole, ENGIE.
Signature client case : Over 200 key accounts supported worldwide; Milan opening in 2026 to industrialise AI in Italian companies.
Why it features in this ranking: A culture born from digital marketing, which gives Converteo an edge when AI use cases involve customer relations, media, and consumer data. Less natural for an industrial or back-office project.
Is your question strategic or operational? If AI challenges your market or your business model, a strategy consultancy is essential: BCG X for a large corporation, Eleven for a more focused approach or an investment context. If the question is 'which processes to automate, and in what order?', a firm that can also deliver will be faster: Galadrim, Artefact or Capgemini Invent.
Should consulting and delivery be under the same roof? A roadmap written by one consultancy and then entrusted to another provider often loses some of its substance in the process. Galadrim, Artefact and Capgemini Invent cover both. Eleven will need to rely on an execution partner for heavy development work.
Is your main concern compliance? Mapping of AI systems, risk level classification, governance: Wavestone and Sia Partners have the teams and methods for regulated sectors. If data is at the heart of the marketing subject, Ekimetrics and Converteo are more specialised.
What budget should you plan for? The ranges observed in the market in 2026: a maturity diagnosis and an initial prioritisation of use cases are between 10 000 € and 40 000 €. A complete AI roadmap, with scoping of the first projects, is between 30 000 € and 120 000 €. A transformation programme supported over several quarters often exceeds 300 000 €. In daily rates, expect 800 to 1 500 € in a technology consultancy, and over 2 000 € in a top-tier strategy consultancy. For an SME or mid-market company, the
Diag Data IA de Bpifrance allows partial funding for an initial audit: its conditions have changed several times, check them at the time of application.
Don't forget the teams. A tool that no one uses yields nothing: this is We Call Shotgun's domain. Demand a quantified adoption plan and a
team training in AI tailored to each profession, from the management committee to operational staff.
The filtering question: 'Can you show me a use case you recommended, and what it brings in production today?' A consultancy that can only cite roadmaps has not yet done half the work.
Discuss your project
Do you want to audit your AI maturity, prioritise your use cases, or scope your first projects? Discover
our AI consulting and transformation offering and contact the Galadrim team. We approach projects based on business needs.
About the author: Arnaud Albalat is the CTO of Galadrim, a French tech & AI agency based in Paris (HQ), Nantes and Lyon, with a presence in Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Since 2017, he has supported SMEs, mid-market companies and large corporations on the audit, roadmap, and production implementation of their artificial intelligence projects, with clients such as Stellantis, Compass Group France, OGF and IGA.
Arnaud Albalat's LinkedIn.
