Ipsos to invest €1.2 billion over five years on AI, acquisitions

Jan 22 - French market research firm Ipsos plans to invest 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion) ​over five years in artificial intelligence and ‌acquisitions as it seeks to reverse sluggish growth, its CEO ‌Jean-Laurent Poitou said in an interview.

The investment plan will be split between acquisitions, targeting specific technologies, and improving its internal capabilities, he said.

"We will increase ⁠the proportion of ‌data scientists and artificial intelligence engineers among Ipsos' talent pool in the coming ‍years. This is one of the reasons why we will be investing," Poitou said. Ipsos currently employs over ​1,000 data scientists and AI engineers.

The company intends ‌to focus its AI efforts on commercial research, which constitutes the bulk of its revenue, rather than political polling, a smaller service line.

Ipsos plans to develop or acquire most of its core ⁠technologies though it remains open ​to partnerships if they accelerate ​progress or align better with financial objectives.

The firm primarily uses data it owns, such ‍as that ⁠from syndicated studies sold to multiple clients, for training its AI models. Proprietary studies commissioned ⁠by clients involve contractual agreements that determine data ownership, Poitou ‌said.

($1 = 0.8546 euros)

(Reporting by Leo Marchandon in ‌Gdansk; Editing by Matt Scuffham)