Ipsos rolls out its Horizons strategy to drive growth

Ipsos has unveiled Horizons, its transformation and growth strategy aimed at reinforcing its global leadership. Led by CEO Jean-Laurent Poitou and approved by the Board of Directors, the strategy outlines the company’s renewed ambitions and a clear execution roadmap. Ipsos expects annual organic growth of 5% or more by 2028, alongside an improvement in operating margin to a record 13.5% in the same year.

The Horizons strategy is built around six key pillars. First, Ipsos will harness the full potential of its broad portfolio of services, leveraging its multi-specialist model to deliver solutions across geographies and client needs, with a sharper focus on high-growth offerings. Second, the company will strengthen its global operating capabilities while maintaining a strong local footprint, accelerating the rollout of global platforms and deepening local market expertise across its presence in 90 countries.

Third, Ipsos aims to deliver insights faster without compromising reliability by evolving its platforms and processes to enable real-time outputs for select projects and delivery within 48 hours for most others. Fourth, the company will leverage its expertise in artificial intelligence as a key differentiator, increasing investments to enhance speed, agility, and productivity while maintaining data quality and analytical rigor. Fifth, Ipsos will continue to develop its proprietary panels, a core competitive advantage that ensures access to real respondents, enables real-time behavioural insights, and supports the responsible use of AI-generated synthetic data. Finally, the company will focus on enabling decision-making through high-value information by transforming data into impactful, actionable insights for clients.

Together, these pillars support Ipsos’ ambition to become the AI-augmented global market research leader. Building on its deep understanding of society, markets, and people, the company aims to strengthen its position as a trusted partner delivering actionable insights at speed.

The strategy is underpinned by two growth drivers: reinventing services through AI-enabled ways of working to accelerate delivery, and enriching the company’s portfolio by scaling high-potential services while exploring new growth opportunities.

Implementation will be supported by a robust investment programme in technology, AI, and data. Ipsos plans to invest more than €1 billion over the next five years in transformational initiatives, primarily through acquisitions and strategic investments funded largely by free cash flow. These investments will enhance operational capabilities, expand data integration and analytics offerings, and be complemented by enhanced training to upskill teams.

Commenting on the strategy, Jean-Laurent Poitou, CEO of Ipsos, said, “We are at a pivotal moment. The opportunities presented by tech and AI will allow us to build on our strengths and further reinforce our model to become an ‘Augmented Ipsos’. This plan will enable us to set a new pace in a rapidly evolving market, embody the future of our industry, and reinforce our leadership—gaining speed without ever compromising the rigor and reliability of our research.”