MONTREAL — After just a year and a half at the helm of CGI Inc., François Boulanger is out.
The board on Tuesday abruptly announced that president and chief operating officer Tim Hurlebaus would replace Boulanger as CEO, who is retiring from the information technology consulting firm effective immediately.
The change comes amid concerns about the legacy IT consulting sector’s outlook, which have grown in tandem with fears of the disruption posed by artificial intelligence. Over the past 12 months, CGI’s share price has tumbled 42 per cent.
Julie Godin, who chairs the board, framed the AI boom as a chance for growth rather than a threat to the bottom line.
“Today, powerful technologies such as AI are creating significant opportunities to help clients drive step-change transformation. Tim has the leadership track record as well as the combination of industry knowledge and technology expertise in client delivery that will guide CGI’s growth in this AI-first era,” she said in a statement.
Boulanger, whose previous appointment to the top job was announced roughly five months in advance in 2024 — rather than day of, like Hurlebaus’s — had sought to ease AI-related concerns by laying out CGI’s plan to deploy cognitive computing tools across the operations of its clients, which range from national governments to banks and manufacturers.
Artificial intelligence, rather than making CGI’s services redundant, “increases the need to manage and integrate it properly,” Boulanger told analysts on a conference call on April 29.
“Stand-alone AI tools are not a substitute for enterprise IT. They accelerate tasks and processes, but don’t solve integration at scale.”
Investors weren’t so sure. CGI’s share price fell 11 per cent that day.
The worry is not necessarily that demand will recede, but that upstarts such as Anthropic PBC and OpenAI’s DeployCo — launched on Monday — will gobble up contracts to weave artificial intelligence into client operations at scale, sidelining the old guard.
Dublin-based rival Accenture PLC’s stock has fallen 46 per cent over the past year. India-based Infosys Ltd. saw a 30 per cent decline. New York software giant IBM endured a 13 per cent decrease, announcing in November it would cut thousands of employees as it shifts toward AI consulting.
“Top of mind for everyone has been AI — creating more uncertainty than actual impact,” said Desjardins analyst Jérome Dubreuil in an interview.
He was skeptical that businesses and institutions could simply bring their software development in-house: “It’s difficult to vibe-code a mission-critical solution.”
Nonetheless, IT teams may be holding back on big contracts at the moment. “If we’re going to have a much better solution in a couple of years, should we be investing in massive deployment of some of the more legacy solutions?” Dubreuil said.
Boulanger’s departure came as a surprise, but one that might be explained partly by his successor’s professional training and digital expertise.
“Mr. Hurlebaus has a more tech-focused background. He studied nuclear information systems at university,” Dubreuil said. “Mr. Boulanger had a more finance and accounting background.”
Hurlebaus began his career as a developer and consultant, rising to lead CGI growth strategies across the U.S., U.K., Europe and Asia “in every major commercial and government industry sector,” the company said.
Before being named head of operations, he helmed each of CGI’s strategic business units serving clients in the United States. CGI Federal, the company’s U.S. arm, provides IT services to government departments and agencies south of the border, generating about 14 per cent of CGI’s total revenue in 2024.
In the release, founder and co-chair Serge Godin extended his thanks to Boulanger. The outgoing CEO said his successor was a “fantastic leader” who was well-placed to steer the company into a new phase of growth.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 12, 2026.
Companies in this story: (TSX:GIB.A)
Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press
