Teleperformance shares fell sharply on Friday, 6 November, after the French outsourcing group warned that artificial intelligence is eating into demand for its content-moderation work and cut its revenue outlook for the year.

A 15% slide

The shares closed in Paris down more than 15% on the day, having fallen as much as 21.3% during the session before recovering part of the loss. The company, one of Europe's largest outsourcing groups, was the biggest individual faller in European trading on Friday.

The outlook cut

Teleperformance lowered its 2026 comparable revenue outlook from flat to 2% growth to a decline of 1.5% to 2.5%. The cut followed third-quarter revenue of €2.532 billion, up 1% on a reported basis but down 1.2% on a comparable basis.

The weakness is concentrated in the company's Trust & Safety division, which provides content moderation for large digital platforms. Chief executive Jorge Amar said big technology customers were replacing basic moderation work with AI tools, while other work moved to lower-cost countries with the help of real-time translation technology.

Not all of the business is shrinking

Excluding Trust & Safety, the group's comparable revenue grew 2% in the quarter, suggesting the problem is concentrated rather than spread across the whole company. Teleperformance said it had about 1,400 AI projects under way at the end of September, more than double the previous year's level, as it tries to sell AI-powered services to the same customers.

Management kept its recurring EBITA margin target near 14.6% and its net free cash flow forecast of €800 million to €850 million, although restructuring costs are now expected to come in near the top of the previously announced €120 million to €140 million range.