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Global consulting giant Accenture has announced that it plans to cut staff who it is unable to train to use AI, starting with roughly 12,000 staff members over the last three months.
The company has announced a focus on AI and reskilling its staff to make the most of the technology, adding that it plans to cut any staff it is unable to train to be AI fluent.
“Advanced AI is becoming part of everything we do,” said CEO Julie Sweet during the Accenture Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2025 Conference Call.
“By definition, every new wave of technology has a time where you have to train and retool. Accenture’s core competency is to do that at scale. Our clients cannot possibly build all of the expertise they need on their own, they need us to go first and fast.”
The company has pushed hard into this new AI venture, having reduced its global workforce from 791,000 to 779,000 in the last three months and has intentions to continue cutting staff who aren’t able to upskill into AI.
“We are investing in upskilling our reinventors, which is our primary strategy. Those we cannot reskill will be exited,” Sweet said.
“We are exiting on a compressed timeline … where reskilling, based on our experience, is not a viable path for the skills we need.”
Of that staff, the company has already trained 550,000 of its “reinventors” on generative AI fundamentals and has implemented the technology in its key platforms, including its GenWizard platform that assists clients in scaling AI within their businesses.
“In FY23, we had 40,000 AI and data professionals with roughly 30 people working on a handful of GenAI projects with negligible revenue. Today, we have 77,000 AI and data professionals. We’ve worked on more than 6,000 advanced AI projects just this year, and we delivered meaningful revenue in FY25,” Sweet said.
However, the company doesn’t plan to slow its hiring process; instead, it will increase it in key markets, including the US and Europe, throughout the 2026 financial year.
All of this is part of a US$865 million business optimisation program that will take place over six months. Through this, company CFO Angie Park said the company intends to save over a billion dollars, which will be reinvested in the workforce and business, all while maintaining profit margins.
Following the announcement of the new program and staff reskilling and cuts, Accenture announced that it would acquire Aidemy, an AI reskilling specialist that would bolster its own reskilling platform, LearnVantage.
In August, Accenture announced the acquisition of Australian cyber security operator CyberCX, a move the company said would boost its security offerings in the Asia-Pacific region.
“Client demand for cyber security services is accelerating as data and digital environments become increasingly connected and heightened threats are exposed across operational value chains, supply chains and the enterprise. The need for responsible governance is also rising as AI and quantum technologies advance,” Peter Burns, who leads Accenture’s business in Australia and New Zealand, said in a 15 August statement.
“CyberCX’s breadth of capabilities, trusted relationships with government and critical infrastructure organisations, and exceptional talent in the region, combined with Accenture’s local and global scale and innovation, will help us meet this ever-increasing client need.”
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