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Diving briefs:
- Accenture touted the substantial profits of the surged demand for AI businesses and data modernization services during its fourth quarter revenue call on Thursday.
- “Our data business is on fire,” CEO Julie Sweet said over the phone. “One of Gen AI's two projects, Agent AI and Physical AI, has a critical data pull-through,” the company also folded five previous separate business units together under the banner of reinvention services and completed the reorganization earlier this month, Sweet said Thursday.
- The professional services company generated three times the generation and agent AI revenue and bookings for $2.7 billion and $5.9 billion in the 12 months ended August 31st. The company's total revenues for the year increased nearly 7%, split almost evenly between consulting and managed services, according to revenue releases.
Dive Insights:
Accenture moved in June to integrate its operations around a major digital transformation project, as enterprises struggled to extract returns on increasing investments in generated AI technologies.
“As the model fully unfolds, it will sell and deliver all Accenture offers, deliver what it offers faster and easier, embedding more AI and data, and equipping people faster and easier,” Sweet said.
Accenture focuses on plaguing AI talent shortages and plaguing corporate customers. Almost two-thirds of executives surveyed by the company earlier this year said the organization's generative AI plans are being hampered by a lack of internal skills.
“It's very easy to use AI in individual lives, and there's a huge difference between what it takes to use in a company,” Sweet said. “AI opportunities are the intersection of business strategy, technology and organizational preparation.”
The company began building an AI talent pool prior to the recent organizational change. Accenture poured $1 billion into a skill-building platform for enterprise customers and moved to mastering a learning platform in March 2024.
As enterprise talent grew, Accenture almost doubled its AI and data expert staff to 77,000 in two years, according to Sweet. “Renventors” from over 550,000 companies are currently trained in the fundamentals of generative AI, she added.
Modernizing infrastructure and reinforce basic technologies to support AI adoption are also gaining higher on the list of priorities for companies.
“We're still in the modernization of cloud, ERP and security,” Sweet said. “Data preparation is early stages, and many companies are working on fragmented processes and siloed organizations.”
