ai-pocalypse AI is proving to be a gold mine for mega tech consultancy Accenture, but if staff can’t use it, then it’s time to pack up their desks.
In its results for the 2025 fiscal year, which ended August 31, the consultancy shop said that it’s been investing in staff training to get employees up to speed. But if they are in roles that can’t be augmented by AI and can’t learn new skills, then the exit door is open for them. It’s all tied into a broader business reoptimization strategy that will result in one-time charges of $865 million over a two-quarter period.
“We are investing in upskilling our reinventors, which is our primary strategy,” said CEO Julie Sweet in an analyst’s call [PDF]. “We are exiting on a compressed timeline, people where reskilling, based on our experience, is not a viable path for the skills we need.”
Later, in response to a question about its business optimization plans, Sweet said, “Our number-one strategy is upskilling, given the skills we need, and we’ve had a lot of experience in upskilling, we’re trying to, in a very compressed timeline, where we don’t have a viable path for skilling, sort of exiting people so we can get more of the skills in we need.”
Overall, she said Accenture was increasing hiring globally for those with the requisite skill set. She claimed Accenture has a host of 77,000 trained AI professionals now on staff, up from 40,000 in 2023, along with 550,000 workers who have a basic knowledge of the technology.
That said, Accenture is making serious money on selling its AI consulting services to customers. Sweet said that following the plan to invest heavily in AI in 2023, revenue from GenAI and agentic AI tripled from last fiscal year to $2.7 billion in FY’25, and bookings nearly doubled to $5.9 billion.
One area in which the company is hurting is with US government contracts. Procurement from the government has dropped off after the new administration instituted cost cuts and that may hurt the company’s bottom line, Sweet warned, but contracts are starting to pick up and the company’s partnership with Palantir looks fruitful, she said.
As for the upcoming changes in the H-1B tech visa scheme, Sweet said the company was in a good position. Around five percent of US staff are on H-1B visas and, barring any major changes in government policy, Accenture expects no problems.
All in all, it wasn’t a bad year for the tech consulting firm. Revenue for the year was up seven percent to $69.7 billion, while net income rose more than five percent to $7.8 billion, according to its income statement ®.