If you can't use AI then it's bye bye, Accenture tells staff
- Reference: 1758915844
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/09/26/accenture_ai_jobs/
- Source link:
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 [1]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."
[2]
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."
[3]
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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.
[5]Walmart's bet on AI depends on getting employees to use it
[6]All IT work to involve AI by 2030, says Gartner, but jobs are safe
[7]Salesforce sacrifices 4,000 support jobs on the altar of AI
[8]Fiverr cuts 30% of staff in pivot to being 'an AI-first company'
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 [9]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.
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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 [11]income statement ®.
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://investor.accenture.com/~/media/Files/A/Accenture-IR-V3/quarterly-earnings/2025/q4-fy-25/accenture-fourth-quarter-fiscal-2025-conference-call-transcript.pdf
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aNcM5quyVJ8Vv4HUqx9IpwAAAU0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aNcM5quyVJ8Vv4HUqx9IpwAAAU0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aNcM5quyVJ8Vv4HUqx9IpwAAAU0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/11/walmarts_bet_on_ai_depends/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/08/ai_impact_it_departments/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/02/salesforce_4000_jobs_ai/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/16/fiverr_ai_layoff/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/22/h1b_visa_changes/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aNcM5quyVJ8Vv4HUqx9IpwAAAU0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://newsroom.accenture.com/content/4q-full-fy25-earnings/accenture-reports-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-fiscal-2025-results.pdf
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
What’s with the weird symbols?
Spanglish
Wonder how many of Accenture's new AI hires are based in North Korea
and have oddly westernized names, AI-generated profiles, prefer payment in crypto, and can't travel for corporate meetings.
For Accenture and all the rest of those rent-a-body companies, it's not about quality - it's about contracted labor rates * administrative fees.
Just a way to fire the older workers
They'll say "based on our experience people over 45 can't learn to use AI effectively" and lay them all off, and after buying some Trump shitcoins with part of the savings Trump's DOJ will look the other way.
"But if they are in roles that can't be augmented by AI "
So what were those roles existing for in the first place?
Line items on the invoice. Must match to bum on seat.
it's not about actually making money, it's about making money on paper
Just like RTO, I don't think companies actually really care that much about AI. I think they want to shed excess staff to boost margins on paper as is the way in our private equity fueled economy these days. They don't care if AI can't actually do a job, they just want to include AI hype on their quarterly reports, and this way they can do that and also boast about how much money they saved by sacking half the company.
Obituary
“AI upskilling” isn’t a strategy, it’s the industry’s version of patching a leaky roof with cardboard. Years of treating engineers as disposable parts left the cupboard bare, so now the only option is to declare that autocomplete is the future of work.
Suddenly, the long-missing input fields appear, workflows finally line up with their PowerPoint slides, and management claps like it’s the Second Coming of Agile. Beneath it all, the code looks like a ransom note made out of Stack Overflow cuttings, glued together by chatbots and whatever "contractors" were cheapest that quarter.
They call it reinvention. In reality, it’s embalming. The systems will totter along on buzzwords until gravity wins, at which point they’ll sell the collapse as “phase two of the transformation journey.”
Later, in response to a question about whether he spoke English, Sweet said
(disclaimer: we hope to finish translating what he said, in response to this question, by the end of next week, or that is what the AI is promising us)
Thank goodness they don't manage my pension fund any more.
«We are exiting on a compressed timeline, people where reskilling, based on our experience, is not a viable path for the skills we need.»
¿Have you ever had colleagues who where downright HOSTILE to change? ¿That sabotaged and bad-mouthed ANY AND ALL change initiative(s) in the company? ¿that when said chage was proved bad they loudly proclaimed their wisenes, but when the change proved beneficial reminded mum and did not recognized they made a mistake?
¿What about people extra-resistant to change? ¿Of the passive-agressive variety as well as the normal one?
I hope accenture is refering to these types of people as the "people where reskilling, based on our experience, is not a viable path for the skills we need", and this is not a covert way to shrink the workforce for cheaper people, or worse, based on ageism, geography and such.
But, at face value, and for the right type of people, this is great.
JM2¢
YMMV