 "FILE PHOTO: Figurines with computers and smartphones are seen in front of Accenture logo in this illustration. Reuters")
Accenture has asked its staff to leave the company if they are unable to retrain themselves in the age of artificial intelligence, amid a global reduction of workforce by more than 11,000 in the past three months.
“We are exiting on a compressed timeline people where reskilling, based on our experience, is not a viable path for the skills we need,” chief executive Julie Sweet said.
On Thursday, the IT consulting group announced a $865 million restructuring plan and provided an outlook for the coming year, highlighting ongoing weak demand for consulting services from corporate clients and tighter spending by the US federal government.
Why is the company reducing its workforce?
By the end of August, Accenture had hired only 779,000 people, down from 791,000 three months earlier. The company is also conducting layoff drives currently that will continue till the end of November.
The cuts enabled Accenture to reaffirm that it will continue to grow its operating profit margins by at least 10 basis points annually in the next fiscal year, a goal some analysts had feared might be abandoned due to challenging industry conditions.
And the restructuring policy seemed to have worked as Accenture saw a revenue growth of 7 per cent to $69.7bn in the year to August, for a net income of $7.83bn, up 6 per cent.
How is AI playing into all of this?
Accenture reported that generative AI projects contributed $5.1 billion to its new bookings in the past year, up from $3 billion the previous year. The company also noted that 77,000 of its employees are now skilled in AI or data, a significant increase from 40,000 two years ago.
“We are investing in upskilling our reinventors, which is our primary strategy,” Sweet said, adding that Accenture would increase its overall headcount in the coming years.