AI Effect: Accenture lays off 11,000 employees, warns more job cuts

Accenture has quietly slimmed down its ranks by more than 11,000 employees in just three months, and the axe may not stop swinging anytime soon. The consultancy giant is in the middle of a sweeping overhaul designed to prepare it for an era where artificial intelligence, not human consultants, is increasingly steering the ship.

A few days ago, the Dublin-based firm unveiled details of an $865 million (around Rs 7,669 crore) restructuring programme, warning analysts that if staff cannot be retrained fast enough, further reductions will be inevitable. The company’s leadership, led by chief executive Julie Sweet, has made it clear that reskilling remains the preferred option, but not all employees will make the cut.

By the end of August, Accenture’s global headcount had fallen to 7,79,000, compared with 7,91,000 just three months earlier. The financial logic is clear. Severance and related costs accounted for $615 million in the last quarter alone, with another $250 million pencilled in for the current quarter. The company hopes that once the dust settles, the restructuring will generate more than $1 billion in savings. While that still makes it one of the largest professional services firms in the world, the steady drip of redundancies is expected to continue until November 2025.

At the same time as it trims its human workforce, Accenture is doubling down on artificial intelligence. The firm reported that generative AI projects represented $5.1 billion of new bookings in the financial year just closed, up from $3 billion the year before. That kind of growth explains why it is willing to reshape its workforce so aggressively.

Sweet highlighted that the company now boasts 77,000 AI and data professionals, nearly double the 40,000 it had two years ago. These “reinventors,” as Accenture calls them, are seen as the bedrock of its future. For staff, the message is stark: adapt or risk redundancy. For clients, however, Accenture’s message is one of transformation. By streamlining its workforce and leaning heavily into AI, the company is pitching itself as the ideal partner for organisations anxious about their own digital futures.

Yet the scale of change raises questions about how much human expertise can be preserved in a world increasingly tilted towards automation. Accenture is betting that fewer people, with sharper digital skills, will be enough to sustain its sprawling client base. Whether that gamble pays off remains to be seen.