Accenture is restructuring and how! Its focus has shifted majorly to artificial intelligence (AI) and automation. Reports suggest that the Dublin-based consultancy company has quietly let go 11,000 employees in three months and will continue to reduce headcount. Looks like the firm will soon have AI taking over from human consultants.
The budget for restructuring reportedly wavers around Rs 7,669 crore for which employees will have to be quickly trained or else risk losing their jobs. While the company will prefer to reskill but not all employees are likely to be picked for reskilling. And therefore, several will have to leave in order to make the whole exercise feasible.
The company’s workforce strength had been reduced to about 7.79 lakhs by end of august. This global figure was reportedly 7.91 lakhs around May.
Accenture reportedly spent about $615 million in severance packages alone in the last quarter, with a budget of about $250 million being set aside for this quarter. It is hoped that Accenture will ultimately end up saving at least a billion dollars as a result of this restructuring.
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. Interestingly, Accenture has not revealed the precise number of jobs directly tied to this restructuring plan. Still, the bill for severance indicates that the impact is significant—and will ripple through its offices worldwide.
The firm reported has in place about 77,000 AI and data professionals, while it only had about 50 per cent of that in 2023.
With clients cutting down on spending and seeking AI-powered speed and efficiency, employees at Accenture, as well as other biggies in the consultancy space, have no option but to adapt or risk losing their jobs.