Accenture to acquire UK AI firm Faculty to scale safe AI solutions
DUBLIN, IRELAND, and LONDON, ENGLAND — Accenture, a provider of global professional services, has entered an agreement to acquire Faculty, a United Kingdom-based artificial intelligence (AI) specialist, in a move sharply expanding its capacity to deliver advanced, safety-focused AI systems and decision intelligence products to global clients.
The acquisition integrates Faculty’s team and its proprietary technology into Accenture’s services, aiming to accelerate business reinvention for organizations worldwide.
“With Faculty, we will further accelerate our strategy to bring trusted, advanced AI to the heart of our clients’ businesses,” said Julie Sweet, Chair and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Accenture.
Faculty’s high‑stakes AI used by NHS, global clients
Faculty has a track record of deploying AI in high-stakes and sometimes sensitive environments, notably during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the Faculty created the Early Warning System for the UK National Health Service.
This system became an NHS leadership tool in their daily routine for predicting demand and making optimal use of critical care resources, and was effective when needed.
Faculty offers services that include AI strategy, safety, and the creation of high-performance systems, all grounded in a strong commitment to making AI safe and ethical from the start.
The firm actively addresses risks like bias and privacy by embedding safety throughout the development lifecycle. It works with leading AI labs and safety institutes, including OpenAI, Anthropic, and the UK AI Security Institute.
“Accenture bridges the best of technology and human ingenuity to maximize returns on AI investments,” said Manish Sharma, Chief Strategy and Services Officer at Accenture.
“Together with Faculty we will assemble a powerhouse of talent helping clients make AI work in the real world—linking data, processes, and people so value shows up faster, orchestrated through multiple combinations of bespoke client specific solutions, partner solutions and Faculty Frontier.”
Accenture to integrate 400+ AI experts and Faculty Frontier
The move absorbs Faculty’s unique human capital and its flagship decision intelligence product into Accenture’s global framework.
Faculty’s team of more than 400 AI-native professionals, including highly qualified data scientists and AI engineers, will integrate with Accenture’s existing team.
Furthermore, the Faculty’s CEO, Marc Warner, a Quantum Physics Research Fellow from Harvard and former member of the UK’s AI Council, will become Accenture’s Chief Technology Officer and join its Global Management Committee.
“As AI advances rapidly, the ambition of our clients is now, rightly, no less than the reinvention of their business. I am delighted that by teaming up with Accenture, we have everything in place to support AI transformation from start to finish,” Warner notes.
The acquisition also brings Faculty Frontier, an enterprise decision intelligence product, into Accenture’s suite of solutions. This product features advanced simulation and optimization capabilities to unify data, AI models, and business processes.
Accenture plans to scale this technology, evidenced by existing joint work with clients like Novartis to transform clinical trial planning. Additionally, Accenture will globalize the Faculty’s Fellowship Program, a structured training initiative that transitions STEM PhDs and post-doctoral researchers from academia into industry roles.
“I’m pleased to welcome the Faculty team to Accenture and look forward to Marc’s contribution shaping our technology vision and strategy as Chief Technology Officer,” Sweet noted.
Accenture ranked #2 in the OA500 2025, an objective index of the world’s top 500 outsourcing companies. The 2026 edition of the OA500 is expected to be released in March.
