Accenture bags $100Mn Gen AI projects in 4 months
BENGALURU, INDIA — Global technology services firm Accenture secured around US$100 million worth of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) projects in the past four months.
These AI-related projects account for 0.6% of the firm’s US$17.2 billion deal wins from March to May.
Accenture’s Gen AI services utilize advanced algorithms capable of creating diverse forms of content, from text and audio to video.
Julie Sweet, Accenture CEO, likened the AI industry’s rapid evolution to the early days of software as a service (SaaS), presenting a significant opportunity for Accenture.
“GenAI is going to go faster than, say, cloud, which took more like a decade… We are investing $3 billion in the next three years (in AI) because we think this is another Cloud First moment where we were out early to invest at scale,” the CEO added.
This move is similar to the company’s earlier focus on cloud computing, which saw revenues double to US$26 billion within two years of a US$3 billion investment.
The firm’s success in AI demonstrates the readiness of Fortune 500 companies to embrace Gen AI technologies, despite some analysts questioning the long-term impact on pricing and billable hours due to the commoditization of coding and maintenance.
However, several analysts are unconvinced that Gen AI will surpass Accenture’s success in cloud computing.
“Long term, we have questions on risk to pricing/billable hours as coding and maintenance become more commoditized due to gen AI, given that AI is different than cloud or other tech advancements in the way it will impact the supply side of the model,” said Keith Bachman, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets.
Still, Accenture remains the only technology services firm to publicly disclose its AI strategies which put the spotlight on other tech giants like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, and HCL Technologies.
