Accenture completes Faculty acquisition to bolster secure AI services

DUBLIN, IRELAND, and LONDON, ENGLAND — Global professional services provider Accenture has completed its acquisition of Faculty, a United Kingdom-based artificial intelligence (AI) company.
The move expands Accenture’s capacity to deliver secure, outcome-driven AI solutions to clients across the public and private sectors, integrating AI specialists into its workforce.
Julie Sweet, Chair and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Accenture, notes, “Now that Faculty is part of Accenture, we will further advance our strategy to be our clients’ reinvention partner of choice and lead in the safe, widespread adoption of AI.”
Expanding AI talent and leadership
Faculty was initially announced as having been acquired on January 6, and with it, a group dedicated to advanced technical knowledge and AI safety joined the Accenture portfolio.
Faculty CEO and Co-founder Marc Warner will also broaden his scope to serve as Accenture’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) as part of the integration. They will also join the company’s global management committee.
This move is designed to shape the company’s technology strategy and execution from the highest level. Sweet states that she looks forward to working with Warner to attract the best talent in the world to meet client needs.
The staff of over 400 AI-native specialists at the Faculty, including well-educated data scientists and engineers, will also be incorporated into Accenture’s current operations.
Faculty was established in 2014 and is considered one of the oldest applied AI companies in Europe, with a strong track record of delivering high-stakes solutions.
The company’s services include AI strategy, AI safety, and the design and implementation of high-performance AI systems, with ethical deployment as the core value.
Faculty has previously collaborated with key AI laboratories and safety institutes, including OpenAI, Anthropic, and the UK AI Security Institute.
Warner notes, “Together with Accenture, we have created one of the few organizations in the world equipped to lead this historical transition.”
Faculty’s proprietary tech, real-world impact join Accenture’s portfolio
A key asset in the acquisition is Faculty Frontier, the company’s enterprise decision intelligence product. The technology, which features advanced simulation and optimization capabilities to unify data, AI models, and business processes, will be added to Accenture’s product suite.
The integration will help organizations make better, faster decisions by bringing these key aspects into a cohesive system.
Manish Sharma, Accenture’s Chief Strategy and Services Officer, noted that “by combining our AI capabilities with Faculty’s highly skilled AI talent and products like FrontierTM, we will help clients safely apply and scale AI to reinvent their operations—connecting data, processes, and people to drive faster value and increase competitiveness.”
Accenture and the Faculty have been working together to support life sciences companies, such as Novartis, in transforming the economics of clinical trial planning and execution.
“With Faculty, we will further accelerate our strategy to bring trusted, advanced AI to the heart of our clients’ businesses,” said Sweet.
Warner stated that for companies aiming to become AI-native, success requires partners with deep technical expertise and the ability to deliver transformation at scale, a capability he believes the new organization now possesses. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Accenture ranked #2 in OA500 2025, an objective index of the world’s 500 top outsourcing companies. The 2026 edition of the OA500 is expected to be released soon. (Read the OA500 2026 methodology paper here.)

Independent




