In a Q4 2023 earnings call, Accenture's Chair and CEO, Julie Sweet, made a bold prediction about the transformative impact of generative AI on enterprise modernization and revenue growth. Sweet emphasized that for this shift to occur, companies must make crucial infrastructure improvements, emphasizing the need to be cloud-ready, data-rich, and equipped with modernized core systems.
Sweet revealed that currently, only 40% of workloads operate in the cloud, with a mere one-third of clients having modernized their ERP platforms. Alarmingly, less than 10% of companies have fully matured data and AI capabilities, highlighting the significant room for growth and development in this domain.
In the face of macroeconomic uncertainty, Accenture experienced a slowdown in growth due to customers postponing discretionary spending and tech investments. The company's revenue dipped to 4% in the fourth quarter, a significant drop from the previous year's 15%. However, managed services revenue managed to buck the trend by posting a commendable 10% increase, showcasing the resilience and adaptability of the company.
To position itself at the forefront of the generative AI revolution, Accenture has committed substantial resources, investing a staggering $3 billion in its AI division in the current year. This investment has yielded impressive results, with Q4 AI sales quadrupling from $100 million to $200 million, underscoring the surging demand for this cutting-edge technology.
Furthermore, Sweet disclosed that Accenture has made substantial strides in upskilling its workforce, training a whopping 600,000 personnel in AI basics. The company is well on track to double its AI workforce to 80,000, with a current global employee count of 733,000 spread across 120 countries.
Accenture's robust approach to generative AI adoption encompasses a wide array of industries, with banking, public service, consumer goods, and utilities leading the charge. Clients are deeply engaged in projects covering everything from strategy and use case implementations to tech enablement, scaling, model customization, tuning, training, talent development, and responsible AI practices.
Despite its potential, Sweet is quick to caution that implementing generative AI is not without its challenges. The technology demands a robust and carefully orchestrated setup of entire environments, requiring IT teams to lay the groundwork for this data-hungry, compute-intensive revolution.
With a growing emphasis on cloud readiness, data enrichment, and core modernization, Accenture stands ready to lead the charge in this transformative era of technological advancement.
