Accenture, the US IT consulting giant, reported another record year with $69.7 billion in revenue, a 7% increase from last year. Yet, alongside the growth, the company signalled caution. It warned of slower momentum, announced job cuts and noted that the anticipated boom from Artificial Intelligence is not delivering to the hype.
Julie Sweet, Accenture’s chief executive, admitted as much in the post-earnings call. AI, she said, has taken the mind share of CEOs, the C-suite and boards faster than any technology development we’ve seen in the past few decades.
But the returns so far have been underwhelming. “As reported widely, value realisation (of AI) has been underwhelming for many and enterprise adoption at scale is slow other than with digital natives,” Sweet said.
Analysts see this as a red flag for the Indian IT, as they have already been jolted by the H-1B visa crisis following US President Donald Trump’s recent orders. This week, leading Indian IT companies, including TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL Technologies, and Tech Mahindra, collectively lost nearly ₹ 1.36 lakh crore in market value.
Gaurav Vasu, founder and CEO of Unearth Insights, said the opportunity isn’t yet as mature for them, as their offerings don’t fully align with enterprise needs around AI readiness.
“Most Indian IT services firms are still in the early stages of their journey with Genai. They currently focus on AI-embedded services and have yet to announce large-scale, GenAI-specific deals,” he noted. TCS is an exception. It previously announced a $900 million GenAI deal pipeline.
Read: A Wake-Up Call for Cash Rich, Idea-Poor Indian IT
AI Job Cuts Declared
The company cut 11,000 jobs in the last quarter alone, bringing its headcount down to 779,000. Sweet said the company was working on tight timelines, and reskilling was not an option for the skills they require.
“And, we’re continuously identifying areas of how we operate Accenture to drive more efficiencies, including through AI, in order to create more investment capacity,” Sweet said, admitting that AI is causing disruption in jobs.
Over a period of six months, the company plans to spend $865 million on a business optimisation programme, including costs for severances due to employee reductions and rapid talent rotation. Accenture CFO Angie Park noted that this money is diverted from the deal cancellation of the two acquisitions that are no longer aligned with its strategic priorities.
AI is now both a problem and a solution. On the one hand, clients want it and Accenture is booking contracts around it, but it’s not yielding results as expected.
Vasu noted that the key reason remains that the foundational layers required for successful AI deployment— mature cloud infrastructure, strong data governance, and clean, accessible data — are often incomplete.
The IT giant reported $5.9 billion in generative AI bookings this year, taking the total tally since September 2023 to $8.9 billion. That’s 7.3% of all orders. Actual AI-related revenue came in at $2.7 billion, still a fraction of the whole.
Comparing that to Indian IT, firms like TCS and Infosys are still mostly presenting proof-of-concept pilots to investors. Accenture is the first to spell out its GenAI revenue in hard numbers. Earlier this year, it had reported $1.5 billion in AI bookings for a single quarter.
Read: Accenture’s $1.5 Billion AI Wake-Up Call for Indian IT
Market Mayhem
But the market is unforgiving. Accenture shares fell 2.7% after the results on September 26, closing at their lowest level since November 2020. The company forecast revenue growth of just 2 to 5 percent for the new fiscal year, with a big caveat: US federal government cuts are expected to shave off at least one percentage point.
Washington’s new Department of Government Efficiency, led in part by Elon Musk, has cancelled IT contracts and slowed procurement. The company has exposure to government contracts through its subsidiary Accenture Federal Services, which is likely to affect the company’s earnings in the long term.
For the fourth quarter, revenue was $17.6 billion, remaining nearly stable compared to the third quarter. Generative AI added another $1.8 billion in new bookings.
Sweet, though, is trying to show optimism. “In FY26, we expect to increase our headcount overall across our three markets, including in the US and Europe, reflecting the demand we see in our business,” she said.
Accenture recently announced plans for a new campus in Visakhapatnam, which is expected to add 12,000 jobs in India, as reported by Reuters earlier.
On the Indian IT front, TCS announced layoffs for 12,200 employees, mostly in middle and senior roles, citing “strategic initiatives” including deploying AI at scale. Meanwhile, Infosys has been more upbeat, insisting that its AI bets will pay off sooner than expected.
In Q1 FY26, Infosys CEO and MD Salil Parekh had said the company has seen good demand for AI agents and built 300 agents across business operations and IT areas. “These horizontal and vertical agents are helping clients drive faster decisions, improve customer experience, and enhance operational efficiency,” he said.
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