Accenture has quietly slimmed down its ranks by more than 11,000 employees in just three months, and the axe may not stop swinging anytime soon. The consultancy giant is in the middle of a sweeping overhaul designed to prepare it for an era where artificial intelligence, not human consultants, is increasingly steering the ship.

A few days ago, the Dublin-based firm unveiled details of an $865 million (around Rs 7,669 crore) restructuring programme, warning analysts that if staff cannot be retrained fast enough, further reductions will be inevitable. The company’s leadership, led by chief executive Julie Sweet, has made it clear that reskilling remains the preferred option, but not all employees will make the cut.

“We are moving on a compressed timeline,” Sweet told investors on a call. “Where reskilling simply isn’t a viable path, we are making the difficult choice to exit people,” she said, as per the reports.

A shrinking workforce

By the end of August, Accenture’s global headcount had fallen to 7,79,000, compared with 7,91,000 just three months earlier. While that still makes it one of the largest professional services firms in the world, the steady drip of redundancies is expected to continue until November 2025.

The financial logic is clear. Severance and related costs accounted for $615 million in the last quarter alone, with another $250 million pencilled in for the current quarter. The company hopes that once the dust settles, the restructuring will generate more than $1 billion in savings.

Interestingly, Accenture has not revealed the precise number of jobs directly tied to this restructuring plan. Still, the bill for severance indicates that the impact is significant—and will ripple through its offices worldwide.

Betting on AI

At the same time as it trims its human workforce, Accenture is doubling down on artificial intelligence. The firm reported that generative AI projects represented $5.1 billion of new bookings in the financial year just closed, up from $3 billion the year before. That kind of growth explains why it is willing to reshape its workforce so aggressively.

Sweet highlighted that the company now boasts 77,000 AI and data professionals, nearly double the 40,000 it had two years ago. These “reinventors,” as Accenture calls them, are seen as the bedrock of its future. Upskilling, Sweet stressed, is the first strategy, but when that fails, headcount cuts are the fallback.

The strategy reflects a broader trend in the consulting and IT services sector, where the old model of armies of consultants parachuting into client offices is under strain. Corporate clients are tightening their budgets, US federal contracts are shrinking, and the promise of AI-powered efficiencies is too compelling for Accenture—or its rivals—to ignore.

A difficult balance

For staff, the message is stark: adapt or risk redundancy. For clients, however, Accenture’s message is one of transformation. By streamlining its workforce and leaning heavily into AI, the company is pitching itself as the ideal partner for organisations anxious about their own digital futures.

Yet the scale of change raises questions about how much human expertise can be preserved in a world increasingly tilted towards automation. Accenture is betting that fewer people, with sharper digital skills, will be enough to sustain its sprawling client base. Whether that gamble pays off remains to be seen.

The restructuring underscores just how quickly the consulting landscape is shifting. Not long ago, the industry was seen as largely insulated from automation. Today, it is one of the most visible battlegrounds where human skills are being weighed against the relentless advance of AI.

This comes at a time when industry leaders such as Sam Altman have openly predicted that artificial intelligence will replace a significant number of jobs across sectors. Accenture’s reshuffle may just be an early sign of what lies ahead.

– Ends