Accenture Hits Record $4.2 Billion in Generative AI Sales

Accenture in its latest earnings call Q1 FY25 reported record generative AI bookings of $1.2 billion. Bringing the total to $4.2 billion since September 2023, this marks the highest quarterly bookings in the segment, reflecting growing client investments in generative AI.

In its last earnings call in September 2024, Accenture announced $1 billion generative AI sales, which was a jump from $900 million in the previous quarter. The company was the first in its industry to disclose generative AI deal values. In June 2023, it reported $100 million in pure-play generative AI projects for the quarter. The sales are almost double as reported in the last quarter.

“It’s not really different from the kinds of productivity that we’ve been experiencing. And here, of course, there’s an added wrinkle in that generative AI. In order for us to use it with our clients, they have to allow us to use it and they have to prioritise,” said Julie Sweet, Accenture’s CEO, during the company’s post earnings call.

She emphasised that organisations must first invest in building robust data foundations before scaling AI initiatives. “We do not currently see an improvement in overall spending by our clients, particularly on smaller deals. When those market conditions improve, we will be well positioned to capitalise on them as we continue to meet the demand for the critical programmes our clients are prioritising.”

In the August 2024 quarter, Accenture secured $1 billion in generative AI orders, bringing its yearly total to $3 billion. The segment accounted for 6.4% of its overall $18.7 billion bookings for the quarter.

Accenture has also added 24,000 employees in the quarter, bringing its total workforce to 799,000, with a significant portion of hiring concentrated in India. Sweet added that the company has steadily increased its data and AI workforce, reaching approximately 57,000 practitioner.

Despite its strong performance, Accenture maintained a cautious outlook on the global economy. The company’s revenue for the first quarter stood at $17.69 billion, a 7.8% sequential increase, leading to a revision in full-year growth projections to 4-7%, up from 3-6%.

Indian IT firms, however, are yet to disclose such revenues from generative AI.

In October, Accenture partnered with NVIDIA to launch Accenture NVIDIA Business Group, aimed at helping enterprises scale AI adoption. This initiative includes training for 30,000 professionals globally to assist clients in reinventing processes and expanding the use of enterprise AI systems.