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Bengaluru: Accenture’s regulatory filings reveal the scale of its ongoing restructuring efforts—a series of business optimisation programmes that cost the company roughly $2.3 billion over the past three financial years and into the first quarter of the 2026 fiscal year.
The bulk of these expenses went toward employee severance, as the IT firm continued to streamline operations and align its workforce with evolving business priorities. In fiscal years 2023 and 2024, Accenture recorded $1 billion and $438 million, respectively, under business optimisation costs.
Accenture CFO Angie Park said the company launched a six-month business optimisation programme in the fourth quarter of the 2025 financial year, recording a $615 million charge, with an additional $250 million expected in the first quarter of the 2026 fiscal, taking the total to about $865 million. “The business optimisation programme has two parts: one related to rapid talent rotation that Julie mentioned, which reflects severance associated with headcount reductions that we are making in a compressed timeline, and second, related to the divestiture of two acquisitions that are no longer aligned with our strategic priorities. These actions will result in cost savings, which will be reinvested in our people and our business,” Park said during the earnings calls. Accenture’s headcount declined by 11,419 sequentially in the September quarter, bringing the total to 7.7 lakh employees. Accenture, however, added nearly 5,000 people year-on-year.
Accenture CEO Julie Sweet said in FY26, the IT firm plans to increase its headcount across its three markets, including in the US and Europe, reflecting the demand it sees in the business. Phil Fersht, CEO of HfS Research, said Accenture’s optimisation costs reflect a structural, not cyclical, transformation. This is less about downsizing and more about realigning the workforce for an AI-driven delivery model. Every major services firm is wrestling with how to rebalance talent from legacy delivery to digital, data, and AI. Accenture’s $2.3 billion optimisation charge is a wake-up call for the entire IT and consulting sector. This isn’t cost-cutting, it’s the price of reinvention,” he said. Fersht said the services industry is being forced to rebuild its delivery engine for an AI-first economy, which means rebalancing talent, redesigning roles, and eliminating inefficiencies. “Every major provider will face a similar reckoning as the shift toward Services-as- Software accelerates,” he added.
Ray Wang, CEO of Constellation Research, said the shift to digital labour and a world of exponential efficiency will require services firms to trim up to 25% of their workforce over the next four years. “This is that slow easing into the shift,” he said.
A few months back, Accenture consolidated its services—strategy, consulting, Song, technology, and operations—into a single, integrated business unit called Reinvention Services. In a recent video message, which TOI has reviewed, Sweet said, “And we are, every one of us, reinventors, famous for our skills, our creativity, our curiosity, our use of data, and our fast adoption of new technologies. Today, as the reinvention partner of choice for our clients, as the leader in our industry and the leader in AI, we have an opportunity to once again shape the future of our industry. This is also a moment that demands more of us and of each other. And we are the people to rise to that challenge. Together, we live our purpose every day, delivering on the promise of technology and human ingenuity.” Accenture has made considerable progress when it comes to GenAI deals. It nearly doubled its bookings to $5.9 billion compared to last year and tripled its revenues to $2.7 billion.
Source: GWFM Research & Study
