AI tools now integral to company operations
“If you want to get promoted, you’ve got to do the things that we do to operate Accenture. These are the new tools to operate a company. We didn’t go from zero to ‘you won’t get promoted’ in a month. It’s over a three-year period of getting used to the technology, making sure it’s user-friendly, making sure we have the right workbench for people to use, and then saying, ‘Hey, this is Accenture and how we operate,’” Sweet said.
Her remarks come as Accenture continues to expand AI adoption across internal systems and client services. In September 2025, the firm said it had invested more than $865 million in a six-month business optimisation programme aimed at reskilling employees and reducing workforce numbers among those unwilling to adapt to new technologies.
Long-term reskilling strategy underway
In 2023, the company launched a three-year $3 billion initiative to integrate AI across operations and increase its AI workforce to 80,000 professionals through hiring, acquisitions and training. Accenture currently employs more than 770,000 people globally.
Sweet compared the current AI transition to earlier workplace shifts when computers became standard tools.
“No one would have said that requiring someone to use a computer is coercion. It’s how the companies were going to get work done. Today, AI at Accenture is how we do work,” she said.
Challenges of enterprise-wide AI integration
Sweet also acknowledged that organisations often struggle to embed AI effectively, noting in a previous interview with Fortune that companies sometimes treat AI as an add-on rather than redesigning workflows around it.“First of all, I think we’re a good lesson in something that I’m advising CEOs all about: To capture the opportunity with AI, you really have to be willing to rewire your company,” Sweet said.
She added that both employees and clients experienced difficulties during the transition.
“For our people and our clients, it was hard. How do you have the courage to do that? That’s where you have the humility, but also this idea of embracing change and innovation,” Sweet noted.