Accenture CEO Julie Sweet is urging investors to remain patient as the global professional services firm navigates its artificial intelligence transformation. The company has experienced a significant drop in its stock price, with shares falling nearly 20% on Thursday and approximately 50% over the past year.
Financial Performance and AI Outlook
During its third-quarter earnings call on Thursday, Accenture reported a 2% decrease in new bookings compared to the same quarter in 2026. The company’s revenues for the quarter reached $18.7 billion, an increase of $1 billion from the third quarter of 2025, but this figure fell short of expectations.
Sweet addressed investors directly, emphasizing that the integration of AI into client operations is a process that requires time. “The investors, I think, are missing the AI tailwind and how we’re positioning ourselves for the long-term,” Sweet stated in an interview with CNBC on Thursday. She highlighted an increase in consulting sales and $9 billion in managed services as positive indicators, while acknowledging that “AI scaling will take some time.”
Client Adoption and Reinvention Services
Sweet pointed to progress in clients moving beyond initial AI pilot programs into full production as a sign of promise. She noted that demand for large-scale AI transformation is growing, leading to increased consulting work as companies undertake significant reinvention efforts, a term Accenture uses for AI transformation.
“We’re doing more consulting now because clients are doing more reinvention,” Sweet explained. “It really depends on how fast enterprises are ready to scale. There’s a lot of work to do to scale. We are optimistic because we see what our clients are asking us to do.”
Last year, Accenture consolidated its strategy, consulting, song, technology, and operations services into a single unit called “reinvention services” to streamline its approach to the AI market. Sweet previously stated the goal was to “make it even easier to bring those solutions, embed data and AI, so we can really scale across our client base and into new markets using our reinvention services.” Despite these strategic moves, investor patience appears to be waning.
Mitchell Landsberg is the senior reporter for News Raise and focuses on Technology. Mitchell regularly writes about social media platforms and how influencers, industry and general people use them to communicate and make money.
