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80% Untapped Potential of Cloud & AI: Accenture's Growth Strategy


"Which GSI do you believe to be 🏅 most influential as cloud and AI advisory?" a VP of Alliances asked me yesterday. My response? Take a closer look at Accenture's trajectory.



📈 Cloud growth to $32Bn+ revenue with 80% of its potential ahead


Accenture's cloud business has been growing at an impressive 36% CAGR over the last decade, reaching $32Bn in FY23.


It continues to grow double-digits in 2024 YTD, as the company reports an increase in large-scale transformation projects that combine cloud migration with AI implementation.


And there's still massive potential - Accenture Research suggests that while 25-40% of workloads have moved to the cloud, only 20% have been modernized.


That means 80% of the cloud adoption opportunity is still ahead of us.



🧠 AI is Driving 5X Growth with 90% of potential untapped


But the real growth story is in AI, particularly Gen AI.


“GenAI is acting as a catalyst for companies to more aggressively go after cost, build digital core and truly change the ways they work, which creates significant opportunity," explains Julie Sweet, Accenture's CEO.


Accenture is leaning hard into this opportunity, growing their new GenAI bookings by 5X year-over-year. “With over $900 million in new GenAI bookings this quarter, we now have $2 billion in GenAI sales year to date, and we have also achieved $500 million in revenue year to date.


This compares to approximately $300 million in sales and roughly $100 million in revenue from GenAI in FY23.” Sweet elaborates.



While most GenAI projects are still in the experimentation phase, the potential is staggering.


GenAI is expected to be a $1.3T market by 2032 (Bloomberg). Yet 46% of CXOs view getting the data strategy right as their top issue, and 32% rank talent scarcity as a key concern.


Accenture is addressing this head-on, aiming to double its own AI talent to 80,000 in 2024. They seems to be on track with 55K this summer.





🤝 Ecosystem Partnerships as a Differentiator


What sets Accenture apart is its "privileged position in the technology ecosystem," as it works closely with partners to help clients understand the right data and AI backbone to get to "tangible business value."


Accenture continues to strengthen its partnerships with cloud hyperscalers (e.g., Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure , Google Cloud) as part of its growth strategy.


In Q3 FY24, Accenture reported $8Bn in managed services revenues, an increase of 4% YoY. Managed services, which includes cloud services, continues to be a significant contributor to Accenture's revenue​.



💡 The key takeaways?


AI is the new growth frontier, while cloud remains its crucial foundation. And ecosystem partnerships are more critical than ever in delivering real value.


The question is, how will other GSIs and service position themselves in this rapidly evolving tech ecosystem? The race is on.


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