Consulting giant Accenture has a clear message for workers: learn AI, or get out. And it’s not alone. Many companies are reconfiguring their workforces for a rapidly shifting future.
During an earnings call last week, CEO Julie Sweet explained the company’s restructuring strategy.
“Our number one strategy is upskilling,” Sweet said on the call. “We are exiting on a compressed timeline, people, where reskilling, based on our experience, is not a viable path for the skills we need.”
Sweet went on to say that the company, which has 779,000 employees globally, is restructuring to be an AI-driven business. While Accenture has cut roughly 22,000 employees so far in 2025, it isn’t looking to reduce its overall headcount. Instead, the company is focused on adding to its AI and data workforce of about 77,000 in the hopes of saving at least $1 billion that it intends to reinvest in workers, CFO Angie Park said on the call.
Accenture has also been hard at work training current employees for a future with GenAI and has trained more than half a million employees. “Our early investment in AI is really paying off,” Sweet told CNBC. “We feel very good as we go into FY26 with the momentum we’re seeing in our business which is driven by Accenture being the company that you really partner to make sure you can use advanced AI.”
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Sweet also said the company is focused on “talent rotating,” a strategy that involves cutting workers who don’t have an aptitude for AI, while investing in AI and cloud roles. Microsoft, Meta, and Klarna have all deployed the tactic as they fight to stay ahead in the AI race.
Walmart is taking a similar strategy with its workforce, according to the Wall Street Journal. “It’s very clear that AI is going to change literally every job,” CEO Doug McMillon recently told business leaders during a workforce conference at the retailer’s Bentonville headquarters. Walmart expects to cut some roles and tasks and create new ones, without changing its overall headcount. “Our goal is to create the opportunity for everybody to make it to the other side.”
McMillon told the Associated Press that he expects Walmart’s corporate roles to be impacted by AI faster than its store and fulfillment jobs, though he’s unsure exactly what that will look like and how the changes will take place.
“The way for all of us to approach it, especially here at Walmart, is just in a very transparent, honest, human, straightforward way,” McMillon said. “Talking to people [in] real time about what we’re learning and what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. That’s the way that we plan to lead through this.”