(Reuters) – Accenture said on Tuesday it will invest $3 billion over three years into its data and AI practice, doubling the number of employees that are working with the cutting-edge technology at the IT consulting firm.
The company, which consults and services various clients on generative AI projects, said it will have 80,000 people working on AI as it hires, buys other companies and trains more employees.
Accenture did not say by when it would hit that number, but added that the investment was aimed to help companies across 19 industries.
The firm’s move underscores a rush among companies to burnish their offerings with generative AI – technology that the likes of Microsoft and Alphabet say will change the way many jobs are done.
On Monday, Salesforce doubled its venture capital fund for generative AI startups to $500 million and unveiled an AI Cloud service that hopes to attract enterprises by offering its AI-powered products under one umbrella.
Accenture’s investment in AI follows layoffs in March, when it decided to let go of about 19,000 jobs in the face of a downturn caused by high inflation and rising interest rates.
It also launched a tool called the “AI Navigator for Enterprise”, that it said would help guide businesses on how they can best use the technology.
(Reporting by Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)