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Informist, Thursday, Jun. 18, 2026

 

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--Accenture: Clients looking to reinvent faster 
--CONTEXT: Comments by Accenture management in post-earnings analyst concall 
--Accenture: Operational tech cybersecurity one of the hottest areas 
--Accenture: West Asia situation impact on co's earnings to continue Jun-Aug 
--Accenture: Seeing clients need to optimise use of tokens 
--Accenture: AI to be tailwind for co as clients scale up use 
--Accenture: Clients very focused on tangible results, whether via AI or not 

 

By Shakshi Jain and Rajesh Gajra

 

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI – Global information technology services bellwether Accenture Plc. expects to continue to see the indirect impact of the West Asia war on its revenues in the ongoing Jun-Aug quarter after the military conflict resulted in a $100-million hit on the company's top line in Mar-May. "Because the indirect impact really started in the last few weeks (of Mar-May) and mostly in discretionary spend, we do think that there will be more impact in Q4 (Jun-Aug)...and in these areas, it's not clear how fast things will change, particularly because some of the industries are dealing with kind of longer term issues," company Chair and Chief Executive Officer Julie Sweet said in a post-earnings conference call with analysts Thursday.

 

The NYSE-listed company's financial year runs from Sept. 1 through Aug. 31. Alongside the third quarter results announced earlier in the day, the global IT major revised its revenue growth guidance for the financial year 2025-26 (Sept-Aug) downwards to 3-4% in local currency from 3-5?rlier. Excluding an estimated 1% impact from the US federal services business, Accenture now expects its revenue for the full financial year to grow 4–5% in local currency, compared to the earlier 4-6% guidance, the company said in a release. 

 

"We saw a revenue impact of approximately $100 million compared to our expectations, which was all consulting type of work, split evenly between the direct impact on our Middle East business and indirect effects outside of the region," Sweet said early into the call, adding that clients engaged in longer decision making cycles in Europe, Middle East, and Africa, or the EMEA market, during the three months ended May. Further, a couple of large managed services opportunities moved into FY27 due to company-specific reasons, Sweet said.

 

Commenting on the demand trends observed in the past quarter, the chief executive said clients continue to invest in the foundations needed to scale up the use of artificial intelligence (AI), including strengthening their digital core through cloud, data, security, and operating model transformation. Second, clients continue to look to reinvent faster, according to Sweet. Operational technology security is one of the "hottest areas" driven by AI cyber threats and geopolitical risks, she said.

 

On a seperate note, Sweet said, "...we are moving clients from using AI to running on AI. We're also seeing more clients from pilots to production, and all of this is happening even as AI is still in the early innings."  

 

She said Accenture is optimistic and sees AI as a "tailwaind" for itself and the larger industry as its usage scales up. Overall, clients are focused on tangible results, whether the project includes an AI element or not, according to Sweet.

 

Regarding the usage of tokens for AI, Sweet likened the concern to that visible during the initial days of the cloud technology. "We built a whole spin-off practice on helping optimise cloud. So, we definitely think that we're seeing that with the clients (on tokens), and they're coming to us because we're doing a really good job ourselves of being able to know how you use the tokens, which models you use for which problems," she said.

 

As of 2031 IST Thursday, shares of Accenture were down over 15% at $131.85, one of the biggest one-day drops. American Depositary Receipts of Indian software players such as Infosys Ltd. and Wipro Ltd. also traded more than 5% lower around the time.  End

 

US$1 = INR 94.33

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

 

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