"Throughout her life, Accenture CEO Julie Sweet hasn't been afraid to throw out the playbook, and, in the age of AI, both she and her Fortune 500 clients are in the middle of another reinvention. Going into her freshman year at Claremont McKenna College, Sweet, who grew up in a middle class Tustin, Calif. family, decided to study international relations and learn Chinese."
"As the rapid development of AI has upended the business world and has touched everything from the customer to the front office, Sweet, Accenture's first woman CEO and chair of the board, says companies also have to reinvent themselves from top to bottom. "In order to capture the opportunity with AI, you really have to be willing to rewire your company," Sweet told Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell on the inaugural episode of the Fortune 500 Titans and Disruptors of Industry podcast. "Many times, when clients are saying, we're not getting a lot out of AI, it's because they're trying to apply it to how they operate today." Rewiring, as Sweet describes it, means abandoning the mindset of business as usual."
Julie Sweet rose from a law career into technology consulting and became Accenture's first woman CEO, despite initially lacking technology experience. The rapid development of AI has transformed business functions from customer interaction to the front office. Companies must reinvent themselves comprehensively to capture AI's benefits rather than applying AI to existing legacy processes. Sweet warns against using traditional governance models and cross-functional steering committees to deploy AI. Excessive focus on low-impact projects and more meetings under the guise of collaboration will not drive measurable value. Executives need to change operating models, decision rights, and ways of working to realize AI-driven transformation.
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