Accenture dubs 800,000 staff reinventors' amid shift to AI

"Accenture has reportedly begun calling its 800,000 employees reinventors, as the consultancy tries to position itself as a leader in artificial intelligence. The consultancy's chief executive, Julie Sweet, has already started referring to staff by the new label and the business is now pushing for the term to be used more widely, the Financial Times reported, citing people at the company. The reinventor label came from a reorganisation across Accenture in June, which merged its strategy, consulting, creative, technology and operations divisions into a single unit called Reinvention Services."

"The reinventor push from Accenture comes as it moves to sharpen its focus on its AI capabilities. Sweet told investors in September that the consultancy would exit employees who were not getting the hang of using AI at work. The New-York based group said it was training staff in generative AI fundamentals, but employees for whom reskilling, based on our experience, is not a viable path for the skills we need would be shown the door."

"The new tag for the consultants is the latest in a long list of unusual jargon that big businesses have foisted on their staff, and some tech workers are now referred to as ninjas, growth hackers and evangelists. Curious job titles are also popular in the media and entertainment industries, including at Walt Disney, where technical experts who design and build its theme parks are referred to as imagineers. The consultancy has also reportedly built a version of its internal human resources website where the staff are called reinventors rather than workers, the FT reported, citing a person familiar with the matter."

Accenture has begun labelling its 800,000 employees 'reinventors' after a June reorganization that merged strategy, consulting, creative, technology and operations into Reinvention Services. The rebranding aims to sharpen focus on AI capabilities and encourage widespread adoption of generative AI fundamentals through company training programs. The company intends to exit employees who fail to reskill or adopt AI-based work practices. The firm created an internal human resources site using the 'reinventor' label. The change reflects broader corporate trends toward unusual job titles across tech and entertainment and follows Accenture's long history as a global IT and business consulting provider spun out from Arthur Andersen in 1989.

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