Accenture's stock price rose 22% on Thursday, achieving its best single-day performance ever. Prior to this, the consulting giant released earnings guidance that exceeded expectations and informed investors that artificial intelligence could bring more jobs to IT service companies, rather than destroying demand.

In its official financial results for the fiscal year 2026, Accenture announced that revenue for the fourth quarter was $18.7 billion, representing a 6% increase in US dollars; new orders reached $22.2 billion. The company expects revenue for the fiscal year 2027 to grow by 3% to 6% when calculated in local currencies, which is higher than Wall Street's forecast of nearly 3.9%.

This outlook helped to reverse the narrative that has been suppressing this stock this year: Generative AI could potentially automate most of the work involved in consulting, outsourcing, and software implementation.

AI is becoming an opportunity for income, rather than just a threat.

The biggest change is that investors are re-evaluating the impact of AI on consulting demands.

Enterprises are increasingly in need of external assistance to redesign work processes, integrate AI tools, and automate internal procedures. This gives companies like Accenture a role in implementing the same technology, which investors once feared would replace them.

After AI previously disrupted traditional IT service companies, this contrast has become particularly evident. Taking Indian tech stocks as an example, investors questioned whether automation would weaken the demand for outsourcing and pricing power. HCL and other IT stocks suffered heavy losses earlier this year due to these concerns.

Accenture plans to undertake another $5 billion in mergers and acquisitions

Management is also further betting on AI through acquisitions.

Chief Executive Officer Julie Sweet stated that Accenture expects to invest approximately $5 billion in acquisitions during the fiscal year 2027, with the goal of acquiring capabilities that can accelerate growth in areas such as AI and cybersecurity. Reuters noted that the company had already announced a cybersecurity deal worth about $4.18 billion in June.

This strategy aligns with the broader trend adopted by enterprises AI, where demands are expanding from model development to deployment, security, and integration.

Opportunities surrounding Anthropic and other cutting-edge model providers are also expanding. The rapidly growing corporate business and cloud expansion of Anthropic indicate that corporate AI spending is quickly extending from chips and data centers to a wider range of areas.