Insight from James Garner
In a single quarter, a consulting giant with nearly 800,000 employees cut 11,000 jobs. Their reason? If you can’t be retrained for AI, you’re out. This is your wake-up call.
For years, the conversation around AI and jobs has been comfortably abstract. We’ve talked about “transformation,” “disruption,” and “the future of work.” But now, the abstract has become brutally concrete. Accenture, one of the world’s largest consulting firms, has drawn a line in the sand. In a move that should send a chill down the spine of every project professional, the company has begun to systematically “exit” employees whose skills are not considered viable for the age of AI.
This isn’t a standard layoff. This is a strategic culling. It’s a deliberate, calculated decision to shed human capital that is deemed incompatible with the company’s AI-driven future. As reported by the Financial Times and detailed in HCA Magazine, this is part of an $865 million restructuring plan designed to pivot the firm towards soaring demand for digital and AI services. The message is clear: adapt your skills, or your career is at a dead end.
The Myth of Reskilling
Companies love to talk about upskilling and reskilling. It’s a comforting narrative that suggests a smooth, managed transition into the new world of work. But Accenture’s actions reveal a harsher truth. In a call with analysts, CEO Julie Sweet laid out the new policy with stark clarity:
“We are exiting, on a compressed timeline, people where reskilling, based on our experience, is not a viable path for the skills we need.”
Let that sink in. “Not a viable path.” This isn’t about a lack of training courses. It’s a judgment that for certain roles and certain skillsets, the gap between the old way and the new AI-powered way is simply too wide to bridge. While Accenture has impressively trained 77,000 employees in AI and data fields, it has simultaneously shown the door to thousands more. The unspoken truth is that not everyone will make the leap. For project delivery professionals, this means that simply having years of experience in traditional project management methodologies is no longer a guarantee of job security.
The Crumbling Pyramid
What’s happening at Accenture is a symptom of a much larger structural shift that is dismantling the very foundations of the professional services industry. For decades, consulting has been built on the “pyramid” model: a broad base of junior consultants performing research, analysis, and modelling, supporting a smaller number of senior partners who manage client relationships. As a recent article in the Harvard Business Review argues, AI is causing that pyramid to collapse.
Generative AI tools are now capable of performing many of the tasks that were once the exclusive domain of those junior consultants—and they can do it faster, cheaper, and often with greater accuracy. Why pay a team of analysts to spend weeks building a financial model when an AI agent can do it in minutes? The economic logic of the pyramid is breaking down.
“If AI takes over work that used to justify thousands of billable junior hours, the pyramid will collapse under its own weight.” – Harvard Business Review
In its place, a new, leaner structure is emerging: the “obelisk.” This model features smaller, more senior teams augmented by powerful AI tools. The value is no longer in the leverage of a large, low-cost workforce, but in the expert judgment of seasoned professionals who can guide the AI, interpret its outputs, and translate them into high-impact strategy. Firms like McKinsey, Bain, and Deloitte are all rolling out their own internal AI platforms—Lilli, Sage, and Zora—to reshape their workflows around this new reality.
Your Career at a Crossroads
This is not just a story about consultants. This is a story about every knowledge worker, and especially about those of us who lead and deliver projects. The skills that defined a good project manager for the past twenty years—meticulous planning, resource allocation, and process control—are being commoditised by AI. They are becoming table stakes.
The skills that will define the successful project leader of the next twenty years are radically different. They are about strategic thinking, creative problem-solving, and the ability to orchestrate a symphony of human and machine intelligence. Can you frame the right question for an AI to solve? Can you critically evaluate its output and spot the subtle flaws of a hallucination? Can you lead a team whose primary role is no longer to “do the work,” but to direct the AI that does the work?
Accenture has fired the starting gun. The race to adapt is on, and there is no prize for second place. The choice is stark: you can become an architect of this new, AI-driven project delivery model, or you can become a casualty of it.
Your experience is no longer enough. Your title is no longer enough. You must evolve. Start now. Subscribe to Project Flux and arm yourself with the knowledge to not just survive, but to thrive in the AI revolution.
References
- Accenture to cut staff unable to adapt to AI roles | HRD Australia
- AI Is Changing the Structure of Consulting Firms | Harvard Business Review
- AI Is Coming for the Consultants. Inside McKinsey | Wall Street Journal
- Are You Generating Value from AI? The Widening Gap | BCG
- The State of AI: Global survey | McKinsey
