New Delhi

Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Accenture, Julie Sweet, on Thursday underscored the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI), stressing the need for broad global partnerships to harness its benefits while addressing associated risks.

Delivering a keynote address at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 at Bharat Mandapam, Sweet highlighted India’s central role in the emerging AI-driven future and praised Accenture’s large and growing workforce in the country.

“At Accenture, we’re incredibly proud to have over 350,000 and growing reinventors here in India,” she said, adding that the company operates one of the world’s largest AI workforces integrated across global hubs.

Sweet emphasised the importance of equitable access to AI, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and called for strong public-private partnerships to ensure wider adoption. She noted that SMEs account for about half of global GDP and nearly 70 per cent of employment in the Global South.

“We must commit to providing access to both technology and talent for small and medium-sized enterprises. If AI is to be an engine for growth, that engine must have real power behind it,” she said.

Outlining three guiding perspectives for the AI era, Sweet said AI should be used to drive growth, enable unprecedented reinvention by companies and countries, and ensure that “humans remain in the lead, not merely in the loop.”

Drawing parallels with earlier technological shifts, she referred to a 2013 study by Oxford University that warned nearly 47 per cent of US jobs were at risk of automation. Similar fears accompanied the rise of robotic process automation (RPA), she said, but ultimately led to new roles and industry expansion.

Citing Accenture’s own trajectory, Sweet noted that the firm grew from around 275,000 employees and USD 29 billion in revenue in 2013 to over 750,000 employees and USD 70 billion in revenue today.

Highlighting AI’s business value, she referred to Accenture’s recent C-suite survey across 20 countries, where 78 per cent of executives identified growth as AI’s greatest benefit. She added that AI is already reshaping sectors ranging from consumer engagement through large language models to pharmaceutical innovation by potentially shortening drug development timelines.

Calling the AI agenda “unprecedented,” Sweet urged companies to reinvent operations, invest in workforce reskilling and continue entry-level hiring, noting that AI is fundamentally changing the nature of such roles. She also called on governments to prioritise lifelong learning and embed AI education early, commending India’s efforts in this direction.

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“Technology, no matter how powerful, is only a tool,” Sweet said, concluding that leadership defined by excellence, confidence and humility will determine how AI shapes the future.