Accenture acquires UK AI firm Faculty, onboards CEO Marc Warner as chief technology officer

Accenture to buy Palantir rival, UK-based Faculty

Accenture plans to buy UK-based AI firm Faculty, a Palantir competitor, and onboard the company's CEO as Accenture's new chief technology officer. The move suggests the two companies, while partners today, could start taking each others' business. Faculty was founded in the UK by New Zealand-born physicist Marc Warner in 2014, ostensibly to make AI useful to the world and "safely deliver the AI revolution." The company works with customers on AI strategy, design, infrastructure, development, and operations and creates a computational twin of an organization to simulate and refine business decisions. Accenture is adding all 400 of Faculty's employees to its payroll, according to the press release announcing the deal. Terms of the deal - which is subject to regulatory approvals - were not disclosed. The move further positions Accenture as a direct competitor with Palantir, according to Forrester Vice president and Principal Analyst Boris Evelson. He said both Accenture and rival consultancy McKinsey are hoping to capture more of the spend that is headed to Palantir in 2026. Evelson said that, while McKinsey has built a project internally, at this stage it is the consultants' relationships with their customers that wins deals. "If I need to start from scratch, I'll go to Palantir or C3 AI, but if I'm Citibank and I have a great relationship with Accenture, Accenture already outsources about 10% of my IT and other relevant projects. If I'm the CIO and I don't go to Accenture first for something like this, then I'd be shooting myself in the foot," he told The Register. "So Accenture and Palantir, I would say, they would be direct competitors." When asked about potential competition and the role that Faculty plays, both Accenture and Palantir responded to The Register with a link to a December press release that announced Palantir and Accenture had expanded their global partnership with a specialized unit. The Accenture-Palantir Business group is supported by forward-deployed engineers from Palantir and more than 2,000 Accenture staffers who know Palantir's platforms. "The teams will work side-by-side with clients to move from siloed data to integrated, AI-powered decision making," the release states. Evelson, who described Faculty as a smaller Palantir competitor, said the soundness of the partnership will play out in the trenches. "If an enterprise wants to get Palantir, but they have a great relationship with Accenture in terms of all sorts of IT, outsourcing, integration, et cetra, then, that's a good combination," he told The Register. "But, again, if I'm an enterprise that's already entrenched with Palantir, I'm not going to switch to Accenture. If I'm an enterprise that's already is entrenched with Accenture, I'm not going to switch to McKinsey." Warner left a career in physics that included a Marie Curie Fellowship at Harvard University in quantum sensing research to move all in on AI in 2010, more than a decade before the hype. In the years since its founding in 2014, Faculty has become a go-to destination for data scientists in the UK thanks to its fellowship program that invites PhDs, master's graduates, and post doctoral students to win hands-on experience in AI, which Warner has credited with giving Faculty a chance to meet with top talent. The program received a Princess Royal Training Award in 2022, which recognizes outstanding training and skills development programs. Warner said of the 500 fellowship winners about 90 now work at Faculty. During the COVID-19 pandemic, 10 Downing Street tapped Faculty to organize the UK's response. The Faculty founder worked directly with government leaders during Prime Minister Boris Johnson's administration, and his company has been credited with saving thousands of lives by coordinating sewage data with logistics to monitor surges in the disease and provide resources when and where they were needed. Warner has been outspoken that the UK must build its own tech talent and has taken digs at "foreign tech" companies. "People are going to have to recognize that to an extent a win for a foreign tech company is a loss for British sovereignty," he told the hosts of Anglofuturism, a podcast, in April. Accenture was originally spun out of US accounting giant Arthur Andersen as its consulting arm, and still trades on the New York Stock Exchange, although it's headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. Not the UK. ®

Accenture plans to acquire UK AI firm Faculty

Faculty CEO Marc Warner is set to take over as Accenture's chief technology officer. Consultancy giant Accenture has announced plans to acquire Faculty, a UK-based firm providing AI services to major global businesses, governments and public institutions. The acquisition is set to expand Accenture's AI capabilities as the company reaps from its multibillion-dollar bet on the technology. Terms of the purchase were undisclosed. Founded in 2014, Faculty works across major industries, including energy, infrastructure, law, defence, governments, education, etc, offering its data analysis services to the likes of OpenAI, the NHS, Tide, Northern Powergrid and the UK's Ministry of Defence. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Faculty built the NHS' early warning system, which was in daily use to predict patient demand across the country and to optimally allocate critical care resources. The UK company competes in this space with the likes of Palantir and Quantexa. And as of 2021, it had raised nearly £40m. With the acquisition, Accenture is absorbing Faculty's team of more than 400 AI native professionals, including its data scientists and AI engineers, the company announced in a press release today (6 January). While, Faculty's CEO Marc Warner is set to become Accenture's chief technology officer. Before founding Faculty, Warner was a research fellow in quantum physics at Harvard and served on the court of Imperial College London and as a member of UK's AI Council. "With Faculty, we will further accelerate our strategy to bring trusted, advanced AI to the heart of our clients' businesses," said Julie Sweet, the chair and CEO of Accenture. The two companies have had a collaborative relationship since 2023, when Accenture was confirmed as a preferred implementation partner for Faculty's Frontier software. Now, the software will join Accenture's offerings. "Together with Faculty we will assemble a powerhouse of talent helping clients make AI work in the real world", commented Manish Sharma, the chief strategy and services officer at Accenture. "This will help our clients stay competitive, pursue sovereign solutions, and reinvent their operations with transparency and resilience at a critical time." Accenture is also gaining Faculty's fellowship programme, an early-career training and placement programme that helps STEM PhD and other graduates transition from academia to industry. The consultancy has said that it plans to extend the program globally. Much like other global consultancies and SaaS providers, Accenture has gone all-in on AI. The company cut hundreds of jobs in recent years as a cost-cutting as it raked up AI-related investments. Though it has since beefed up its AI talent with around 77,000 AI and data professionals in 2025 - up from 40,000 in 2023. It also has plans to increase the company's headcount. Last September, CEO Sweet told shareholders that she was cutting staff that couldn't pivot to AI-related work. Don't miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic's digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

Accenture To Acquire UK AI Firm Faculty To Scale Enterprise AI - Accenture (NYSE:ACN)

Accenture Plc (NYSE:ACN) announced on Tuesday that it has agreed to acquire Faculty, a UK-based artificial intelligence firm, further strengthening its push to integrate advanced AI into enterprise operations. The move reflects growing demand from businesses and governments for AI systems that are both powerful and safe to deploy. The transaction adds more than 400 AI specialists and decision intelligence capabilities to Accenture's global platform, expanding its ability to deliver secure, large-scale AI solutions for clients. Terms were not disclosed. Founded in 2014, Faculty is recognized for its application of AI in high-risk, mission-critical settings. Its work spans AI strategy, safety frameworks, and system deployment, with a focus on reducing bias, protecting data privacy, and ensuring models remain transparent and explainable. Also Read: Accenture Expands Italian Financial Services Technology Platform In addition to his role as CEO of Faculty, Marc Warner will become chief technology officer of Accenture upon closing of the transaction and join the company's Global Management Committee. Warner brings experience from academia and prior advisory roles within the UK's national AI policy landscape. Faculty's Frontier decision intelligence platform will be incorporated into Accenture's technology suite. The system connects data, AI models, and workflows to support faster decisions and is already being used with clients such as Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) to improve clinical trial planning. Analysts have noted that Accenture's AI momentum remains impressive, even as many projects are still in early rollout phases. Investor exposure to the trend also extends to funds such as the Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF (NASDAQ:BOTZ) and the iShares U.S. Technology ETF (NYSE:IYW). Accenture's total cash balance as of November 30, 2025, was $9.6 billion. What's Next Accenture plans to expand the Faculty's Fellowship Program globally, widening its pipeline of advanced AI talent. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals, with financial terms undisclosed. ACN Price Action: Accenture shares were down 0.22% at $263.39 during premarket trading on Tuesday, according to Benzinga Pro data. Read Next: Super Micro Chases AI Scale With Next-Gen Nvidia AI Platforms Image via Shutterstock ACNAccenture PLC$263.39-0.22%OverviewBOTZGlobal X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF$37.780.45%IYWiShares U.S. Technology ETF$200.420.01%NVSNovartis AG$138.450.39%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs