Consulting sector outlook: Accenture leads on AI monetization and ROIC

TCS won a 5-year, Rs 2,000 crore deal to manage Best Buy's India GCC operations, beating Accenture. The Bengaluru center has 600 employees and covers data, analytics, and AI services. TCS offered competitive pricing and productivity improvements. The deal expands TCS's existing relationship with Best Buy, which generates $75-100 million annually in revenue, according to HFS Research.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) reported Q2 revenue of $18.72B, up 5.6% YoY, in line with expectations but missed guidance. IBM (NYSE:IBM) reported $17.16B, up 1.1% YoY, missing estimates by 1.5%. Kyndryl (NYSE:KD) reported $3.62B, down 3.3% YoY, missing revenue expectations but beating EPS estimates. ACN and IBM stocks are up 13.3% and 13.6% since reporting, while KD is down 8.5%.

Accenture and Amazon Web Services (AWS) signed a six-year deal to support Middle East businesses and governments in adopting cloud and AI technologies. The agreement focuses on modernizing legacy systems, migrating workloads, and deploying AI across sectors like energy and financial services. Gulf nations are investing heavily in AI infrastructure, with projects like the UAE's $30B UAE-US AI Campus and Saudi Arabia's 467MW data center capacity. AWS is also expanding in Saudi Arabia, with a new c

The Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) awarded Accenture a $161.6M contract for My Health Record infrastructure services, running from 2026 to 2029 with an extension option. The deal covers the My Health Record system and ADHA's API gateway. ADHA CEO Amanda Cattermole noted over 25M active records and 207M clinician uses in the past year. Telstra Health secured a separate $33.2M contract for FHIR-based data architecture.

Kyndryl (KD) reported Q2 revenue of $3.62B, down 3.3% YoY, missing estimates by 0.7% but beating EPS. Gartner (IT) reported $1.68B revenue, up 1.8% YoY, beating estimates. Accenture (ACN) reported $18.72B revenue, up 5.6% YoY, in line with estimates but missed guidance. IBM (IBM) reported $17.16B revenue, up 1.1% YoY, missing estimates by 1.5%. DXC (DXC) reported $3.00B revenue, down 5.1% YoY, in line with estimates but missed EPS.

Accenture will acquire COMWARE, a Japanese IT services firm with 180+ employees and 25 years of SAP expertise. The deal aims to expand Accenture's mid-market digital transformation services in Japan, particularly for manufacturing clients. Financial terms were not disclosed. Accenture has 799,000 employees and $70B in fiscal 2025 revenue.