Accenture Makes $1B AI Power Play with Udacity Purchase

Accenture on Tuesday announced it would acquire digital education solutions company Udacity, promising a $1 billion, three-year investment as it launches its LearnVantage business.

LearnVantage is designed to help business leaders provide industry-specific training that will help them upskill workers in technology, data and AI, the company said in a release. The service will include specialized GenAI training for board and C-suite members, along with other business leaders.

“We are passionate about helping our clients become ‘talent creators’ -- with people at the center of their reinvention using technology, data and AI -- and a critical part of that is investing in industry-specific training and technology skills development,” Julie Sweet, Accenture’s chair and CEO, said in a statement. “We are scaling Accenture’s deep capabilities as a world-class learning organization to help our clients meet their business growth objectives and enable their people to develop the relevant skills they need to make the most of the opportunities that technological change is bringing.”

In June, the company announced it would make a three-year, $3 billion investment that would double its AI workforce globally.

The company said the Udacity acquisition would add proprietary content, expert services, and scalable learning technology to the LearnVantage offering. Udacity’s 230 employees will join the LearnVantage business, the company said.

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“The rapid rise of generative AI has grown our clients’ need for training and upskilling their people in cloud, data, and AI as they build their digital core, which is essential for reinvention,” Kishore Durg, global lead of Accenture LearnVantage, said in a statement. “Accenture LearnVantage will help our clients not only advance their business goals but also help their people build the skills they will need for the next waves of technology change.”

Accenture pointed to their previous work with biopharmaceutical company Merck to help upskill its employees.

Dave Williams, executive vice president, chief information and digital officer for Merck said in a statement that the company will continue working with Accenture with AI training. “Digital, data, analytics, and AI are touching every part of what we do as a company as technology plays a pivotal role in discovering, developing, manufacturing, and providing access for patients to medicines and vaccines,” he said.