“If you lead anyone, you have to be able to help them change.”
That was one of the many insights Julie Sweet ‘92, CEO of Accenture, offered during her conversation at Columbia Business School. In an era when technology evolves faster than organizations, Sweet argued that leadership is no longer about expertise, but rather adaptability.
"The moment that you look at your career and you say you haven't done something different in the way you're working, that you're probably not learning enough because the world around us is moving very, very fast,” Sweet said during the conversation, part of the W. Edwards Deming Center for Quality, Productivity, and Competitiveness, in partnership with the School’s Distinguished Speaker Series.
From her early career as a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore to becoming Accenture’s first female CEO, Sweet has built her leadership philosophy around reinvention. Under her direction, the company has grown to nearly 800,000 employees and become a leader in cloud, data, and AI transformation.
She discussed how the consulting field is evolving, with a greater emphasis on delivering tangible outcomes and solutions rather than just presentations. Accenture, according to Sweet, is investing heavily in upskilling its workforce in areas like AI and data to stay ahead of the curve.
Sweet spoke about the importance of continuous learning and reinvention, both for individuals and for organizations. She shared how Accenture has undergone major restructurings to adapt to changing market needs, as well as how technology, talent, and humility are reshaping leadership.
Consulting Isn’t Dying—It’s Evolving
Sweet was clear that despite the misconception that AI will make consulting obsolete, the field is actually ripe for reinvention.
“If you talk to any CEO, they’ll tell you they need consulting more than ever. But they need a different kind of consulting,” she said.
For Sweet, the firms that will thrive are those that deliver tangible results, not just strategy. She described how Accenture’s engagements increasingly focus on measurable outcomes. One current project, for example, involves eliminating nearly $2 billion in costs over three years while modernizing the client’s technology infrastructure with AI.
That same discipline of reinvention applies inside Accenture as well. When she became CEO in 2019, Sweet overhauled the firm’s operating model—only weeks before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The timing, while coincidental, proved critical. The new structure allowed Accenture to adapt quickly and pursue opportunities in emerging areas like cloud computing and digital operations. The company’s Cloud First initiative, launched shortly after, grew from a $12 billion business to $18 billion in its first year.
For Sweet, agility is the foundation of sustainable leadership. She encouraged business leaders to question routines and avoid complacency, warning that if tomorrow looks too much like yesterday, it may be time to change course.
Learning, Adaptability, and the Future of Work
If reinvention is the goal, Sweet noted, learning is the mechanism that makes it possible. She described continuous learning as a cornerstone of Accenture’s culture, supported by more than $1 billion annually in training investments. Every employee completes an average of 40 hours of learning per year, reinforcing the company’s commitment to skill development at every level.
That commitment has paid off. When generative AI first emerged in 2022, only a few dozen of Accenture’s 40,000 AI professionals were experimenting with the technology. Less than three years later, the company had delivered 6,000 AI-related projects, generated $3 billion in revenue, and expanded its data and AI team to 77,000 professionals.
Sweet described the shift as proof that organizations must build talent from within rather than wait for the right skills to appear in the market. She also emphasized that adaptability extends beyond technical expertise. Accenture now includes communication and change-management training at every career level to help employees lead through uncertainty.
Helping others grow, she noted, is now a core leadership skill. Leaders can’t simply manage performance; they must guide their teams through transformation.
The Human Side of Change
Even as Sweet discussed the transformative power of AI, she noted that technology alone doesn’t drive reinvention—people do. She described how AI’s impact will reach beyond productivity gains, reshaping how work is done and which skills matter most.
“There are jobs that are not going to exist. There are tasks that are not going to exist. And so we do have to, as companies, provide upskilling and, as individuals, recognize that it's a continuous learning,” Sweet said.
At Accenture, that balance between technology and humanity has guided how the company prepares its workforce. Alongside major investments in AI capability, Sweet has prioritized skills like communication, empathy, and change management. She sees these as essential for leaders who must help teams navigate uncertainty and continuous reinvention.
In fact, when Sweet initially joined Accenture as general counsel, she realized she lacked a deep understanding of technology and so she sought help. With guidance from one of the firm’s technologists, she spent months learning the fundamentals, an experience she credits with preparing her for the CEO role she holds today. For her, humility isn’t weakness but confidence—the willingness to learn what you don’t yet know.
Equally important, Sweet argued, is transparency. Being direct about challenges, even when the message is uncomfortable, builds trust and credibility. In her view, leadership in the AI era won’t be defined by who understands the most technology, but by who can help others embrace it.