Accenture’s first-quarter fiscal 2026 results point to steady execution rather than a change in demand trajectory, with brokerages saying management commentary suggests enterprise technology spending conditions remain broadly consistent with the previous year.
For Indian IT services companies, analysts tracking the sector said the results offer a read-through that reinforces stability in large transformation and outsourcing demand, even as discretionary spending shows no material improvement.
Accenture reported revenue of $18.7 billion for the quarter, up 6% year-on-year, according to its earnings filing.
The company said growth during the quarter was led by its managed services and consulting businesses, with revenues increasing 8% and 4%, respectively.
Accenture also reported new bookings of $20.9 billion, up 12% year-on-year, including $2.2 billion in advanced artificial intelligence bookings, indicating sustained deal activity despite an unchanged demand environment.
Brokerages tracking Indian IT services said Accenture’s results and management commentary offer a relevant read-through for the sector.
Analysts of such firms said the quarter reinforces the view that demand has stabilised, but has not yet entered a recovery phase driven by discretionary technology spending.
JM Financial said Accenture’s management commentary suggests that clients continue to prioritise large transformation programmes, while discretionary demand remains broadly unchanged compared with last year.
According to the brokerage, this indicates that a recovery in discretionary technology spending is likely to take time rather than materialise sharply.
JM Financial also said Accenture’s commentary highlights the continued importance of digital and data core modernisation work.
The brokerage said such foundational initiatives typically precede industry-specific solutioning, process redesign and ongoing optimisation through managed services.
According to the firm, this sequence supports a sustained pipeline of work for Indian IT services companies, which continue to play a central role in executing and scaling such programmes.
The brokerage added that acceleration in managed services revenues and management commentary around improving pricing in certain pockets of the business are incremental positives for the sector.
However, it cautioned that recent gains in Indian IT stocks mean execution against expectations remains critical.
Motilal Oswal confirmed that the demand environment remains “unchanged (for now),” based on Accenture’s management commentary.
The brokerage said there is no visible macroeconomic catalyst yet that would drive a sharp improvement in discretionary technology spending, reinforcing the view that near-term growth will continue to be driven by large, committed transformation programmes rather than optional IT projects.
At the same time, Motilal Oswal said Accenture’s commentary indicates that the groundwork for the next AI services cycle is gradually being laid.
According to the brokerage, client conversations are increasingly shifting from experimentation to readiness, with enterprises focusing on cleaning up data, modernising platforms and securing systems so artificial intelligence can be deployed at scale.
It noted that more than half of Accenture’s advanced AI engagements are now triggering data-modernisation work, underscoring the linkage between AI adoption and foundational technology services.
Motilal Oswal also highlighted Accenture’s outsourcing momentum, with overall bookings crossing $20 billion during the quarter. The brokerage said the increasing share of fixed-price, outcome-based contracts, now accounting for around 60% of Accenture’s revenue, reflects evolving commercial and delivery models across the IT services industry, with implications for productivity, execution discipline and margins.
Nomura agreed that Accenture’s results suggest that demand conditions remain largely similar to the previous year, with no noticeable change in the macroeconomic environment.
The brokerage said a sharper growth revival for Indian IT services companies would depend on broader macroeconomic improvement, particularly in the US, rather than company-specific execution alone.
Nomura said revenue growth momentum continues to be strong in the financial services vertical and expects this to support near-term performance for Indian IT services companies with exposure to banking and financial services clients.
The brokerage also highlighted Accenture’s emphasis on ecosystem partnerships, noting that a significant portion of its revenues is derived from work done with key technology partners.
According to Nomura, Accenture’s commentary reinforces that clients are moving beyond proof-of-concept AI initiatives to live use cases.
However, it said this shift continues to drive demand for core services such as cloud, data engineering and platform modernisation, rather than standalone AI deployments.
Accenture executives have described enterprise transformation as long-cycle work anchored in foundational technology.
“The pace of overall spending and discretionary spend in our market is at the same levels we have seen over the last year,” said Accenture CEO Julie Sweet during the earnings call, adding that clients continue to prioritise large, strategic transformation programmes.
“We’re not having conversations today that would suggest that there’s going to be a big change in discretionary spending,” Sweet said, adding that there is no clear macroeconomic catalyst that would materially shift client confidence.
“Clients continue to prioritise their most strategic and large-scale transformational programs, which convert to revenue more slowly, but position us at the center of the reinvention agendas,” she said.
“At least one out of every two advanced AI projects lead to a data project,” Sweet said, highlighting the linkage between AI adoption and foundational technology services.
Accenture chief financial officer Angie Park said, “About 60% of our work is now fixed-price,” reflecting clients’ preference for outcome-based, large-scale engagements and greater certainty in delivery.
Kotak Institutional Equities (KIE) too said Accenture’s commentary offers a clear read-through for Indian IT services, reinforcing the view that discretionary technology spending remains unchanged with no visible near-term recovery, as client conversations continue to reflect caution amid macroeconomic uncertainty.
The brokerage said that while a discretionary rebound is not its base case, such a recovery would have lent greater confidence to its assumption of 150–200 basis points higher growth for FY2027 across its coverage universe.
Instead, KIE noted that client priorities remain firmly centred on large-scale transformation programmes and cost take-out initiatives, with these deals being competed aggressively by global peers, including Accenture.
According to the firm, a sustained increase in the number of such large transformation deals is critical for any meaningful acceleration in industry growth.
Gaurav Vasu, CEO of UnearthInsight, agreed that Accenture’s performance points to a longer growth recovery cycle, with enterprise technology spending still constrained by a muted macro environment, and FY26 growth guidance indicating only modest improvement.
He said while revenue growth continues to be supported by AI-driven bookings and market-share gains, there are no clear signs yet of a broad-based upcycle in technology spending.
Vasu added that AI and GenAI are fundamentally rewiring enterprise technology spending, shifting demand away from traditional consulting-led technology services toward outcome-led, AI-enabled solutions, even as AI becomes increasingly embedded across most enterprise engagements.
As a result, he said standalone AI disclosures are likely to become less meaningful over time, reflecting how AI is being absorbed into core transformation and modernisation work, rather than driving a discrete spending cycle.
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