Accenture has begun referring to its nearly 80,000 employees as “reinventors” as the company positions itself as a leader in artificial intelligence. CEO Julie Sweet has already started using the term internally, and the consultancy is now encouraging broader adoption.
The “reinventor” label emerged from a reorganization in June, which merged Accenture’s strategy, consulting, creative, technology, and operations divisions into a single unit called “Reinvention Services.” The rebranding follows the company’s 2021 decision to rename its interactive division to Accenture Song, a move that drew widespread criticism.
“From the people that brought you Accenture Song now come the ‘reinventors’, staff are going to cringe,” said Damon Collins, co-founder of the marketing agency Joint. “If they think this move is going to win favour with many employees, or clients, they have another thing coming. It is a very unusual bit of corporate panic, they really have the wrong end of the Nvidia chip.”
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According to a Guardian report, this is part of an ongoing trend where companies use unconventional titles for their staff. Some tech workers are described as “ninjas,” “growth hackers,” and “evangelists.” Similar branding stretches across the media and entertainment industries as well, including Disney, where technical experts who design and build theme parks are known as “imagineers.”
Martin Sorrell, founder of WPP, adopted the title “senior monk” when he led the takeover of digital creative agency MediaMonks, where employees are called “monks.” At Apple, expert in-store tech support staff are known as “geniuses,” while London-based ad agency Mother refers to its project leads as “mothers.”
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Accenture’s latest move comes amid its broader push to strengthen AI capabilities. Sweet told investors in September that the consultancy would “exit” employees who were not effectively adapting to AI at work.
Accenture said it was training staff in generative AI fundamentals, but employees for whom “reskilling, based on our experience, is not a viable path for the skills we need” would be let go. As part of the restructure, the company laid off 11,000 employees, reducing its workforce to 791,000. “We are exiting on a compressed timeline, people where reskilling, based on our experience, is not a viable path for the skills we need,” Sweet had told analysts.
The company has reportedly created a version of its internal human resources platform where staff are labeled “reinventors” rather than “workers,” according to the Financial Times.