The new service is designed to help leaders across industries and governments quickly identify gaps in relevant skills being created by advances in technologies and then provide the industry-specific training needed to fill those gaps at speed and scale. This includes delivering highly personalized learning experiences for a wide range of technical and business users, from specialized AI and data science, cloud, and cybersecurity training for IT professionals to Gen AI training for board and C-suite members and business leaders.

The company will invest $1 billion in Accenture LearnVantage over three years and has agreed to acquire Udacity to build on and scale for clients Accenture's deep experience in learning and training and meet rising demand for technology skills, including generative AI.

According to Accenture research, business leaders say their No. 1 challenge is their inability to upskill their workforces, with 51% of organizations starting to see negative impacts from worsening IT skills shortages. In addition, 94% of workers say they want to learn new skills to work with generative AI, but only 5% of organizations provide gen AI training at scale.

"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," said Julie Sweet, chair and CEO, Accenture. "We are scaling Accenture's deep capabilities as a world-class learning organization to help our clients meet their business’s 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."

Accenture has helped many enterprises upskill their workforces for business reinvention, including biopharmaceutical company Merck, known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada.

"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," said Dave Williams, executive vice president, chief information and digital officer, Merck. "To continue delivering on our promise to use the power of leading-edge science to save and improve lives around the world, we are developing and investing in our people. We have launched a groundbreaking generative AI training program for our employees in partnership with Accenture to create world-class digital leaders."

Accenture invests more than $1 billion per year in a wide range of learning and training for its more than 700,000 people, delivering approximately 40 million training hours annually. For example, training is helping Accenture achieve its goals to double its deeply skilled Data & AI practice professionals to 80,000, and the company is rolling out training for 250,000 technology professionals by the end of fiscal 2024. Accenture has already trained more than 600,000 of its people in the fundamentals of AI.

Accenture has invested to create an AI-native learning platform that seamlessly integrates with an organization's existing learning platforms. With the help of an AI recommendation engine, the platform curates the best learning content from Accenture and third-party providers to offer a personalized learning journey that aligns with priority areas of learning.

Accenture LearnVantage will offer tailored technology learning programs; specialized, predesigned technology academies; ecosystem learning certification services; and managed services for a client's own learning capabilities. LearnVantage will also offer nanodegree programs, which are certified online programs designed to provide users with hands-on experience and industry-relevant skills in specialized fields.

The acquisition of Udacity will bring to Accenture the company's capabilities in integrating proprietary content, expert services, and scalable learning technology and aligns with Accenture's long-standing approach to learning through formal training, learning by doing, and coaching by experts. Udacity provides localized course offerings in multiple languages, including English, Arabic, Korean and Spanish.

Udacity's more than 230 professionals will join the Accenture LearnVantage business. Accenture LearnVantage's full set of services will be available later this year following the closing of the acquisition.

Accenture LearnVantage will work with technology ecosystem partners, including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft, to provide generative AI content, industry-relevant technology training, and cloud certifications for their joint clients. It will also work with additional world-class learning partners, including Pluralsight, Coursera, Workera, and Skillsoft.

"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," said Kishore Durg, global lead of Accenture LearnVantage. "Accenture LearnVantage will not only help our clients advance their business goals, but also help their people build the skills they will need for the next waves of technology change."