No, AI is not eating software. In fact, it’s feeding it.
For over two years, the dominant narrative has been that AI is an existential threat for software and services companies.
Coding automated. Fewer billed hours. Fewer people. Less revenue.
This narrative has hammered software and IT services stocks.
But the recent results are beginning to offer a different signal.
Accenture’s revenue beat expectations. Its stock jumped more than 20% yesterday.
Something similar happened with Salesforce a few weeks ago.
And my own employer, Capgemini, upgraded its full-year 2026 outlook in its latest half-year results.
Early signals still, but there seems to be a pattern.
May be some validation of what I and many others inside the industry have believed all along.
***
Think of AI as a powerful new jet engine.
And a large enterprise as an old family car.
Everyone is fascinated by the shiny new engine and assumes that putting it into the car will magically make everything faster.
But reality is more messy and complicated.
The engine doesn’t fit itself.
Someone has to redesign the car around it. Upgrade the components. Fix the wiring. Replace the parts that can’t keep up. And then make the whole thing work reliably.
That’s where IT services companies come in.
Because deploying AI across a large enterprise isn’t simply a coding exercise.
Legacy systems have to be modernised. Data has to be connected. Applications have to be integrated. Processes have to be redesigned, sometimes from scratch.
AI has to be governed, secured, and scaled.
And sometimes, the business itself has to change.
The more powerful the engine becomes, the more important the work around it becomes.
And perhaps that is what the market underestimated.
***
AI may reduce some of the work IT services companies do.
But it can also create an enormous amount of work around AI.
It’s time the discourse shifts from:
‘Will AI reduce IT services demand’ to —>
‘How much new work does AI create because enterprises have to rebuild around it?’
The engine may be the exciting part.
But getting the old car to actually move faster?
That’s where the engineering begins.
#AI #ITServices #Technology #Accenture