Founded in 2014, Faculty works with public and private sector clients to deploy AI solutions in the UK and other markets. Its services include AI strategy, AI safety and designing, building and implementing AI systems. The company built the UK National Health Service’s early warning system during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Faculty’s enterprise decision intelligence platform offers organisations insights and recommendations, by connecting their data and AI models.

When the acquisition is complete, Faculty’s team of around 400 employees, including data scientists and AI engineers, will join Accenture’s teams.

Mark Warner, chief executive at Faculty, will become chief technology officer at Accenture as part of the deal, as well as joining the company’s global management committee.

Accenture also plans to internationally extend Faculty’s fellowship programme for early-career training to its employees and to clients.

Completion of the acquisition is subject to closing conditions, including regulatory approval. Accenture has not disclosed the terms of the transaction.

“With Faculty, we will further accelerate our strategy to bring trusted, advanced AI to the heart of our clients’ businesses,” said Julie Sweet, chair and chief executive, Accenture.

Marc Warner, chief executive, Faculty, said: “As AI advances rapidly, the ambition of our clients is now, rightly, no less than the reinvention of their business. I am delighted that by teaming up with Accenture, we have everything in place to support AI transformation from start to finish.”

Accenture has made several recent moves in the AI space, including expanding an existing partnership with AI research lab Anthropic to train Accenture employees on the Claude AI model, while a similar agreement with OpenAI will give Accenture staff access to ChatGPT’s enterprise service.

In December, the company announced an investment in AI-based customer research platform Wevo.