Accenture buys UK AI Challenger Faculty

Accenture has agreed a deal to snap-up UK AI platform vendor Faculty for an undisclosed sum.

Faculty has seemed a likely target for Accenture’s unstoppable M&A engine since it named Accenture as its preferred systems integration partner two years ago.

The company was launched in 2014 as a data strategy consultancy, initially called Advanced Skills Initiative, before its re-branding five years later. It rose to prominence through its role in supporting the “Vote Leave” Brexit campaign and built close ties with the Conservative Government. The company subsequently won a second breakthrough contract with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to analyze social media data, utility bills and credit rating scores in 2020 to support the Government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the last five years, Faculty has broadened its capabilities and portfolio to support other areas of government, healthcare and the commercial sector, and has raised £40m from private backers including Apax, Guardian Media Group and Local Globe. Faculty’s revenue increased from £21.4m in 2023 to £32.3m in 2024, while its operating loss halved to £4.4m over the same period.

There are two main aspects to Facility’s business: providing advisory, testing, validation and implementation services to clients to help them understand how AI can accelerate their overall strategy; and the proprietary “Frontier” platform, which it positions as its “Decision Intelligence (DI) operating system” that implements, controls and audits the performance of Al across organisations.

Frontier, which was developed on the AWS platform, uses a computational twin engine to connect AI models, data and business processes to create a digital twin that can show the impact a decision will have across a company’s entire system. As an example, It has worked with NHS trusts to use Frontier to model patient flows, simulate capacity planning decisions and support decision making to improve patient outcomes.

Accenture’s move for Frontier fits neatly with its recent focus on acquiring AI-related IP assets in order to extend its broader AI proposition beyond advisory and deployment services. There’s a talent element to the move as well, with more than 400 AI specialists joining from Faculty and the firm’s CEO, Marc Warner, taking on a key role in shaping Accenture’s roadmap as Chief Technology Officer. Accenture’s global reach will provide a springboard to take Frontier into international markets, as well as high-growth sectors such as defence, where Faculty has already started to make some inroads.