Accenture has combined its capital projects business, more than 5,000 staff and a number of specialist acquisitions into one entity. It is aimed at owners of large infrastructure projects and pitched as a single accountable partner, supported by AI and a shared data platform
Accenture has launched Accenture Construct, a new global business that helps owners plan, deliver and manage large infrastructure and capital projects. Its target sectors include airports, rail networks, power grids, data centres and manufacturing facilities.
The new entity combines Accenture’s existing capital projects business, which the company says has grown fourfold in three years across strategic advisory, engineering, project delivery and technology services. Accenture’s proposition is that owners deal with one accountable partner for the whole project lifecycle rather than many, using a common data foundation and AI-enabled workflows to reduce delays, cost overruns and execution risk.
Accenture expects demand to come from three areas: data centre construction, the energy transition, and the replacement of ageing infrastructure. It estimates the total addressable market for integrated, owner-side capital project services at $260 billion, growing 7.5% a year to $348 billion by 2030.
“Global demand for critical infrastructure capital programs is accelerating at the same time as AI is fundamentally changing how projects are planned, delivered and operated,” said Julie Sweet, chair and CEO, Accenture. Sweet said the combination of these trends increases Accenture’s market opportunity for capital project services
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Accenture argues that growing project complexity is exposing the limits of siloed delivery models. On a typical project, many advisors, consultants, contractors and specialist firms are each responsible for one part, and the owner bears the costs that fall between them. Construct’s approach is a common project data foundation, giving a single operational view across all the firms involved, with AI workflows intended to support earlier, more predictive decisions.
The company says this, together with Accenture’s global delivery resources, allows Construct to act as a single accountable partner from strategy through to handover. The intention is to reduce the costs, knowledge loss and accountability gaps that arise when responsibility passes from one firm to another. Accenture says this should lead to earlier identification of risk and more predictable cost, schedule, quality and asset performance.
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“Capital projects haven’t lacked expertise; they’ve lacked alignment on shared success outcomes. Owners assemble exceptional teams, but accountability is often dispersed across the delivery ecosystem,” said Adam J. Shaw, CEO of Accenture Construct.
The business is organised into five global lines. Data Centres covers conceptual design and site planning through to construction management and commissioning. Utilities & Telecommunications covers fibre and 5G networks, power generation, grids, water, and energy transition infrastructure such as wind and EV charging. Transportation & Civic Infrastructure covers airports, hospitals, rail and roads for public agencies and operators.
The other two lines serve industrial clients. Advanced Manufacturing focuses on automated production facilities for chip, vehicle, industrial equipment and pharmaceutical manufacturers. Process Industries covers decarbonisation infrastructure, LNG, and field programmes for chemicals, mining and oil & gas clients.
Accenture cites several existing engagements. For mining company Vale, it is working on the delivery of the company’s annual industrial capital portfolio, using digital engineering, AI and integrated execution. At the Florida Governmental Utility Authority, it has 25 years of responsibility for governance, capital delivery and operations across a multi-county water utility, and it is part of a Program Delivery Services consortium on Metrolinx’s GO Expansion transport programme in Canada.
Construct’s 5,000-plus staff come from both organic growth and acquisitions. The acquired firms include Alfa Consulting, Arca and BOSLAN (Spain), Anser Advisory (US), Comtech Group (Canada), Fibermind and IQT Group (Italy), Greenfish (Belgium), Orlade Group (France), Soben (UK) and Verum Partners (Brazil). Construct will also work alongside DLB Associates, Accenture’s majority-owned joint venture, which will continue to provide data centre lifecycle services to US clients, from feasibility through to commissioning.
The owner-side, single-partner model puts Accenture in competition with established programme managers and engineering consultancies such as AECOM, Jacobs and WSP. It also overlaps with software firms selling data platforms, most notably Palantir, which has been building a presence inside large AEC firms as a data and intelligence layer above the design tools. Palantir and Accenture are approaching the same territory from opposite directions, Palantir through a software platform and Accenture through services and taking responsibility for delivery.
This matters for Autodesk and Bentley Systems. Their AI and platform strategies, APS and Forma at Autodesk and iTwin at Bentley, assume the design software vendor will own the project data and intelligence layer. If Palantir claims that layer through its platform and Accenture claims it through services, the authoring vendors risk becoming data feeds for someone else’s decision layer. Accenture arriving on the owner’s side, with access to the owner’s budget, makes their assumption harder to sustain.
The question is what technology sits under Accenture’s “common project data foundation”? Accenture has not said whether it will build that layer itself, buy it, or integrate existing products, including those from the design software vendors.
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