India, Sept. 30 -- Accenture's latest round of job cuts has once again raised a lot of familiar questions: is artificial intelligence (AI) becoming the hidden hand behind large-scale layoffs in tech? In the space of three months, the consulting giant let go of more than 11,000 employees worldwide. The company insists this is part of a wider restructuring to sharpen efficiency, but the timing also coincides with its aggressive push to position itself as an AI-first company.

Gleaning insights out of Accenture's recent report, Work, Workforce, Workers in the Age of Generative AI, makes no secret of where the company is heading. For instance, it has trained more than 550,000 employees in generative AI, hired 77,000 specialists in AI and data...