Shares of Accenture continued their sharp decline on Monday, falling 3.8% in early afternoon trading, even as the company announced an expanded partnership with artificial intelligence leader OpenAI.

The stock has dropped 28% since January 20, when AI startup Anthropic released new software that rattled investors across knowledge-based industries. Over the past year, Accenture shares have fallen 43%, significantly underperforming the S&P 500, which has risen 15% during the same period.

Under the new agreement, Accenture becomes one of four major consultancies—alongside Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey & Company, and Capgemini—that will help enterprise clients deploy OpenAI technologies.

Accenture was already a key OpenAI partner and has served as the largest channel for the company’s professional certification program. The expanded deal positions Accenture as a primary deployment partner for OpenAI Frontier, an “agent” software layer built on top of ChatGPT models. Frontier is designed to execute complex, multi-step tasks from a single prompt, such as reviewing communications, drafting reports, and generating slide decks for team collaboration.

Despite rapid advancements in AI capabilities, enterprise adoption has been slower than many expected. Companies have struggled to translate model intelligence into measurable productivity gains, often due to challenges in implementation, process integration, and employee training.

“The limiting factor for seeing value from AI in enterprises isn’t model intelligence, it’s how agents are built and run in their organizations,” OpenAI said in a press release, underscoring the importance of consultancy partnerships in driving adoption.

Even so, investors remain cautious. Consulting firms and information services companies have been among the hardest hit sectors, as markets increasingly view knowledge work as vulnerable to AI-driven disruption.

Topics: Accenture, OpenAI, Enterprise AI, Consulting Industry, Stock Market, AI Agents