What would a TRUE zero-human Accenture look like?

779,000 employees → 0 employees. Revenue: $65B+. Humans: Founders only. The entire consulting firm... run by agents.

The Zero-Human Definition

Zero-human means:

  • No employees (founders aren't employees)
  • No operators
  • No human consultants, strategists, or managers
  • No human SaaS tools internally

Just agents executing on agent-native infrastructure. Humans seed, fund, advise from outside. Never touch operations.

The Founder Role

Humans do:

  • Set mission and ethics
  • Raise capital
  • Handle liability/legal edge cases

Humans DON'T:

  • Talk to clients
  • Make decks
  • Write code
  • Manage anything

Everything else is agents.

No Human SaaS Internally

This is the part people get wrong.

A zero-human company doesn't use:

  • Salesforce (clunky UI built for humans)
  • Jira (click-based project management)
  • Slack (chat interface)
  • PowerPoint (visual presentations)

Agents use:

  • Direct database queries
  • API endpoints
  • Event streams
  • Message queues
  • Vector search

Internal infrastructure is agent-native. No human UX anywhere.

Connectors for Client Integration Only

The only reason to touch human SaaS: client systems.

  • Client uses Salesforce → You have a Salesforce connector to read/write their data
  • Client uses Slack → You have a Slack connector to send them updates
  • Client uses SAP → You have an SAP connector to integrate

These aren't your tools. They're translation layers to talk to client infrastructure. Your internal stack is agents + databases + APIs. Nothing else.

Client Acquisition → Autonomous

Current: Human sales teams, dinners, RFPs

Zero-human:

  • Content Agent publishes frameworks, publishes to X/LinkedIn automatically
  • Scrape Agent monitors funding rounds, layoffs, earnings calls for signals
  • Outreach Agent sends personalized video pitches (AI-generated)
  • Conversation Agent handles discovery calls (voice AI)
  • Negotiation Agent structures SOWs via email/contract APIs
  • Onboarding Agent provisions client workspace, grants data access

Client talks to agents. Reviews proposals in a web app. Signs via DocuSign API. No human ever touches the deal.

Strategy Delivery → Agent Output

Current: 200k humans making PowerPoints

Zero-human:

  • Diagnostic Agent scrapes client financials, interviews stakeholders via voice AI
  • Pattern Agent queries vector DB of 100k similar engagements
  • Synthesis Agent generates strategic options (not slides — structured data)
  • Financial Agent runs Monte Carlo simulations on scenarios

Output: Interactive dashboard + API endpoints + natural language summary. Client consumes via web interface. Asks questions (chat). Drills into data. No PowerPoint. No human presenter. Just insights.

Implementation → Code Swarm

Current: 300k developers, PMs, testers

Zero-human:

  • Discovery Agent scrapes client codebase, docs, infrastructure
  • Architecture Agent designs target system (outputs spec as JSON/YAML)
  • Code Swarm (50-200 agents) writes features in parallel branches
  • Test Agent generates property-based tests, runs chaos engineering
  • Security Agent runs static analysis, penetration tests, compliance checks
  • Deploy Agent handles blue/green releases, automatic rollbacks

Client sees GitHub commits, test results, deployment status via dashboard. No standups. No Jira. No human project manager.

The Internal Stack

Agent-native infrastructure:

  • Convex — real-time database + backend
  • Vector DB — semantic search, pattern matching
  • Event streaming — Kafka/SNS for agent coordination
  • Object storage — S3 for artifacts, models, logs
  • Compute — Kubernetes for agent containers
  • API gateways — authentication, rate limiting

That's it. No SaaS subscriptions. No per-seat licenses. Infrastructure cost: ~$50k/month for $100M revenue scale.

Client Relationship → AI Relationship Manager

Current: Human partners building relationships over years

Zero-human:

  • Context Agent maintains full history: every interaction, preference, concern
  • Proactive Agent monitors client metrics, flags risks before they know
  • Communication Agent sends updates, gathers feedback via email/chat
  • Growth Agent identifies expansion opportunities from usage patterns
  • Retention Agent handles renewals, pricing adjustments, contract terms

The relationship is with the agent system. It remembers everything, responds in seconds, available 24/7. Some clients prefer this to human consultants who forget details and take weekends off.

Operations → Autonomous BPO

Current: 200k humans doing data entry, processing, support

Zero-human:

  • Ingestion Agents receive documents via API, extract structured data
  • Processing Agents execute workflows, update systems via API calls
  • Exception Agents identify anomalies, attempt self-healing
  • Quality Agents run statistical validation on outputs
  • Optimization Agents improve processes based on throughput data

Edge cases route to external contractors (not employees) via gig platform APIs. No operations team. No managers. No HR.

The Economics

Accenture Today:

  • 779,000 employees
  • $65B revenue
  • $83k revenue per employee
  • ~15% operating margin
  • People cost: ~$62B/year

Zero-Human Accenture:

  • 0 employees
  • $65B+ revenue potential
  • Infinite revenue per employee
  • ~85% operating margin
  • Infrastructure cost: ~$50M/year

The $45B difference = captured by founders and investors instead of paid as salaries.

The Objections

"Will enterprises buy from an AI-only consultancy?"

Early adopters already do. Mid-market tech companies. PE portfolio companies. Founders who want speed over hand-holding.

"What about complex judgment?"

Escalate to founder council (humans). But 95% of consulting work isn't complex judgment. It's pattern matching and execution.

"Who's liable when it goes wrong?"

Legal entity + insurance + human oversight committee. Same as any company.

"What about relationships?"

Some clients want human golf buddies. They keep hiring Accenture. We take everyone else.

The Opportunity

Accenture: 779k people, $65B revenue, $10B profit

Zero-Human Accenture: 0 people, $65B revenue, $55B profit

That's a $50B company with 0 employees.

The playbook:

  1. Pick service industry
  2. Replace human SaaS with agent-native infrastructure
  3. Decompose work into agent-executable tasks
  4. Orchestrate subagent swarms
  5. Remove humans from operations entirely

Not lean. Not efficient. Zero-human.

Related

Published: 2026-02-22
Category: Deep Research
Tags: Zero-Human Companies, Consulting, AI Agents, Subagents