AI Acceleration Continues at Acora with Eight New Customers in Q1 2026

Momentum reflects growing demand from investor‑backed organisations seeking to scale internal Data & AI capability at pace.

Acora has started 2026 with strong momentum in its Data & AI practice, securing eight new customer partnerships in Q1 as organisations accelerate investment in modern data platforms and practical AI adoption, grounded and trained in the customers’ own institutional knowledge.

The new engagements span a range of sectors, including Financial Services, Legal, Care, Insurance and Professional Services, focused initially on delivering tactical data projects that demonstrated economic value at speed. The next stages of engagement focus on the longer‑term transformation programmes as customers unlock and liberate their data, build their in-house capability and deliver measurable value from their Data & AI investments partnership with Acora.

This pattern reflects a broader shift in the market, where organisations are prioritising speed‑to‑value and assured delivery, particularly in complex and regulated environments. Rather than large, upfront transformation programmes, businesses are increasingly engaging trusted partners to assess readiness, modernise foundations and prove impact early.

Andrew Lindsay, the newly appointed Managing Director of Data & AI at Acora, commented: 

The conversation around Data and AI is shifting from ambition to results. Customers are looking to move fast, but with the right internal foundations in place to avoid risk and rework. Eight new partnerships in Q1 demonstrate our ability to accelerate delivery, prioritise high-impact use cases, and unlock value early through proven approaches, a combination that is resonating strongly in private equity-backed businesses, where promises do not replace profit.

Andrew Lindsay

Managing Director of Data & AI, Acora

Acora is seeing this economic value-led approach consistently across private equity‑backed portfolio companies, where data and AI capability are now recognised as a critical driver of operational efficiency, insight and long-term enterprise value creation. Recent examples include Acora supporting portfolio businesses backed by Inflexion, KKR, LDC, 3i and Vitruvian, as these investors continue to invest decisively in data, analytics and AI to underpin growth ambitions.

Across these engagements, Acora is helping organisations:

1. Establish scalable, cloud‑based data foundations
2. Rapidly improve data quality, governance and accessibility challenges
3. Identify high-impact data & AI use cases aligned to business strategy and economic outcomes
4. Rapidly validate and deliver outcomes through structured accelerators and proofs of concept

Acora’s recent expansion in Data & AI capability, following the acquisition of Elastacloud in 2024, has further strengthened its ability to support customers across the full lifecycle, from Data Platform Modernisation through to Applied AI and Managed Services.

This capability is underpinned by our close relationship with Microsoft and deep expertise in Microsoft Fabric, which is where many customer journeys now begin. Acora helps organisations design and operationalise Fabric as an enterprise‑ready data foundation, ensuring it is built right the first time and ready to support AI as demand scales.

As demand continues to grow, Acora remains ready to help organisations turn Data & AI ambition into practical, scalable outcomes that support the next phase of growth. Lindsay concludes, “Acora’s ambition is to become the go-to partner of choice for enabling ‘Assured AI Adoption’ that delivers tangible economic outcomes.”