(Reuters) -IT service provider Accenture ( ACN ) beat Wall Street estimates for first-quarter revenue on Thursday, on the back of growing demand for its services to help clients adopt AI-powered tools.

Shares of the company rose 5% in premarket trading.

Businesses are investing heavily to scale their AI projects and digitize their core operations to boost efficiency and cut costs, which is helping companies such as Accenture ( ACN ).

The company's new bookings rose to $18.7 billion for the first quarter from $18.4 billion a year earlier.

Accenture's ( ACN ) first-quarter revenue stood at $17.7 billion, beating analysts' estimates of $17.12 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

The company expects annual revenue to grow between 4% and 7%, compared with analysts' expectations of 5.63%. It had earlier forecast growth of 3%-6%.