IT service provider Accenture 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.

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

Accenture's 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%.