Accenture to pump in $3 bn to boost data, AI capabilities

Irish-American professional services giant Accenture has said it'll invest around $3 billion to boost its data & artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities over the next three years to help clients across all industries to achieve greater growth.

“There is unprecedented interest in all areas of AI, and the substantial investment we are making in our Data & AI practice will help our clients move from interest to action to value, and in a responsible way with clear business cases,” said Julie Sweet, chair and CEO, Accenture.

As part of the latest announcements, Accenture will pump in funds in assets, industry solutions, ventures, acquisitions, talent, and ecosystem partnerships, which will deepen and develop new skills and capabilities across diagnostic, predictive and generative AI, says the company.

"The Data & AI practice will double its AI talent to 80,000 professionals through a mix of hiring, acquisitions and training."

The company's new AI Navigator for enterprise is a generative AI-based platform that will help clients define business cases, make decisions, navigate AI journeys, choose architectures and understand algorithms, and models to drive value responsibly.

“Over the next decade, AI will be a mega-trend, transforming industries, companies, and the way we live and work, as generative AI transforms 40% of all working hours,” said Paul Daugherty, group chief executive, Accenture Technology. He said the company's expanded data & AI practice will create industry-specific solutions and harness AI’s full potential.

The company said its AI expertise spans over 1,450 patents and pending patent applications worldwide and hundreds of client solutions at scale, ranging from marketing to retail and security to manufacturing.

Accenture says it has embedded AI across its service delivery approach, driving efficiency, insights, and accelerating value for thousands of clients through its market-leading platforms such as myWizard, SynOps, and MyNav.

Notably, the company is also currently working with many clients on generative AI projects, such as helping a hotel group manage customer queries or a judicial system synthesise judicial process information across hundreds of thousands of complex documents.

Accenture’s announcement follows an explosion in AI-based tools globally, which are reshaping the business industry at a rapid scale. Widely famous chatbots like ChatGPT of OpenAI and Google Bard of Google have taken the world by storm with their capabilities. The Indian industries are also trying to catch up with their global peers.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) earlier this month said it is significantly investing in building AI capabilities that include products and platforms that are AI-powered. This came days after rival Infosys launched Topaz — an AI-first set of services, solutions, and platforms using generative AI technologies. Topaz leverages Infosys' applied AI framework to build an AI-first core that has over 12,000 AI use cases, more than 150 pre-trained AI models, and over 10 AI platforms.