With increasing interest in artificial intelligence, Accenture announced plans for a $3 billion investment over three years in its data and AI practice. With the increased attention, the company aims to help clients across all industries to quickly and strategically utilize AI to achieve greater growth, efficiency and resilience.
Accenture’s announcement will include investments in assets, industry solutions, ventures, acquisitions, ecosystem partnerships and doubling its AI talent in its data and AI practice to 80,000 professionals. The company will also create accelerators for data and AI readiness across industries as well as pre-built industry and functional models that take advantage of new generative AI capabilities.
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Notably, Accenture’s investment builds on the company’s existing leadership in AI expertise that spans a decade-plus including more than 1,450 patents and pending patent applications globally. Accenture has worked with hundreds of client solutions at scale ranging from marketing to retail and security to manufacturing.
“There is unprecedented interest in all areas of AI, and the substantial investment we are making in our data and 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 chief executive officer at Accenture. “Companies that build a strong foundation of AI by adopting and scaling it now, where the technology is mature and delivers clear value, will be better positioned to reinvent, compete and achieve new levels of performance.”
Moreover, Sweet acknowledged that Accenture’s clients exist in complex environments at a time when technology is changing rapidly. Accenture’s deep understanding of ecosystem solutions, she said, allows it to “help them navigate quickly and cost-effectively to make smart decisions.”
Within Accenture’s announcement are plans for a range of investments aimed at helping companies develop new strategies, operating models, business cases and digital core architecture to capitalize on innovations in AI. For example, the new AI Navigator for Enterprise will serve as a generative AI-based platform that will help companies define business cases, make decisions, navigate AI journeys, choose architectures and understand algorithms and models to drive value responsibly. The platform will include assets designed to accelerate responsible AI practices and compliance programs that build on Accenture’s existing efforts.
“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 percent of all working hours,” said Paul Daugherty, group chief executive at Accenture Technology. “Our expanded data and AI practice brings together the full power and breadth of Accenture in creating industry-specific solutions that will help our clients harness AI’s full potential to reshape their strategy, technology and ways of working, driving innovation and value responsibly and faster than ever before.”
Other areas seeing investment include advancements in generative AI use the Center for Advanced AI, which is dedicated to maximizing the value of AI technology across clients within Accenture. The center will provide extensive research and development and see investments to “reimagine service delivery using generative and other emerging AI capabilities.
