Accenture pledges $3bn to bolster data and AI capabilities over next three years

Global consulting firm Accenture has unveiled a plan to invest $3 billion over the next three years into its Data & AI practice to enable clients across various industries to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) responsibly and efficiently, thereby driving growth, enhancing efficiency, and bolstering resilience.

Accenture’s substantial investment expands on its decade-long leadership in AI, boasting more than 1,450 patents and pending applications worldwide. The firm has implemented AI across its service delivery methods, integrating platforms like myWizard, SynOps, and MyNav to deliver value for thousands of clients in sectors ranging from marketing and retail to security and manufacturing.

Currently, Accenture is facilitating several generative AI projects for clients, such as managing customer queries for a hotel group and helping a judicial system synthesize extensive judicial process information across hundreds of thousands of complex documents.

Accenture’s responsible AI framework, initiated six years ago, forms the backbone of its client delivery methods, is embedded in its code of ethics, and underpins its stringent AI compliance program.

Accenture to invest $3bn in its Data & AI practice over three years. Photo courtesy of Maksym Kozlenko/Wikimedia Commons.

The latest investment will be directed towards the development of assets, industry solutions, ventures, acquisitions, talent, and ecosystem partnerships. This will enhance skills and capabilities across diagnostic, predictive, and generative AI. As part of the initiative, Accenture’s Data & AI practice aims to double its AI professionals to 80,000 through hiring, acquisitions, and training.

Accenture is introducing the AI Navigator for Enterprise, a generative AI-based platform designed to aid clients in determining business cases, making decisions, and navigating AI journeys. The platform is expected to accelerate responsible AI practices and compliance programs.

The professional services company also plans to develop accelerators for data and AI readiness across 19 industries and create pre-built industry and functional models that leverage new generative AI capabilities. The Center for Advanced AI is committed to maximizing the value of generative AI technology, focusing on extensive R&D and investments to reimagine service delivery using generative and other emerging AI capabilities.

To transform the type of work being delivered to clients, Accenture will invest in new and existing relationships across its industry-leading cloud, data, and AI ecosystems. This includes developers using pre-built models to improve prototyping or creators constructing dynamic virtual environments that adapt to real-world changes.

Julie Sweet — Accenture chair and CEO said: “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.

“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. Our clients have complex environments, and at a time when the technology is changing rapidly, our deep understanding of ecosystem solutions allows us to help them navigate quickly and cost effectively to make smart decisions.”