NEW DELHI: Accenture will invest $3 billion over three years in its Data & Artificial Intelligence (AI) practice to drive the adoption of AI across all industries for “greater growth, efficiency and resilience”.
The IT services firm will invest in assets, industry solutions, ventures, acquisitions, and ecosystem partnerships to develop new skills and capabilities across diagnostic and generative AI, said the company as it outlined its ambitious plans for AI.
Further, the company will also double its AI talent to 80,000 through a mix of hiring, acquisitions and training.
Accenture has also launched an ‘AI Navigator for Enterprises’ which will assist its clients in making the best use of AI.
“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.
“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. “Our expanded Data & 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.”
Accenture joins the bandwagon of companies that are looking to enrich their services and products with generative AI, whose momentum is being driven by tech heavyweights such as Microsoft and Google.
Generative AI refers to an AI system that can generate text, audio and video based on prompts given by a user.
On Monday, Salesforce doubled its venture capital fund for generative AI startups to $500 million and launched an AI Cloud service to attract enterprises by offering AI-powered products under one roof.
China’s Lenovo has also announced to invest $1 billion over three years to drive AI adoption by enterprises. This investment includes an additional $100 million commitment to expand the Lenovo AI Innovators program.