For many of us, our experience with artificial intelligence (A.I.) may be, for a lack of a better way to put it, "helpfully cool." That can mean asking Amazon's Alexa to play a particular song or querying Google's Home to see if butter is a suitable replacement for vegetable shortening. That sort of change is coming faster than you might expect. And organizations that anticipate the most effective ways to leverage A.I. will profit handsomely. I first identified artificial intelligence way back in 1983 as one of 20 core technologies that would become powerful drivers of exponential economic value creation. Looked at in the context of my overall Anticipatory Organization Model, A.I. is an ideal example of a Hard Trend – a future certainty – which in this case means our overall increasing use of this technology in a broad array of applications.

NEW YORK; Nov. 14, 2017 – Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has launched the Accenture Future Talent Platform, an interactive learning platform that includes talent transformation services to help clients develop their IT workforces in critical areas such as digital, cloud, security and artificial intelligence. Accenture has already used the platform internally to train more than 180,000 of its people globally in the latest digital technologies – or New IT – in just over 20 months. Now, through its technology consulting and talent and organization practices, Accenture is bringing these learning capabilities to clients to help them run agile, intelligent businesses. "With technology accelerating at a breathtaking pace, companies need to upskill their people at greater speed and scale to avoid being disrupted by competitors," said Bhaskar Ghosh, group chief executive of Accenture Technology Services. "Accomplishing this requires creating a culture of continuous learning that empowers people to build new skills. The Accenture Future Talent Platform helps companies do exactly that through a unique, interactive experience and rich curriculum."

Tax preparation, auditing and strategy consulting are services that have historically relied on an intensive use of human capital. Artificial intelligence (AI) now threatens these business models. Technologies such as natural language processing (NLP) and robotic process automation (RPA) complete in mere hours what human auditors took weeks to do. Deloitte, Ernst & Young (EY), and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) are three of the famed Big Four tax and accounting companies. I recently sat down with innovation leaders at these companies to learn how AI is transforming the tax and auditing business.

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Technology is at the heart of this; driving the disruption through digital ways and means, with the resulting artificial intelligence having a significant impact upon the world of work. Already we've seen well-known brands being shaken up, even decimated, by technological innovators. There are estimations of robots stealing a third of British jobs by 2030 (PWC, 2017). And that, in less than 12 years, computers will possess more intelligence than the average human being (Google). Right now, billions of people are connected across the world – sharing content, experiences and their lives like never before.

AI could be one of the biggest commercial opportunities for Ireland. Artificial intelligence (AI) is forecast to boost Irish GDP by 11.6pc or the equivalent of an extra €48bn, according to new research by PwC. The consulting giant recommends that the effect on jobs in the long term will at least be neutral, if not net positive, but this depends on employers putting Ireland at the forefront of the AI revolution by investing in skills and technology. 'Put an action plan in place around AI and manage with the same discipline you would put around any technology-enabled transformation. Don't wait for it to happen around you' – RONAN FITZPATRICK The analysis in the PwC report The Economic Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Ireland's Economy shows that the potential for AI to impact the Irish economy is slightly lower than the global average (13.8pc by 2030 and $15.7trn) but slightly higher than in other northern European (9.9pc by 2030 and $1.8trn) and southern European (11.5pc by 2030 and $0.7trn) economies.

At Booz Allen, our goal is to bring people together from different backgrounds and perspectives to transform business and society with data. From Machine Intelligence to Precision Medicine, Open Technology to Immersive Experience, we're empowering people to change the world--starting with you. In the future, we believe everyone will be a data scientist and we're already thousands strong. We invest heavily in our analytics experts through funding, training, and mentorship. You'll work on a steady stream of interesting projects, support diverse clients, and participate in programs like hackathons and our new Data Science 5K Challenge.

The cloud is no longer "the next big thing," with companies now looking at machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to make their products smarter, more efficient, and to release human operators from manual tasks where they can be intelligently automated. AI is becoming more accessible, breaking new ground, permitting new ways of working and increasing productivity. However, Sarah Adam-Gedge, Managing Director of consulting firm Avanade's Australian operations, says organisations need to establish an ethics framework for guiding our journey into an AI-first world. Just as we think about the benefits, we must also consider the impacts these new technologies can have, and how removing human operators from machinery such as weaponry and healthcare can compromise end results. AI introduces uncharted moral and ethical dilemmas and a new scale to risks.

Every week, we talk about important data and analytics topics with top data scientists. These data science chats are hosted by Mike Delgado. Please reach out if you have recommendations for topics or guests. Mike Delgado: Welcome to Experian's Weekly Data Talk, a show featuring some of the smartest people working in data science. Bill, thank you for being part of today's broadcast. Can you share a bit about your background and what got you started working in data science? In the '90s, I came out of industry and went into management consulting. I ran the consulting shop at JD Power and Associates. Then, I moved over into big four consulting at Ernst and Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers.