Businesses that dive into artificial intelligence now could see a boost in profitability. According to a new Accenture report, AI has the potential to increase corporate profitability in 16 industries an average of 38 per cent by 2035. This is on top of a predicted economic boost of $14 trillion US in additional gross value added across those same industries and 12 different economies. The report points to information and communication, manufacturing, and financial services as the three sectors that will see the highest annual growth rates in the AI scenario. Labor-intensive sectors will benefit from augments in the human workforce, while AI powered machines will eliminate faulty machines and idle equipment.

But the reaction around these developments is mixed. Many extol the merits of machines that will free us from work and open us to new realms of human capability. Others forecast a dire future of increasing inequality and widespread unemployment. There are also those that question whether machine intelligence is ready to be put into production, or will live up to its ever-increasing hype. For executive leaders, the result can be paralyzing: Is it a business imperative to try and replace employees with machines or would it create an even greater risk in broken trust with shareholders, customers, and the public?

Insurance and technology are inextricably linked. The risks we seek to manage have always been connected to the tools we use. But, as Accenture's 2017 Technology Vision for Insurance points out, this relationship recently reached an inflection point. In the past, humans generally changed themselves to make use of new technologies--we learned to drive, we learned to type, we learned to code. But now modern technologies are sophisticated enough to adapt themselves to us.

Over the past few decades, technology has dramatically increased the productivity of the average worker, and through them, the profitability of the average large business. It's a trend that has payed enormous dividends for those companies that have been able to adapt, but in the past couple of years the trend seems to have slowed, and corporate profits have stagnated. Industry researchers from Accenture Research and Frontier Economics recently forecasted a dramatic return to growth in corporate productivity and profit. Called How A.I. Boosts Industry Profits and Innovation, their report foresees a number of improvements to profitability, thanks to A.I. moving into the workplace. The most dramatic predictions of the bunch have to do with overall growth in the economy.

AI could lead to "cliff-edge" scenario of mass unemployment, PWC warns The increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) by businesses to replace workers could lead to a "cliff-edge" scenario where huge swathes of the working population suddenly lose their jobs as the technology reaches financial viability, the accounting firm PWC has warned. The professional services firm said AI had the power to overhaul business models and could leave workers sidelined and companies struggling to adjust unless preparations are made now. It said firms and the state must double down on their efforts to improve the education system and help workers retrain to ensure AI delivers the much-heralded boost to the UK economy. Jon Andrews, PwC's head of technology and investments, said: "There are different sectors that will be impacted in different ways. "The vast majority [of workers] will not see the change happening to them and they will have a very different job by 2030.

Artificial Intelligence could add $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030, according to a report from the consultancy firm PwC. But that economic growth is also likely to cost human jobs, potentially on a massive scale. Here & Now's Peter O'Dowd looks at the pros and cons of the burgeoning AI industry with Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), executive editor of Recode and host of the podcast Recode Decode.

Artificial intelligence "is rewiring our modern conception of healthcare delivery," according to a new Accenture report that shows an array of clinical AI applications are already well on their way to saving the industry $150 billion over the next 10 years. In the shorter term, the report forecasts a 40 percent compound annual growth rate between now and 2021, with acquisitions of AI startups proceeding at a feverish pace.The technology represents "a significant opportunity for industry players to manage their bottom line in a new payment landscape," according to the report, which examined 10 different AI applications, ranked by their potential for cost savings. "As these, and other AI applications gain more experience in the field, their ability to learn and act will continually lead to improvements in precision, efficiency and outcomes," said Accenture researchers. But as the industry rushes headlong to embrace a technology that "thinks and pays for itself," there are some important considerations to keep in mind, according to the report. First, it's key to plan for the way the healthcare workforce will be affected as the nature of employment changes with automation.

According to the firm's calculations, the bulk of these gains, $9.1 trillion, will be generated by consumption-side effects. Shoppers, driven to work by autonomous cars, are expected to use their extra time and resources to buy personalized and higher-quality goods. The U.S. is forecast to be a major beneficiary of this trend -- PwC believes that consumption patterns triggered by AI will add $3.7 trillion to the North American economy. Some 42 percent of the $15.7 trillion that PwC claims AI can pump into the global economy is expected to be generated by automated machinery in the workplace.

Businesses and the government must ready the nation's workforce for the rise of artificial intelligence to ensure companies can ride out the "cliff edges" created by the technological revolution, according to PwC. The professional services firm said AI had the power to overhaul business models and could leave workers sidelined and companies struggling to adjust unless preparations are made now. It said firms and the state must step up their efforts to improve the education system and help workers retrain to ensure AI delivers the much-heralded boost to the UK economy. Jon Andrews, PwC's head of technology and investments, said: "There are different sectors that will be impacted in different ways. "The vast majority [of workers] will not see the change happening to them and they will have a very different job by 2030.

Global professional services firm focused on delivering digital transformation Genpact has unveiled Genpact Cora - an artificial intelligence (AI)-based platform that accelerates digital transformation for enterprises. Genpact Cora is a modular, interconnected mesh of flexible digital technologies that hones in on specific operational business challenges and tackles them from beginning to end, helping large global companies reframe and solve their most pressing real world business issues. "In an environment being disrupted by new technologies and increasing competition, clients want to buy business outcomes, not just tools and products," said founder and chief executive officer, Everest Group, a leading analyst firm, Peter Bendor-Samuel. "Genpact Cora is timely for an industry seeking digital transformation," added Peter Bendor-Samuel. As part of its ongoing strategy to drive digital-led innovation and digitally-enabled intelligent operations for clients around the world, Genpact has created Genpact Cora to provide the fastest path to driving meaningful transformation at scale.