Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be the single most important enabler of digital success. It will become the public face of an organisation's digital brand and a key differentiator in an ever more crowded, complex and unpredictable business and social environment. That is the view of leading global professional services company Accenture in its Technology Vision 2017 report, Technology for People: The Era of the Intelligent Enterprise. Those organisations that effectively embrace AI will thrive, while late adopters will, almost certainly, fail, says Accenture. The report, however, is not about spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt.

Accenture Labs and Akshaya Patra Use Disruptive Technologies to Enhance Efficiency in Mid-Day Meal Program for School Children "Million Meals" project applied artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and blockchain to drive efficiency and timeliness of lunch program in government schools across India BENGALURU, India; Apr. 20, 2017 – Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and Akshaya Patra, the world's largest NGO-run Mid-Day Meal Program, collaborated on an innovative project that used disruptive technologies to exponentially increase the number of meals served to children in schools in India that are run and aided by the government. The "Million Meals" project revolutionized Akshaya Patra's supply chain and operations, resulting in improved food quality and expanded service reach. Rooted in a vision to eliminate child hunger, the "Million Meals" project demonstrated how disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain can help address significant challenges in mass meal production and delivery. Accenture Labs, the research and development arm of Accenture, executed the project over a period of six months in Akshaya Patra's Bengaluru kitchen. An analysis of the project indicated a potential to improve efficiency by 20 percent, which could boost the number of meals served by millions.

Get the big picture of how machine learning works, its relationship to artificial intelligence, and where companies are putting it to work. Machine learning brings humans and machines closer by enabling humans to "teach" machines. Machines learn by processing a valid training set that contains the features necessary to tune an algorithm. The algorithm enables machines to execute specific tasks, such as classifying email. But the benefits go beyond what was possible with email filtering a decade ago.

For the connected consumer, machine learning is now a key enabler, from on-demand translation services, to weather forecasting, to guessing what users want based on where they are and what they've been doing. But only a third of companies IDC surveyed in 2017 said they had plans to use machine learning inside the enterprise. Lack of familiarity and a talent gap are some of the reasons enterprises have been reluctant to embrace this set of techniques. As with any essential technology, companies can get started with a clearer sense of the fundamentals. What is machine learning, and how does it differ from traditional programming?

John Fremont is the Go to Market lead for Artificial Intelligence at Accenture in North America. Previously the Chief Revenue Officer and a managing partner at Chaotic Moon (acquired by Accenture in mid-2015) and the Global head of Digital Product Creation for Accenture, Fremont has been in the AI space for years, driving clients and partners to understand the impact and complexity of the impending transformation. He contributed to a recent Salesforce panel on Artificial Intelligence, and we took some time with him to discuss his take on the impact of AI on business. I think the fundamentals of business strategy will stay quite consistent - in the sense that the overarching goals will still be to create more efficiency, drive more profitability and the like. However, there is a major shift underway - in which a company's operations and their interactions with customers are taking place increasingly in the digital world. This digitalization allows for a lot more data collection.

Suppose we have coins with the following denominations: 5 cents, 4 cents, 3 cents, and 1 cent, and that we need to determine the minimum number of coins to create the amount of 7 cents. In order to solve this problem we can use a technique called "Heuristics". Webster1 defines the term Heuristic as "involving or serving as an aid to learning, discovery, or problem-solving by experimental and especially trial and error methods". In practice, this means that whenever problems get too complex to find the guaranteed best possible solution using exact methods, Heuristics serves to employ a practical method for finding a solution that is not guaranteed to be optimal, but one that is sufficient for the immediate goals. For some problems, tailored heuristics can be designed that exploits the structure within the problem.

Accelerating trends in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics point to significant economic disruption in the years ahead. Together, machine learning, natural-language recognition, biometrics, and decision management are converging toward what the World Economic Forum has described as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. To this point, technology has consistently generated more jobs than it destroys--but many now wonder if "this time is different." According to McKinsey & Company, half of all existing work activities could be automated by currently existing technologies, saving some $16 trillion in wages. Forecasts indicate that revenues from AI will expand from the current $8 billion to more than $47 billion by 2020.

Hey Accenture, are you aware that your PR firm is pitching your latest corporate beta for a creepy face and emotion-monitoring algorithm as a party trick? Do you know what a party is? Have you read the definition? Would you call requiring people to download an app before they can get into an event a party-time kind of thing to do? Would you say that demanding that people scan their faces so they can be recognized by an algorithm fun times? Does having that same algorithm watch and record every interaction that happens in the Austin bar or event space you've filled with some light snacks and a bunch of free liquor count as rockin like Dokken? Do good hosts require people to become lab rats in the latest attempt to develop HAL?

Whenever there's a need to draft a job description, Expedia Inc.'s 3,000-plus recruiters and hiring managers have the option to call on a writing coach. The online travel-booking company's writing companion is Textio Inc., an artificial intelligence application that runs in the cloud and analyzes each typewritten word in milliseconds to spot gender bias or other language that might turn off good candidates. The software generates an effectiveness score and suggests alternative phrasing, in effect teaching the recruiter how to write a job description more effectively. We are in the age of "the Facebook generation"-- millennials. They'll make up the majority of the workforce.

Ernst and Young (EY), the leading global professional services organisation, on Friday announced its plans to enhance its suite of automation and artificial intelligence offerings with the opening of its first Artificial Intelligence (AI) Center in India. The AI Center resonates with EY?s purpose of?building a better working world?, by helping businesses to accelerate innovation and leverage on emerging technologies to operate more efficiently, manage risk and inspire confidence. Advisory Services and Technology Sector Leader, EY India, said:?The current wave of digital innovation is disrupting sectors and businesses in unprecedented ways. The Center will help organizations find new ways to deploy new technologies across a range of functions in their business environment and build a more digital workforce of the future.? EY?s AI Center will bring together teams of multi-disciplinary practitioners, combining expertise in AI, robotics etc. along with domain experience in sectors.