The market for Service Delivery Automation (SDA) is a fast moving one, both in terms of adoption as well as advances in technology. Many organizations have already tried and adopted SDA technologies, such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and cognitive automations, based on machine learning software. These organizations are looking beyond Proofs of Concept (PoC) and trials to wider adoption of SDA across their organizations. An SDA Center of Excellence (CoE) enables organizations to develop their SDA capabilities and competencies in a controlled and centralized manner. It helps organization to stay abreast of developments in the fast-moving world of SDA.

I recently spoke at the Deloitte Shared Services and Outsourcing Executive Forum at Deloitte University. The audience's interest level in automation strategies was high. For the most part, Deloitte doesn't outsource directly, but only provides consulting services to its clients about outsourcing and shared services strategies, so the event and this essay seem appropriate venues to discuss the impact of "cognitive automation" technologies on the outsourcing industry. I use quotation marks around the term "cognitive automation" because though I am told that that is the preferred term these days at Deloitte, I am still getting used to it. I like the term because it suggests a broad approach that goes beyond current automation-oriented technologies and methods.

KPMG's recent announcement was particularly noteworthy from my perspective, because it indicated that the audit firm would be deploying IBM's Watson "cognitive computing technology" to KPMG's professional services offerings.--According "One current initiative is focused on employing supervised cognitive capabilities to analyze much larger volumes of structured and unstructured data related to a company's financial information, as auditors'teach' the technology how to fine-tune assessments over time. This enables audit teams to have faster access to increasingly precise measurements that help them analyze anomalies and assess whether additional steps are necessary." IBM is, of course, one of KPMG's biggest software-auditing clients. All of these recent reports mention that the AI technologies currently are being contemplated for use in connection with financial audits.

News flash: Artificial intelligence (AI) and other cognitive technologies are eliminating jobs left and right. The short answer is no…don't lose sleep over it. First off, cognitive technologies (even super cool advanced ones) are best with structured tasks and finding patterns. You know, auditing grunt work. I assume most sane people would prefer to not be subjected to the mundane, mind-numbing work anyway and say, "Go ahead, automate the cross-footing and put me out of my misery!"

Artificial intelligence (AI), one of 20 core technologies I identified back in 1983 as the drivers of exponential economic value creation, is rapidly working its way into our lives from Amazon's Alexa and Facebook's M, to Google's Now and Apple's Siri. An example of how far AI has come is the recent news that a Google supercomputer, using its advanced AI software, was able to win a stunning 3-0 victory in a man vs. machine face-off against Go grandmaster, one of the game's all-time champions. For those who are not familiar with Go, it is a 3,000-year-old game that is widely considered to be the most complex game ever invented because it is reported to have more possible board configurations than there are atoms in the universe. Until just a few months ago, it was thought that a computer could not defeat a human grandmaster for at least another decade due to the game's complexity. How did Google's AlphaGo program advance so much faster than many expected?

Accenture has introduced an intelligent automation platform for application services that provides human technology workers with better productivity and insights to enhance business performance. The platform, Accenture myWizard, augments human technologists with virtual agents powered by artificial intelligence. It helps humans and machines reach their exponential potential in application services. The platform currently includes several intelligent virtual agents that use machine learning to collaborate with their human co-workers. The platform brings together various Accenture industry assets such as intelligent and analytics tools and methods, as well as tools from across the company's alliance partner ecosystem.

For the consumer & retail and banking industries, standard features can be configured into customer interaction templates for use in attending to customers or for marketing activities. In addition, Pepper can store information from interacting with customers on the cloud for future analysis, and the data can then be visualized, providing an integrated streamflow through to customer support. Pepper also has sensors to detect anyone approaching it, which enables interaction with that individual. Following the interaction, the new customer information can be reviewed through Interactive Analytics. "We need to know more about Pepper. In ten years, Pepper will be used in ways we never imagined. Accenture is working together with Softbank Robotics to take it to another level, thinking about how it can help solve our client's challenges and how it can be used to provide better customer services."

Salesforce's recent acquisitions of AI startups including MetaMind will enable it to keep pace with the functions that consumer-focused companies … From Dick Tracy's watch to Wonder Woman's Bracelets to Bat Girls total recall and technopathy, fiction has a intriguing dialog with invention. Enable natural interaction with your app using a conversational interface powered by the Watson Developer Cloud APIs. KPMG LLP and IBM today announced plans to apply IBM's Watson cognitive computing technology to KPMG's professional services offerings. It can answer guests' questions about the hotel and tourist destinations. The hotel has recently welcomed a new concierge named "Connie," you see, and it's actually a Nao robot powered by IBM's AI.

Accenture have announced the global rollout of an intelligent automation platform, Accenture myWizard, that enables smarter, more innovative and more efficient application services consisting of systems integration and application development and management. The platform combines Accenture's industry and technology assets and business knowledge across 40 industries with intelligent automation, including artificial intelligence at its core. Accenture myWizard supports productivity improvement for clients by employing a team of virtual agents, powered by artificial intelligence, to analyze data, identify patterns and guide human workers to make better informed decisions. This guides human workers to make better informed decisions that can drive highly impactful business performance which can include significant improvement in application quality, cost reduction and speed to market. The new platform brings together numerous proprietary Accenture industry assets, including intelligent and analytics tools and methods, as well as tools from across Accenture's alliance partner ecosystem.

A recent study by researchers at Oxford University and consultants Deloitte may have given finance professionals pause for thought. It found that, based on the nature of their work and the expected advance of machine intelligence, it is 95% likely that charted accountants will be replaced by some form of automation over the next 20 years. That is a startling figure, but it should come as no surprise that the work of the finance department is ripe for automation. Since 2004 the median number of full-time employees working in the function at big companies has declined by 40% to about 71 people for every US 1bn of revenue, down from 119 people, according to Hackett Group, a consulting firm. This is due, in part at least, to the increased use of automation within the finance department, the researchers say.