Playing is always good, especially this time of the year. Last week our blog post was a memory game highlighting the most conspicuous facts that kept us busy in 2018. More than the GDPR fog before May 25, or the new VAT Grouping regime voted in July, there was an algorithmic-related topic that stole the front page of printed and digital media, and it was a widespread topic on social media. We decided, then, to celebrate capodanno – or the New Year – with a game dedicated to artificial intelligence! Yes, you've got it right.

Only early adopter corporate executives with a better than average understanding of the AI/ML cognitive processes have whole heartedly embraced AI/ML implementation across the enterprise. The majority of the rest of corporate executives are evaluating AI/ML in baby steps measuring risk vs. return. Following those executives and measuring AI/ML concerns and prospective adoption are top data analyst organizations like Deloitte, McKinsey, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), Forrester and IDC. Surveys have shown that during early stages of AI/ML development, there was a rush to implement across the whole enterprise. Recently, adoption has slowed with executives beginning AI/ML pilots in predictable successful segments of their operations.

In partnership with British Triathlon, we have created the'Athlete Genome'; a technology solution aimed at enhancing athletic performance, with the ambition to ensure British Triathletes are the best prepared athletes at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo. The Athlete Genome is an industry-first, developed through the application of Accenture thinking and leading-edge technologies and in partnership with British Triathlon. The solution, a platform which integrates performance data with psychological data in sport, creates a hyper-personalised view of the impact of cognitive state on performance, and gives British Triathlon's athletes and coaches the ability to make meaningful decisions based on this interaction. Working alongside British Triathlon and the world-leading English Institute of Sport, we are developing and validating the use of sentiment analysis in elite performance sport. By integrating technologies including artificial intelligence, machine learning, the cloud, wearables and cognitive and performance data from TrainingPeaks, the Athlete Genome seeks to understand the relationship between cognitive state and performance.

We've heard this advice when it comes to everything from what you should order at a new restaurant to who you should marry. But as you might imagine, some decisions are better not left to the gut. That's where technology comes in. Hiring managers, company executives and everyone else in an organization benefit when decisions are informed by data. Christy Pettey at Gartner, however, cautions that there is a balance: Decision-makers must allow technology to complement, rather than replace, gut feelings and natural tendencies.

CHICAGO -- Grant Thornton LLP is collaborating with Microsoft and Hitachi Solutions to turn information into foresight. The collaboration uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to help Grant Thornton identify its clients' nascent business needs. Grant Thornton can then design solutions to address its clients' challenges before they balloon. As one of the nation's largest accounting, tax and consulting firms, Grant Thornton works with clients to overcome all manner of hurdles, from financial and operational to technological and risk-related. "We focus on staying ahead of our clients' needs," explains Nichole Jordan, Grant Thornton's national managing partner of Markets, Clients and Industry.

Newton sits underneath an apple tree. History is spiced with Eureka! moments when human understanding leaps forward. Thomas Edison chose a more deliberate approach: Rather than waiting for lightning to strike, he saw innovation as a replicable, continuous process. His facility in Menlo Park, New Jersey, was the first industrial lab specifically designed to produce a continuous stream of commercially viable technology innovations built on new and emerging technologies.1 Of course, the pace of technology innovation today--and its impact on business--is exponentially faster than in Edison's industrial age.

Source: Deloitte analysis based on Deloitte's "State of AI Enterprise, 2nd Edition" survey of 1,900 AI early adopters in seven countries. Note: Percentages may not add up to 100 due to a small number of respondents who answered, "Don't know." AI adoption and spending have been on a global tear over the past several years. In 2019, 37 percent of enterprises say they have deployed AI--an increase of 270 percent from four years ago.1 IDC estimates 2019 global spending on AI to be $35.8 billion, an amount that could more than double to $79.2 billion by 2022.2 In an era when everyone seems to be jockeying for an edge and looking for ways to ward off disruption, AI can be a powerful tool.

"If we properly incorporate artificial intelligence, we can achieve a revolution with regard to sustainability. AI will be the driving force of the fourth industrial revolution," says Hendrik Fink, head of Sustainability Services at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Germany's largest auditing and consulting company. His comment aptly describes the opportunities opened up by new technical developments. In business, for example, it is now common to use systems that analyze and intelligently interpret meaningful data, with one application being the optimization of work and manufacturing processes. In the future, moreover, it will also be in the interest of small and medium-sized businesses to pay attention to sustainability and environmental issues.

CHIEF financial officers (CFOs) and their finance teams need to understand how to anticipate and respond to artificial intelligence (AI), as it will be a key frontier technology to grow Singapore's economy in the years ahead, CPA Australia said on Thursday. The accounting professional body also urged professionals in the sector to upskill, particularly in terms of data mining, extraction and faster interpretation of big data. To help them navigate this digital journey, CPA Australia has published a resource titled Charting the Future of Accountancy with AI, in collaboration with Singapore Management University's School of Accountancy. The practical guide looks at how AI will reshape the accounting and finance sector in the coming years, and what the profession can do to continue to operate alongside the evolving technology and their changing roles. It draws on insights from professional services firms Accenture, Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC, as well as the Singapore Management University.

In today's day and age there cannot be a more perfect meeting place for human and artificial intelligence (AI) than human resources (HR). The synergy of the two is all set to transform the way organizations recruit, assess, manage and motivate talent. One has to understand that AI is not set to put HR executives out of work, rather it is set to transform HR departments across organizations. Therefore, it is not surprising that many see AI as having the potential to transform and alter key HR functions, such as recruiting, performance evaluation and capability development. KPMG International's latest global survey The Future of HR 2019, indicates that 60% of HR executives feel "very confident" about HR's actual ability to transform and move them forward via key capabilities like analytics and AI.