The age of the mercenary data science lab

Artificial intelligence in business is a rapidly developing field, plugged directly into academic research. For all the talk of democratization of AI tools, it is safe to assume that cutting edge machine learning innovation – the kind that makes you eat up market share – will remain the domain of experts and professionals. So it comes as no surprise that major professional services firms have started to assemble new practices dedicated to AI. McKinsey acquired its data science flagship, London-based QuantumBlack in 2015. Atos is currently adding more staff at zData, an American data science startup it purchased in 2017. Boston Consulting Group launched GAMMA in 2016 to focus on data science and advanced analytics projects.