A recent Accenture report found that just 7% of organizations can be considered'future-ready'. I ... [ ] spoke with Manish Sharma, Group Chief Exec of Accenture Operations, about what this means for the near future of work and promoting human potential. Business leaders have been banging the drum of digital transformation for some time now, but some have galvanized that enthusiasm into practice much more effectively than most. In fact, according to a recent Accenture report, 7% of organizations (considered'future-ready') are around twice as efficient and three times as profitable as their peers. So how have these companies shot so far ahead of the rest, and what does this mean for organizational structures and employment as we transition into a more digitized future?

An overwhelming majority of financial firms' risk managers don't believe they can adequately assess the risks of disruptive technologies but are open to new strategies and tools to better manage emerging threats, according to a new report by Accenture. The report, 'Accenture 2019 Global Risk Management Study', is based on a survey of nearly 700 risk management executives in the banking, insurance and capital markets sectors globally. The survey found that only 11 percent of risk managers describe themselves as fully capable of assessing the risks associated with adopting artificial intelligence (AI) across their organizations, and even fewer said they are fully capable of assessing the risks associated with robotic process automation (RPA) or blockchain (9 percent and 5 percent, respectively). The report notes that the external risk environment is becoming increasingly complex, with risk teams realizing they must adapt their approaches to contend with new threats and the heightened pace of change. For instance, nearly three-fourths (72 percent) of respondents said that complex, interconnected new risks are emerging more rapidly than ever before.

Many companies are stuck in dead-end pilots while an elite few have figured out how to make artificial intelligence (AI) work at scale, according to a new Accenture report. "AI: Built to Scale" shows how difficult this transformation is as well as what it takes to do it successfully. "In a nutshell, what our report found is that the majority of companies are really struggling to scale AI," said Bob Berkey, MD, Accenture Applied Intelligence. "They're stuck in the Proof of Concept Factory, conducting AI experiments and pilots but achieving a low scaling success rate and a low return on their AI investments." Accenture surveyed 1,500 C-level executives across 16 industries to determine what makes AI projects successful.

NEW YORK; Aug. 21, 2019 – The semiconductor industry is the most bullish about adopting artificial intelligence (AI) and understanding the significant impact it will have on their industry, according to Accenture Semiconductor Technology Vision 2019, the annual report from Accenture (NYSE: ACN) that predicts key technology trends likely to redefine business over the next three years. Three-quarters of semiconductor executives surveyed for the report (77%) said they have adopted AI within their business or are piloting the technology. In addition, nearly two-thirds of semiconductor executives (63%) expect that AI will have the greatest impact on their business over the next three years, compared with just 41% of executives across 20 industries. This ranks AI higher for chipmakers than other new disruptive technologies surveyed, including d istributed ledgers, extended reality and q uantum computing. AI, comprising technologies that range from machine learning to natural language processing, enables machines to sense, comprehend, act and learn in order to extend human capabilities.

Aerospace & Defense Industry to See Greatest Impact from Artificial Intelligence Compared to Other Key Emerging Technologies, Accenture Report Finds Study underscores the need for reskilling in the sector for future competitiveness NEW YORK; June 13, 2019 – The aerospace and defense (A&D) industry will be more affected by artificial intelligence (AI) than by any other major emerging technology over the next three years, according to Aerospace & Defense Technology Vision 2019, the annual report from Accenture (NYSE: ACN) that predicts key technology trends likely to redefine business. The study also underscores the growing importance of reskilling programs as a competitive lever. AI, comprising technologies that range from machine learning to natural language processing, enables machines to sense, comprehend, act and learn in order to extend human capabilities. One-third (33%) of A&D executives surveyed cited AI as the technology that will have the greatest impact on their organization over the next three years -- more than quantum computing, distributed ledger or extended reality. In fact, two-thirds (67%) of A&D executives said they have either adopted AI within their business or are piloting the technology.

US Insurers Could Boost Profits by $20 Billion Through Intelligent Solutions, According to Accenture Report More than half of insurers currently use intelligent solutions in one or more business process NEW YORK; July 25, 2018 – By embedding intelligent solutions such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and analytics into every business process, insurers in the U.S. could increase annual profitability by as much as US$20 billion, according to new research by Accenture (NYSE: ACN). The report, called "Reimagining Insurance Processes with Intelligent Solutions," is based on an analysis of the potential profit impact of intelligent solutions on U.S. tier 1 insurers, as well as a survey of 185 insurance process professionals. The research found that insurers that use intelligent solutions to reinvent the customer experience and drive human-machine collaboration are achieving returns in excess of 10 times their investment and could increase industry-wide profitability by between US$10.4 billion and US$20.8 billion. "As insurers face heightened customer expectations and cost pressures, now is the time for them to move from experimenting with AI in the laboratory to deploying it at scale across several business processes," said Michael Costonis, who leads Accenture's Insurance practice globally. Encouragingly, the report notes that more than half (53 percent) of insurers surveyed are already using intelligent solutions in one or more business process, and 46 percent are investing in or piloting them to streamline selected business processes and customer experiences.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) have already started making inroads into various industries. Healthcare is emerging as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI revolution. The technology is capable of facilitating easy and secure access to patient medical data, understanding and analysing their conditions. This ultimately helps improve accuracy and efficiency in the diagnosis and modernisation of health care practices. An example of an elementary implementation of AI is the use of chatbots and virtual assistants that can take care of basic yet tedious tasks like registering medical records, clinical workflows and monitoring lab results – all in an automated and secure process.

Banks Must Invest in Reskilling Their Workforces to Seize AI-driven Growth Opportunities, Accenture Report Finds Stronger commitment to AI could boost revenues 34 percent and employment 14 percent by 2022 NEW YORK; May 2, 2018 – Although bank leaders recognize that intelligent technologies are reshaping the core banking process and can transform customer experiences, few plan to significantly increase investments in reskilling their workforces to enable these technologies in the near-term, according to a report by Accenture (NYSE: ACN). Based on two surveys – one of 100 banking executives and another of 1,300 non-executive bank employees – the report, "Future Workforce Survey - Banking: Realizing the Full Value of AI," estimates that if banks invest in artificial intelligence (AI) and human-machine collaboration at the same rate as top-performing companies do, they could boost revenues by 34 percent and raise employment levels 14 percent by 2022. "As AI becomes more nuanced, its role in banks is moving beyond automation to elevating human capabilities," said Alan McIntyre, a senior managing director at Accenture and head of the company's Banking practice. "To benefit from the potential of AI, banks need to implement'applied intelligence' – combining technology and human ingenuity – across all areas of their core business. To achieve this, they will need commitment from the highest levels of leadership and an understanding that this evolution will require a dramatic change in their workforce."

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Late one evening, Gunjan Bhardwaj got a phone call from his friend and mentor -- a call that would change his career. Not long after, Bhardwaj spent days in the hospital, as his friend underwent painful chemotherapy. As a former consultant at Ernst and Young and Boston Consulting Group, Bhardwaj understood the flow of information in the Internet age. He knew artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning were capable of digesting large data sets and arriving at powerful connections and insights. What Bhardwaj didn't understand was, why health-care information to help his friend wasn't available.

These days, it's hard not to run across a story in the news about machine learning (ML) or artificial intelligence (AI) announcing some new feat or potential use. As technology races to develop ML and AI, companies across industries are standing by to adopt these new solutions to increase speed and efficiency of work throughout all aspects of their business. Customer service is one such area seeing an influx of potential applications. Two recent pieces of research–an Accenture report and a survey–illustrate some of the challenges facing customer service today, how ML can benefit it, and the planned adoption rate of ML and AI by CIOs. The bottom line is that customer service is spending a lot of manual time reviewing and sorting through cases, time that could be spent on other higher-value work, such as working directly with customers.