Accenture Announces Jaw-dropping $3 Billion Investment in AI

More big investments in AI

Accenture announces jaw-dropping $3 billion investment in AI

Carl Franzen  @carlfranzen   June 13, 2023 7:09 AM

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The generative AI announcements are coming fast and furious these days, but among the biggest in terms of sheer dollar commitments just landed: Accenture, the global professional services and consulting giant, today announced it will invest $3 billion (with a “b”!) in AI over the next three years in building out its team of AI professionals and AI-focused solutions for its clients.

“There is unprecedented interest in all areas of AI, and the substantial investment we are making in our Data & AI practice will help our clients move from interest to action to value, and in a responsible way with clear business cases,” said Julie Sweet, Accenture’s chairwoman and CEO.

The announcement includes a host of new initiatives designed to assist Accenture and its enterprise customers in developing new strategies, operating models, business cases and digital core architecture they will need to capitalize on AI innovation.  ... ' 

Get Ready for the Metaverse

Talk I attended today, A positive view of the   emerging Metaverse. 

Metaverse Continuum: 4 Technology Trends Everyone Must Get Ready For Now  (from Linkedin) 

every year, Accenture releases its technology vision with the key trends for the near future. I spoke to Accenture's Group Chief Executive for Technology Paul Daugherty about their 2022 trends.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/bernardmarr_metaverse-continuum-4-technology-trends-activity-6914934318427480066-RFCH?utm_source=linkedin_share&utm_medium=member_desktop_web

Bernard Marr  @ebernardmarrr and Paul Daugherty of Accenture

AI and Design Thinking

Interesting point.   I say all systems, analytics, processes, management have a 'design problem', they need to be applied properly to provide value.     All statistical and analytical methods were not understood by decision makers,  but still effectively used.  Same with AI.  But do design their use well.

AI has become a design problem

By Mark Rolston, argodesign

Join executive leaders at the Data, Analytics, & Intelligent Automation Summit, presented by Accenture. Watch now!

AI is facing new calls for regulation now that it has emerged from the laboratory and is becoming more widely deployed across our daily lives. The public does not trust the technology. Nor should they. The problems are numerous, from understanding how the models actually work, controlling the data that feeds AI, and addressing growing distrust in those that wield this technology. Even companies themselves are unsure of how to safely and effectively use AI as part of their business.

The bulk of the discussion is currently centered on engineering. It’s understandable — artificial intelligence is a mysterious black box to many people, one assumed to be fixable only through lines of code and better data. But I want to argue that in order to truly understand and begin to master this technology, we must get better at seeing AI as a component of larger systems and design accordingly. Fundamentally, AI is not just a technology problem, it has become a design problem.   ... ' 

Accenture: Get a Secure, Trustworthy Internet

Good, considerable piece by Accenture, pointed to below.   Who we worked with in the past.  Have been of late become involved in related efforts and find some their points key.   As has been reported here.   How do we secure the digital internet, and make people trust it for all tasks,  large and small, personal and commercial?   We are slipping here and need to get a better handle on the risks,  included losing our hold.   Else what?  

Securing the foundations

The benefits of a secure, trustworthy Internet economy are clear.

CEOs have an opportunity to drive meaningful change today and develop a foundation of trust for tomorrow’s digital economy. Unfortunately, just one attack is all it takes to damage an organization.

The actions of CEOs—driving above ground and influencing below ground—matter. By joining forces with other CEOs, public sector leaders and regulators, they can develop much-needed guidelines and oversight mechanisms. By protecting their own organization and extending protection through its value chain, they will safeguard the business ecosystem. By embracing and developing technologies that can advance their businesses and enhance digital safety, CEO engagement can drive a trust turnaround for the Internet and secure the future of the digital economy. ... " 

Lopsided Digital Transformation

Look at how automation of digitization can make a big difference.   And we are continuing to move to that. 

Digital Transformation Is Lopsided, Even Within the Same Organization    By ZDNet

A study of organizations in Harvard Business Review found that some corporate departments can be more digitally advanced than their counterparts at another location, or even down the hall. The IT department itself often finds itself on the wrong side of progress.

A Harvard Business Review study of organizations found "a growing divide between teams with ready access to automation and [artificial intelligence (AI)] tools and teams without," with the latter trailing "in terms of productivity and AI skill development."

Accenture's Ramnath Venkataraman and colleagues determined that two-thirds of investigated companies relied on a less-than-optimal blend of cloud-based and on-premises enterprise solutions.

Exacerbating the problem is information technology (IT) departments being mired in maintenance and upkeep, while other departments have access to cutting-edge systems.

The Accenture team also learned that some coders might devote 60% of their time executing automatable tasks.

The researchers suggested greater inter-enterprise collaboration to address these challenges, by de-siloing walled-off departments and encouraging open access to shadow IT systems. ... ' 

From ZDNet

Something Missing in Remote Work?

Nice view of the very nature of remote work.  What is essential, what is a waste of time?

Remote Work is Surprisingly Productive, But For Many… Something Is Missing in Wladawsky-Bergers Blog

What If Working From Home Goes on … Forever?, asks science and technology journalist Clive Thompson in the title of his June 9 NY Times Magazine article.  “The coronavirus crisis is forcing white-collar America to reconsider nearly every aspect of office life.  Some practices now seem to be wastes of time, happily discarded; others seem to be unexpectedly crucial, and impossible to replicate online.  For workers wondering right now if they’re ever going back to the office, the most honest answer is this: Even if they do, the office might never be the same.”

A recent survey found that of the 56% of respondents employed pre-Covid-19, half were working from home, - 35% having recently switched to working from home, while another 15% were already doing so pre-Covid; 37% continued to commute to work, and 10% had been recently laid-off or furloughed.  The survey was  based on two separate national samples of US data, - one which gathered 25,000 responses in early April, and the second another 25,000 responses in early May.

Thompson’s article cites the experience of Accenture, which has around 500,000 employees in more than 200 cities in 120 countries.  Before the pandemic, no more than 10% worked remotely on any given day.  But, by the middle of March, nearly all were asked to work from home.  Employees adapted quickly, said Accenture’s CTO.  The volume of video calls went up by a factor of six while those of audio calls tripled.  Despite having to switch from face-to-face to audio and video interactions, overall productivity actually went up as measured by several metrics.    ... "

A Consortium for Confidential Computing

Intriguing new effort:

The Confidential Computing Consortium (CCC) brings together hardware vendors, cloud providers, and software developers to accelerate the adoption of Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) technologies and standards.

Join the Consortium as a Member

A common, cross-industry way of describing the security benefits, risks, and features of confidential computing will help users make better choices for how to protect their workloads in the cloud. Of the three data states, “in use” has been less addressed because it is arguably the most complicated and difficult. This is a major change to how computation is done at the hardware level and how we structure programs, operating systems and virtual machines. This cross-industry collaboration will accelerate this transformation in security in the enterprise. To get involved, please email us info@confidentialcomputing.io. ..." 

SiliconAngle gives some perspective:

Accenture, AMD, Facebook and Nvidia sign up to advance ‘Confidential Computing’  By Mike Wheatley in SiliconAngle

An industry group called the Confidential Computing Consortium, which aims to standardize the way that data is encrypted while in use, said today it’s adding 10 more members to its community.  ...
The consortium is working to standardize on a method for ensuring that data can be encrypted while it’s being processed in-memory, without exposing it to other parts of a computer system. Although methods for encrypting data at rest and data in transit have already been widely adopted in the technology industry, there’s still no reliable way to secure information as it’s actually being used.

That may soon change, though, as the consortium is advancing the development of an open-source framework called the Open Enclave Software Development Kit. It’s used to build Trusted Execution Environments for applications that can run on multiple kinds of computing architectures.   .... "

Following Legal Analytics: Contracts and Liabilities

Our recent looks at eDiscovery and related AI and analytics alerted us to this.  Accenture's connection would seem to indicate seriousness of these efforts.  It is a very obvious space for advanced natural language processing, analysis and cross referencing with current and future contexts.

Legal analytics: Accenture applies NLP to analyze contracts and liabilities

To find specific information in a million-plus contracts, the global professional services company turned to natural language processing and AI, launching a legal analytics hub in the process.
     
By Thor Olavsrud in CIO

Organizations steeped in text documents have an ally in their quest to streamline business processes. Natural language processing, a branch of AI focused on communication, is helping companies such as Accenture surface high-value information and cut costs by bringing text-based, unstructured communications into the machine learning age.  

With more than a million contracts in its records system and thousands more added monthly, Accenture’s legal organization of about 2,800 professionals was struggling to find specific information across contracts, thanks to a tedious, costly process for which detailed cross-document search capability was limited.   ... " 

Sweden Examining E-Krona

After the recent information from China.  Interest in E-Currency expanding.

Accenture Picked to Build Sweden’s E-Krona Digital Currency Pilot
By Danny Nelson in Coindesk

Sweden’s central bank has tapped Accenture to develop its e-krona digital currency pilot project, the Riksbank announced in a press release Friday.

Accenture will build out the e-krona’s consumer-facing features – such as how a user would pay on various mobile platforms – and run them in a test environment with “simulated stores.” Its initial contract lasts for one year, but Riksbank said it is open to as many as seven years of tests. 

Riksbank hasn't committed to issuing an e-krona at this time.  ... '

Accenture Patents Link of Classical and Quantum Computing for Deep Learning

Their second patent in Quantum.   A bit surprising in this space, but companies file patents for all sorts of reasons.    The basic statement of its use below seems obvious.

Accenture Awarded Second U.S. Patent for Quantum Computing 

Patent is for a machine learning module that selects quantum or classical computing for optimal business outcomes

NEW YORK; July 1, 2019 – Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has been granted a US patent for a “quantum computing machine learning module” that trains artificial intelligence (AI) models to determine when and how computational tasks would be best handled by quantum computing versus classical computing methods, and route them to the appropriate option. In doing so, it could help organizations understand where quantum computing can have the most impact within their businesses, and when classical computing may still be the best option for a given task.

Accenture’s new patent — U.S. Patent No. 10,275,721 — describes a solution to address the tradeoff between the benefits of using quantum computing versus classical computing resources. By determining when and how to utilize the power of quantum computing, such a system can help perform computational tasks in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible. Additionally, the module described has the ability to learn to prioritize certain tasks. As more advanced and efficient quantum and classical systems are introduced over time, the quantum computing machine learning module can adapt accordingly. ....  "

Silicon Angle further discusses. :    Accenture patents machine learning module for marrying quantum with classical computing   in SiliconANGLE by Mike Wheatley  .... "

Memory Lane by Accenture

Nice idea, I have some colleagues that are working on related problems, will bring this up.

Accenture Interactive creates 'Memory Lane' AI project to tackle elderly loneliness  By Imogen Watson in theDrum

Accenture Interactive has created a project for the Swedish energy company, Stockholm Exergi, that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to tackle elderly loneliness.

Following medical research into elderly health, Accenture Interactive discovered that loneliness accelerated health problems including depression and early-stage dementia in the elderly.

To combat this, it created a project titled 'Memory Lane' that uses a voice assistant combined with conversational artificial intelligence to capture stories for future generations.

Using Google Voice Assistant, 'Memory Lane' invites someone who is lonely to tell their life story. Once captures, the discussion is then instantly converted into both a physical book and a podcast.  ... "  .... ' 

Simple, Scalable and Sustainable AI

Simple, scalable, and sustainable: A methodical approach to AI adoption
Rajendra Prasad explains how leaders in large enterprises can make AI adoption successful.

By Rajendra Prasad  

This is a keynote from the O'Reilly Artificial Intelligence Conference in New York 2019. See other highlights from the event.

This keynote was sponsored by Accenture.

Be Wary of Robot Emotions

Certainly be cautious of it, but I think that emotion can be used to promote things like useful collaboration and shared goals.  Should machines be wary of human emotions? 

Be Wary of Robot Emotions 
Associated Press
By Rachel Lerman MIT

Despite the fact that robots are not alive, humans often anthropomorphize them, which designers concede can be exploited for both connection and manipulation. The way robots are designed can shape this tendency, especially if their face or body resembles those of humans or animals, or if they appear self-directed. Accenture's Julie Carpenter said, "Even if you know a robot has very little autonomy, when something moves in your space and it seems to have a sense of purpose, we associate that with something having an inner awareness or goals." Although this design factor is practical for making robots more easily accepted, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sherry Turkle warns of cues fooling people into ascribing emotions to robots. Said Turkle, "Simulated thinking might be thinking, but simulated feeling is never feeling. Simulated love is never love." ... ' 

Kellogg Pilots Virtual Reality Merchandising Solution

A surprising area to see this kind of implementation.     The 'lower shelf' optimal location for product goes with some very old beliefs in CPG.   But the guidelines for that were found to be mostly contextual long ago.  See my former colleague John Milby's work on Shelf virtualization, linked to in many posts below.  He combines true behavioral expertise to this kind of data.

Kellogg pilots virtual reality merchandising solution
By Rose Anthony in Retailwire  with futher expert comments.

Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from the bi-monthly e-zine, CPGmatters.

The Kellogg Co. last November partnered to pilot a solution that embeds eye-tracking technology in a mobile virtual reality (VR) headset to reinvent how brands and retailers gather critical consumer data at the store level.

Accenture and technology provider Qualcomm collaborated on the effort.

Conducted with the launch of Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts Bites product, the VR solution demonstrated that optimal placement for the new product was on lower shelves rather than on higher shelves, which conventional testing indicated was where consumers expected to find new products. The result was an 18 percent increase in brand sales during testing.

In a statement, Raffaella Camera, global head, innovation & market strategy, Accenture Extended Reality, said the mobile VR eye-tracking solution provided far deeper behavioral data than standard testing, which typically relies on online surveys and in-home user tests. She said, “It allows significant new insights to be captured while consumers shop by monitoring where and how they evaluate all products across an entire shelf or aisle. Ultimately, this enables product placement decisions to be made that can positively impact total brand sales, versus only single product sales.”

Among the potential benefits from the technology:.. '

Accenture Circular Supply Chain

Another example of transparency and reliance on shared data.    Especially for small players.   Involvement of Mastercard and Accenture would indicate some belief in the value of the system.

Accenture builds sustainable trade ‘Circular Supply Chain’ blockchain to trace and track goods  By Kyt Dotson

Global professional services company Accenture Plc announced Monday the launch of what the company calls the Circular Supply Chain: a blockchain distributed ledger that connects sustainable trade practices with producers, suppliers, processors, wholesalers and consumers.

The system combines digital identity, payments and blockchain tracking to directly reward small-scale growers and suppliers for engaging in sustainable and “green” practices while providing transparency across the entire supply chain.

“Our identity capabilities are already empowering millions of users around the globe to access essential services like healthcare, banking and travel,” said David Treat, a managing director and global blockchain lead at Accenture. “Our circular supply chain capability combines these components with blockchain and expands its application to places and things, which is allowing us to rethink global supply chains.”

To build this service, Accenture partnered with credit giant Mastercard Inc., cloud services company Amazon Web Services, blockchain infrastructure provider Everledger Ltd. and the nonprofit humanitarian aid organization Mercy Corps.    ... "

Accenture Debuts RPA Platform

Accenture work on this new to me, will be interesting to see how it can automate key elements of business process.  RPA applications are continuing to expand.    See the SynOps Site.

Accenture Debuts Platform That Automated 40,000 Roles  By Jeremy Kahn in Bloomberg

 Company unveils new system to help firms streamline work
 Clients testing the system saved millions, Accenture says
Accenture Plc, the global consulting firm, will begin selling software and services that it’s already used internally to automate tasks and redeploy about 40,000 workers.

The new platform, that’s been five years in development, suggests ways to streamline and automate processes in areas such as finance and accounting, marketing and procurement. Debbie Polishook, the group chief executive officer of Accenture Operations, said that all its workers affected have been retrained by the company for other jobs. Over the time the company was developing SynOps its headcount kept growing. It currently employs 469,000 people, up from 425,000 in 2017.

Accenture Operations, the company’s outsourcing unit, once used human workers in mostly low-wage countries such as India, to handle routine data entry and customer service tasks for clients. Now that unit is hoping this new software will help clients’ achieve further savings by -- at least in some cases -- eliminating the need for humans altogether.

For instance, if used in procurement, the SynOps system can take an order, generate an invoice, check that invoice against a contract, correct any errors and then email it to the customer.

"This is not trying to get rid of the human," Polishook said, "but to make them as productive as possible and get them to focus on the work that a human really needs to do." .... " 

Assistants as Homecare Help

Our devices are already something we much rely on.    So why not.   What does it mean to be a companion though?  Conversations probably, that include strong context.   But one could argue that there has to be an element of humanity as well.   Talk to the Japanese who have been working eldercare for years, we did.  Strong Social element, but beyond the post and forget it world of Facebook.  Healthcare advice too is mentioned.   Will take a look. 

Alexa app for elderly aid bridges digital divide, acts as companion   By  R. Danes

Isn’t it great when mind-bending technology and product development come down the chute to solve a real human problem? Diverse industries are applying the latest advancements in artificial intelligence to everyday consumer issues.

For example,  the AI technology in Amazon Alexa’s virtual assistant could prove a handy in-home healthcare assistant, according to Dr. Justin Marley (pictured, right), consultant psychiatrist at Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT). Together with Accenture LLP consultants, Marley developed an Alexa skill and web portal to aid the elderly.

“Our mission is to help people feel socially connected in this … always changing digital world and stay independent in their own home for a bit longer,” Marley said.

The aid works just like a smartphone application. It applies sophisticated AI and voice-recognition technology to a number of everyday tasks, processes, etc. “It’s constantly learning the behaviors that they’re doing on a daily basis,” said Gayle Sirard (pictured, left), applied intelligence lead, North America, at Accenture LLP.

It can monitor users’ mental health, remind them to take medication, and encourage them to participate in local activities, to name a few features. .... "

CYC: Logical Reasoning with a Knowledge Base

My recent post prompted me take a a look at the CYC site again, first time in a long time, here is an excerpt as to what they are about.    Further looking to see what the granularity of their knowledge base looks like, and how it can be leveraged to approximate common sense.    Also recalling our interactions, and why it did not work for us,  because common sense depends upon particular context too.   Is that being better considered better now?   Also how is machine learning, mentioned below, integrated into a knowledge bases?   There is still great need for an architecture that links common sense to a particular knowledge domain.

Cyc:  Logical Reasoning with the World's Largest Knowledge Base

Home of Smarter Solutions

The Cyc software combines an unparalleled common sense knowledge base with powerful inference engines and natural language interfaces to deliver human-like understanding and transparent explanations of its output and reasoning.  Cyc applications can stand alone or work in concert with pattern matching AI tools, such as Machine Learning, to deliver truly differentiated value.

ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS:

Differentiated applications for your enterprise that deliver value only available with Cyc’s vast knowledge base and powerful inference engines.

CYC PLATFORM:

Develop smarter applications using Cyc’s Knowledge Application Development Environment. The Cyc knowledge base and inference engine are available for commercial application developers with support if necessary.

ABOUT US:

Cycorp is a leading provider of Artificial Intelligence technologies bringing a new level of common sense reasoning and understanding to a wide variety of software applications.   ..... "

Also about their work with Accenture.

Accenture Keynote: AI Benefit to Business and Society

Well put.

Raising AI to benefit business and society

Kishore Durg explains why deploying AI requires raising it to act as a responsible representative of the business and a contributing member of society.

This is a keynote from the Artificial Intelligence Conference in San Francisco 2018. See other highlights from the event at the link. 

This keynote was sponsored by Accenture.

Kishore Durg is the growth and strategy lead for Accenture Technology Services, where he helps in ventures and acquisitions, technology strategy, and strategic growth initiatives. Kishore also leads the global Accenture Testing Services Group, focusing on testing business strategy, sales, automation, AI, alliances, and platforms. .... "

Proof of Concept Malware Uses Intelligence

I know executives who are alarmed when they see programmers or major companies outline how new kinds of Malware can be built.  Isn't it bad enough?  But it does help to outline the vulnerabilities to plan for them. This example might be Outlined:  If we can use intelligence to feel you out and trick you as to who we are , we can more likely be successful.    All Phishing does this.   Recent demos of Google Duplex hint at this.   Somewhat unusual to see IBM doing this.   Expect to see more of this.

IBM's proof-of-concept malware uses AI for spear phishing   in V3
The neural network running DeepLocker hides its intent until it finds the right victim  The world is beginning to transition from the cloud era to the artificial intelligence (AI) era, as systems and networks grow and learn. But just as the web and cloud eras had their own threats, the same applies to this new landscape - and it is AI itself.

Excitement and confusion abound over AI, but despite - or perhaps because of - this, the technology can pose a real danger to computer users.

"As machine learning matures into AI, nascent use of AI for cyber threat defense will likely be countered by threat actors using AI for offense," Rick Hemsley, managing director at Accenture Security, told us earlier this year.

So on the face of it, IBM's development of DeepLocker - ‘a new breed of highly targeted and evasive attack tools powered by AI' - seems like it sets a dangerous precedent.

There is method to the madness. IBM reasons that cybercriminals are already working to weaponise AI, and the best way to counter such a threat is to watch how it works ... " 

Here is the report on Deeplocker by IBM.