Accenture released new research last week called When Atoms Meet Bits: The Foundations of Our New Reality, which finds that generative artificial intelligence and other rapidly evolving technologies are heralding a new future for businesses. Accenture is a global services company that helps businesses, governments and other organizations advance their digital core.
The research, part of The Accenture Technology Vision 2023, explores technology trends it describes as “underpinning the convergence of the physical and digital,” as organizations look to further digitally advance their companies.
Accenture gathered input from an external advisory board of over two dozen practitioners spanning public and private sector, academia, venture capital, and entrepreneurial companies, and Accenture Research also conducted a global survey of 4,777 C-level executives and directors across 34 countries and 25 industries, between December 2022 and January 2023.
Accenture’s Technology Vision 2023 highlights four key trends which will be important to development in the future:
Generative AI: According to Accenture’s research, 98 per cent of executives agreed that generative AI will spark significant creativity and innovation, and 95 per cent said it will be the start of a new era of enterprise intelligence.
Digital identity: The ability to authenticate digital users and assets is now seen by just under 90 per cent of executives as a strategic business imperative, not solely a technical issue.
Data: Accenture says AI cannot reach its full potential until companies break down data silos and modernize their data foundations. Ninety per cent of executives said data is becoming a key competitive differentiator within organizations and industries.
Our forever frontier: The feedback loop between science and technology is getting faster, the study says, with each accelerating the advancement of the other in ways that 75 per cent of respondents believe could begin to unlock the world’s grand challenges.
“The next decade will be defined by three mega technology trends—cloud, metaverse and AI — which collectively will collapse the distance of our digital and physical worlds,” said Paul Daugherty, group chief executive of Accenture Technology. “While generative AI will have far-reaching impact, leaders must dive in now to achieve its full promise, as it will require significant investments in data, people, and customizing foundation models to meet organizations’ unique needs.”
During its Accenture Technology Vision 2023 launch event, Daugherty also mentioned that the metaverse and quantum computing will transform industries, and that they should be on “everyone’s radar.”
The research also highlights the rise of ChatGPT, which has been impossible to keep out of news headlines around the world. Accenture says the technology has “captivated the world’s attention on the power of generative AI to augment human capability.” It estimates as many as 40 per cent of all working hours will be supported or augmented by language-based AI. Among business leaders, almost 100 per cent of respondents agreed that AI foundation models will play an important role in their organization’s strategies over the next three to five years.
Lastly, Accenture announced last week that it has also established a company-wide team called the Generative AI and Large Language Model (LLM) Center of Excellence. It combines 1,600 professionals dedicated to generative AI and the experience of more than 40,000 AI and data professionals across the company. To help guide and inform business leaders, Accenture has published A New Era of Generative AI for Everyone, a study of generative AI/LLM that provides actionable insights on how leaders can best use this technology.
