Accenture spots 300 plus use cases where generative AI can deliver: Chief strategy officer Bhaskar Ghosh

Accenture has identified a set of use cases across 19 industries where generative AI can deliver significant results, Bhaskar Ghosh, global chief strategy officer at Accenture told ET in an interview. He added that even as Accenture, and its customers, are both excited about the potential of using generative AI, large language models and generative AI cannot be applied to every practice. Internally, the company has identified over 300 use cases where generative AI can have a tangible impact. This is across aspects like service delivery, consulting and technology, taking a foundation model and training it with internal data to create a private model for the company.

The company is seeing early adopters in the financial services, retail and government sectors start trial projects, he said and added that cost would also be a factor in determining how fast enterprises would adopt these tools.

The potential to unlock the transformative power of AI ranges from unlocking the power of creativity, driving technology transformation through intelligent automation powered by AI and empowering human and AI collaboration, said Ghosh.

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However, given that it’s still early days, one needs to be careful. “There are issues related to hallucinations – sometimes it just gives you the wrong answer,” said Ghosh. “We believe generative AI is not the solution for everything in the enterprise,” he said. Accenture has identified five broad areas where generative AI can be implemented – advising, creating, automation, software creation and protection.

Ghosh said that Accenture was working with a global broadcast company to explore how generative AI can help scale the industry through deeper and personalized experiences to drive audience engagement and growth. It is also working with a multinational bank to use generative AI to route large numbers of post-trade processing emails and draft responses with recommended actions to reduce manual effort and risk.

Accenture has set up a Generative AI and LLM (large language model) Centre of Excellence (CoE), with 1600 employees, a large part of which is in India. There are another 40,000 employees trained in deep artificial intelligence who work with this team. “It hosts the incubation and scale up engine for capability building, innovation, assets, solutions, and delivery. It is building the talent architecture, assessing the skill sets needed and how we need to shift ourselves to working in the new space. A large part of the COE is in India, and it also includes a Generative AI Academy based in India that is responsible for driving the skilling agenda,” said Ghosh.

Ghosh expects generative AI implementation projects to pick up further over the next two-three years. “It will help companies define the new performance frontier with this power of generative AI. It will unlock the creativity of these people, human and AI working together will come to a new level,” he said. What’s needed are responsible AI guidelines, which are extremely important for any company to adopt AI within the organisation.

On data privacy concerns, Ghosh said that Accenture has a responsible AI practice where it works with clients on creating an overarching artificial intelligence strategy which is the first step towards having a responsible AI framework. On client data, Ghosh said that the company had clearly defined in which way that data can and cannot be used.

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