Accenture offered a glimpse into research indicating AI was set for a bumper year as it becomes increasingly pervasive across business digitalisation programmes, details of which the consultancy plans to present at CES 2025 later today (7 January).

The company stated the latest in a long-running research series found a high-level of expectation from the business community around the potential of AI, with 69 per cent of executives noting the technology was already impacting the design, construction and operation of various systems.

In its 25th Technology Vision, Accenture branded AI as driving a “new era of digitisation”, based on the technology learning “continuously” and upping autonomy.

Accenture noted trust in the performance of AI is “the most important measure organisations will need” for the technology to deliver on its potential.

The company stated its research indicates AI will “increasingly act as a technology development partner, a personal brand ambassador, power robotic bodies in the physical world and foster a new symbiotic relationship with people”.

It stated 80 per cent of business leaders believe trust will be improved by natural language communication, though the same proportion highlighted a need to clearly explain their company’s AI strategy to bolster their staff’s faith in the technology.

The human element also factors into training, with 68 per cent telling Accenture staff would require instruction on how to employ generative AI tools and 78 per cent explaining system development will need to cover artificial agents alongside real people.

Voice
There is some potential downside, with 80 per cent highlighting concerns of a loss of brand identity if all chatbots sound the same.

Karthik Narain, group chief executive of technology and CTO, said we are in a “generational moment of transition”, where enterprises can use advances in “digitising knowledge, new AI models, agentic AI systems and architecture” to “create their own unique cognitive digital brains”.

AI-powered autonomy “can help organisations be more dynamic and intention-driven” and enable “leaders to rethink how digital systems are designed”, Narain added.

Accenture quizzed more than 4,000 business leaders spanning 21 industries and 28 countries, along with more than 12,000 consumers in the closing quarter of 2024.