Accenture Ranks in Winners Circle for HfS Emerging Market Guide for IBM Watson Services

Accenture has been positioned in the “Winner’s Circle” in the inaugural HfS Market Guide for IBM Watson Services, reflecting its leadership in innovation and excellence in execution with Watson. The HfS Research report analyzes 10 service providers, including IBM, drawing on user and client interviews and briefings to determine where IBM Watson service providers stand today and their future potential. It commends Accenture’s Artificial Intelligence Strategic Growth Initiative for driving the integration of Watson’s capabilities across its Digital, Technology and Operations businesses and cites the company’s robust investment in artificial intelligence (AI) thought leadership as a major strength.

In recognizing Accenture’s dedicated Watson Practice – which is supported by the Accenture Innovation Center for IBM Technologies – as ahead of most competitors, HfS notes that Accenture’s global and local teams of IBM software and hardware practitioners are devoted to rapidly delivering Watson-enabled solutions and proof of concepts to clients across industries.

“With AI being one of Accenture’s strategic growth initiatives, Watson is one of many major AI partnerships for the service provider,” said Tom Reuner, senior vice president of Intelligent Automation at HfS Research. “Establishing dedicated locations under the Accenture Innovation Center for IBM Technologies for creating Watson industry assets is more advanced than most of its competitors in this space. Accenture’s articulation of Watson services is a related strength, describing industry-specific virtual agents and customer experience solutions.”

Among Accenture’s strengths highlighted in the HfS report are its:

• Articulation of Watson services;
• Capability development for Watson;
• Customer-care chat agent and mortgage-advice agent named
• Collette, which uses IBM Bluemix, Watson Natural Language
• Classifier and Watson Dialog Service;
• Rapid prototyping ability; and,
• Approach and progress on virtual agents.

“Accenture has invested in AI as a company-wide strategic growth initiative as part of our dedication to exploring its potential impact on people, processes and business models,” said Paul Daugherty, Accenture’s chief technology & innovation officer. “Together with IBM Watson, we’re able to offer our clients unparalleled and diverse solutions that broaden cognitive capabilities and help them take advantage of AI to thrive and succeed in today’s rapidly changing and ultra-competitive market.”