Alliance will help clients put new technologies at the heart of their innovation strategies

HANNOVER MESSE, Germany, Apr. 24, 2017 – Accenture, the global professional services company, and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) have formed an alliance to enable clients to take advantage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies as fundamental elements of their innovation strategies, helping to shape the future of their organizations. Accenture Analytics, part of Accenture Digital, will apply its deep analytics expertise with DFKI’s specialized AI research capabilities to further the adoption of these new technologies in Germany and beyond.

Together, Accenture and DFKI will provide clients with direct access to innovative AI technologies, supporting them to understand the potential of applying AI for their organizations and guiding the implementation of new solutions through the adoption of best practices to unlock tangible new value and growth opportunities.

Celebrating the collaboration between Accenture and DFKI: Frank Riemensperger, country managing director, Accenture, Germany, Wolfgang Wohlster, CEO, DFKI and Narendra Mulani, Chief Analytics Officer, Accenture Analytics

“Technology developments in this field are progressing at rapid speed, and we need to help clients continually reinvent themselves in such a fast-paced environment by applying new technology to unlock new outcomes,” said Frank Riemensperger, country managing director for Germany at Accenture. “The volumes of unstructured data from the rise of the Internet of Things and other major technology trends offer huge new opportunities for those looking to transform their operations or even develop entirely new business models using AI-based technologies. AI empowers people to do things differently and to do different things. By combining DFKI’s expert researchers and AI practitioners with the deep insights and assets from Accenture Analytics, we can help clients achieve real benefits from imagining and then building their AI-enabled futures, today.”

“This innovation partnership with Accenture gives DFKI the opportunity to develop disruptive AI solutions for businesses as well as implement digital business models together with one of the leading management and technology consulting firms. In particular, we are seeing a high degree of maturity for applications in the areas of Smart Data & Services, Deep Learning, Human-Robot-Collaboration and AI-based Retail, which we expect to result in profitable solutions for our clients in a very short timeframe,” said Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Wahlster, CEO of DFKI.

Through this collaboration, Accenture will get access to DFKI research results, AI tools, Living Labs and the deep expertise of DFKI’s top researchers. Simultaneously, DFKI will work closely with Accenture teams to gain new insights on real-world applications of AI within a broad range of industries, developing best practices and fostering the exchange of talent from both organizations for the overall acceleration of AI adoption for the benefit of clients.

AI is a major growth and productivity factor for the economy, and is projected to boost labor productivity by up to 40 percent through fundamentally changing how we work and reinforcing the role of people to drive growth in business. AI has the potential to more than double Germany’s annual growth rate of gross value added from 1.4 percent to 3 percent by 2035. Across all industries, companies are working to take advantage of AI-based technologies, developing innovative business models and services, and redefining their value chains. Through this collaboration, DFKI and Accenture will help innovative companies and public institutions benefit from the current AI wave to transform into intelligent organizations.

Through an open innovation approach that is part of the Accenture Innovation Architecture, Accenture works with organizations including research companies such as DFKI to discover disruptive innovations for clients, before helping apply them to achieve real business outcomes.

At Hannover Messe this week, Accenture and DFKI together with acatech will host a joint event on the potential of digital ecosystems, data-driven business models and innovation partnerships for the German industry. The panel session ‘The Platform Economy: Growth Engine for Industrial Companies’ with Frank Riemensperger (Accenture), Prof. Dr. Wahlster (DFKI) and Henning Kagermann (acatech) will take place on Monday, April 24 at 6 pm at the Accenture booth in Hall 6 / K45.