Manish Sharma serves as the Chief Executive Officer of North America at Accenture, overseeing the largest geographical division of the specialist services company, which encompasses the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Costa Rica. He possesses insights into the disruptive factors affecting the company and focuses on guiding clients in adapting to and capitalizing on these changes.
Accenture, with approximately 350 projects underway, is in the early stages of a three-year initiative to invest $3 billion in enhancing its talent pool and expertise in artificial intelligence (AI). Sharma highlights the significant impact of large language models, trained on vast datasets, which are projected to affect 40% of working hours. Balancing the prioritization of resources while mitigating associated risks and managing the rapid pace of technological advancement poses a challenge.
Sharma emphasizes the importance of ensuring non-discriminatory practices during the unit’s development, advocating for transparent foundations and continuous feedback mechanisms in the design process.
He illustrates various applications, such as facilitating data-driven negotiations, simplifying data analysis in plain language, optimizing repair forecasts, and managing cash flow. However, Sharma believes the focus should extend beyond mere application cases to scaling up deployment efforts. Accenture is currently implementing GenAI at scale, marking a pivotal moment in their deployment strategy.
