Thought leadership

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The age of co-intelligence

AI has progressed from a novelty to a driver of performance faster than any technology ...

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Talent Reinventors: Delivering value with and for people in the age of AI

The last few years have revealed AI’s enormous potential and a simple truth: Real value...

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Systemic AI at the root of manufacturing performance

Most manufacturers concentrate AI efforts on operations and maintenance, where data ...

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Agentic Commerce
Make Your Brand Unmissable

Digital commerce has not lived up to its promise. Consumers feel overwhelmed ...

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Sovereign AI

The Sovereign AI: Own Your AI Future report argues that artificial intelligence has .

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Intelligent Digital Brain: Uplifting enterprise competitive advantage

Authors: Lan Guan, Muqsit Ashraf, Surya Mukherjee
Research lead: Jennifer Ducarre
Published: April 2026

Data alone does not make an enterprise intelligent. Intelligence emerges when data, knowledge, and decisions work as one across the enterprise. With humans in the lead, intelligent systems help organizations continuously learn, improve decisions, and drive reinvention.

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Intelligent Digital Brain: Uplifting enterprise competitive advantage

Data alone does not make an enterprise intelligent. Intelligence emerges ...

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Life Trends 2026: Forward, together

Authors: Nick Law, Katie Burke, Jake Brody
Research lead: Agneta Björnsjö
Published: February 2026

In a world reeling from relentless change, people are being thrust into transformation journeys they never chose—emotionally, technologically, and culturally. Nearly 46% of global consumers say their desire for stability has grown stronger, while 54% use AI weekly to manage life’s complexity. Businesses must now evolve beyond customer centricity to life centricity.

This year’s five defining trends reflect that shift: a stability premium as people seek clarity in chaos; human journeys shaped by AI in daily and profound moments; finding Neo, where employees reimagine AI from the ground up; good vibrations as play and presence reclaim value; and coming of age, where older generations emerge as powerful cultural and economic forces.

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Life Trends 2026: Forward, together

In a world reeling from relentless change, people are being thrust into transformation ...

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Talk to my AI agent

Authors: Ndidi Oteh, Oliver Wright, Nevine El-Warraky, Brett Leary, Karen Fang Grant
Research lead: Jennifer Ducarre
Published: June 2025

The consumer has spoken. Your move. The era of assumed value is over. Agents will judge brands on what they can verify: product quality, price transparency, delivery reliability and experience consistency. But when agents absorb the hassle, the space opens up to build outcomes that genuinely improve people's lives. The consumer who delegates to an AI agent has not lowered their standards. They have raised them—and found a more powerful way to act on them. The brands that earn it, deliberately, operationally and humanly, will be the ones consumers choose to keep.

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Talk to my AI agent

The consumer has spoken. Your move. The era of assumed value is over. Agents will ...

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Redefining cyber resilience

Authors: Lan Harpreet Sidhu, Jason Lewkowicz, Charlie Hosner and Yusof Seedat
Published: June 2026

As cyber attacks become more frequent and harder to stop, cyber resilience should be central to every company’s strategy. But leaders are split on what resilience actually is and who owns it. To survive constant disruption, organizations must align: shifting from protection-only thinking to prioritizing how they recover.

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Redefining cyber resilience

As cyber attacks become more frequent and harder to stop, cyber resilience should ...

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From early impact to enduring advantage

With AI pilots everywhere, the harder question is how to turn pockets of impact 

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Powered for Change 2025

Authors: Stephanie Jamison, Rob Hopkin, Lasse Kari
Research lead: Lasse Kari
Published: July 2025

Industrial decarbonization is currently costly, fragmented
and slow. Most projects still follow one-off, bespoke models,
which hinder scalability and compound risk. Accenture’s
research shows 90% of projects lack repeatability, and only
10% benefit from shared teams or infrastructure. The solution?
A multigenerational approach: Shifting to modular, standardized
systems that build learning across deployments. AI and gen AI
can supercharge this by embedding institutional knowledge and
optimizing decisions at scale. With four key levers—resilient
supply chains, stakeholder alignment, talent reinvention and
digital integration—companies can accelerate execution and
capture long-term value in a volatile, net-zero economy. This
collection was created in close collaboration with Accenture’s
Marketing and Communications team.

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Powered for Change 2025

Industrial decarbonization is currently costly, fragmented...

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Management Journal Articles

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Stop AI from Eroding Your Brand

Authors: Sean Lyons, Ndidi Oteh and Joshua Bellin
Published: July, 2026

The companies winning with AI are building better products and stronger brands because they’re getting ahead of a problem many competitors don’t yet recognize: brand debt.

Most executives are familiar with technical debt, the hidden costs that accumulate when companies make short-term technology decisions to move faster. Brand debt works much the same way. It builds when a company’s products, customer experiences, policies, or messaging drift out of sync with what customers expect. Small shortcuts, fragmented product launches, pricing decisions that prioritize short-term margins, or inconsistent experiences may seem manageable on their own. Over time, they erode trust, relevance, and loyalty. AI makes those costs accumulate much faster.


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Stop AI from Eroding Your Brand

The companies winning with AI are building better products and stronger brands because they’re getting ahead of a problem many competitors don’t yet recognize: brand debt...

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What CEOs Need to Know About Sovereign AI

Authors: Mauro Macchi, Ajoy Menon, Mauro Capo, and Surya Mukherjee
Published: July 2026

As multinational companies implement artificial intelligence workflows and look to adopt AI across their global operations, they are increasingly running up against country-specific regulations and policies that aim to govern AI and align its use with national priorities and local cultural norms. These regulations and policies — which fall under the umbrella of “sovereign AI” — govern where data is stored and processed, whose infrastructure is used for training and operating AI models, and how algorithmic decisions are reviewed and enforced in a given jurisdiction. Many markets are now developing their own sovereign AI frameworks to reduce dependence on the United States and China, where nearly 70% of leading AI models originated.

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What CEOs Need to Know About Sovereign AI

Chief executives can balance the local ambitions of countries with the global scale of innovation in a changing geopolitical environment...

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The Best Manufacturers Build AI with Workers, Not for Them

Authors: Tracey Countryman, Inge Oosterhuis, Jeff Wheless and Rushda Afzal
Published: May 2026

Executives are optimistic about AI’s potential to transform manufacturing. Workers, on the other hand, are more skeptical. In a seven-week internal unpublished study of video diaries from 85 frontline workers across six industries in Australia, the UK and the United States, we asked workers to describe how emerging technologies, including AI, are being introduced into their jobs, what training they receive, and how they see their future. Across industries, distrust ran deep, of both the tools and the organizations deploying them. More than three-quarters of participants said they were dissatisfied with their training. Many were uncertain about how their roles would change or whether they would have a place in the future factory.

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The Best Manufacturers Build AI with Workers, Not for Them

Manufacturers are pushing ahead with AI, but workers often feel unprepared, uncertain, and distrustful. Research shows a clear...

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Design Processes to Evolve with Emerging Technology

Authors: Manish Sharma, Lan Guan and H. James Wilson
Published: January 2026

For decades, companies have relied on episodic, high-cost transformation efforts that rarely changed how work actually gets done. This article argues that emerging technologies—especially generative and agentic AI—are enabling a fundamental shift: from periodic overhaul to continuous evolution. By making processes fully visible, testable through digital twins, and executable by autonomous AI agents, organizations can dramatically reduce coordination costs and redesign work on an ongoing basis. Leading companies are already using these capabilities to experiment safely, adapt faster and elevate human roles. The result is a new operating model built not for stability, but for perpetual reinvention in a rapidly changing world.

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Design Processes to Evolve with Emerging Technology

For decades, companies have relied on episodic, high-cost transformation efforts that rarely changed how work actually gets done....

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For Multinational Companies, Localization Matters More Than Ever

Authors: Muqsit Ashraf, Tomas Castagnino and Giju Mathew
Published: January 2026
​

For decades, multinational companies optimized for scale, assuming global integration would outweigh local variation. That assumption no longer holds. In a world marked by geopolitical fragmentation, regulatory divergence and data sovereignty, firms can no longer rely on surface-level localization. The article argues that advantage now comes from operating as a network of deeply rooted regional businesses that can comply, compete and innovate locally while remaining globally coordinated. Companies that succeed invest in regional capabilities, shape local ecosystems and standards, and use AI to connect front-line decisions across markets. Today, enduring advantage depends less on size and more on the ability to operate independently everywhere while acting as one enterprise.

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For Multinational Companies, Localization Matters More Than Ever

For decades, multinational companies optimized for scale, assuming global integration would outweigh local variation. That assumption no longer holds. In a world marked by geopolitical fragmentation...

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Five Traits of Tech-Driven CEOs

Authors: Ravi Chanmugam, Michael Lyman, and Paul Daugherty
Published: October 2025

A new class of CEOs is redefining leadership in the age of AI. The article argues that technology-driven CEOs don’t treat digital tools as operational support but as a primary source of strategic advantage. These leaders personally engage with emerging technologies, make bold bets to reinvent business models, elevate data as a core asset, attract top technical talent and actively shape innovation ecosystems. Their edge comes not from technical backgrounds but from mindset: a willingness to learn, reimagine first principles and lead transformation hands-on. In an era of accelerating disruption, reinvention is no longer a function—it is the CEO’s job.

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Five Traits of Tech-Driven CEOs

A new class of CEOs is redefining leadership in the age of AI. The article argues that technology-driven CEOs don’t treat digital tools as operational support but as a primary...

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Three essentials for agentic AI security

Publisher: MIT Sloan Management Review
Authors: Paolo Dal Cin, Daniel Kendzior, Yusof Seedat, Renato Marinho
Published: June 2025

The article presents a three-phase framework to secure autonomous AI systems. Phase one involves threat modeling and mapping to identify vulnerabilities, especially data poisoning and prompt injection. Phase two includes stress- testing through adversarial simulations like red-teaming exercises to expose and mitigate threats. Phase three enforces real-time safeguards, such as enhancing guardrails, validating inputs and controlling access. A Brazilian healthcare company’s example illustrated the importance of secure data access, governance protocols and continuous monitoring. This framework is crucial for organizations scaling AI agents while ensuring robust security and trust.

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Three essentials for agentic AI security

The article presents a three-phase framework to secure autonomous AI systems. Phase one involves threat modeling and mapping...

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Tacit Knowledge Is Your Next Competitive Moat

Authors: Teresa Tung, Philippe Roussiere

Published: March 2026

Most companies see AI as a data and technology challenge. Collect more information. Train larger models. Scale automation across the enterprise. While these efforts are essential, companies making the most progress with agentic AI recognize something deeper: The real differentiator is not the data or even the models, but the “tacit knowledge” embedded in the judgment of their people.

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Tacit Knowledge Is Your Next Competitive Moat

As agentic and generative AI spread through business, the need to capture tacit knowledge is growing fast ...

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Five Actions for Scaling AI Sustainably

Author: Stephanie Jamison, Sanjay Podder, Adam Burden, Shalabh Kumar Singh and Matthew C. Robinson
Published: January 2026

The environmental impact of artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming one of the most pressing challenges of our time. By 2030, according to our estimates at Accenture, AI’s energy consumption will grow over 10x, reaching 612 tera-watt hours (TWh) annually—the equivalent of Canada’s total electricity consumption. This significant strain on global power grids will see AI’s carbon emissions surge 11-fold to 718 million metric tons by 2030, accounting for 3.4 per cent of global emissions (up from 0.2 per cent today). Simultaneously, AI hubs are projected to consume over 3 billion cubic metres of water every year that is not returned to original sources due to evaporation and other losses. That’s more than the total annual freshwater withdrawals of countries like Norway or Sweden.

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Five Actions for Scaling AI Sustainably

AI’s efficiency gains risk creating a new sustainability problem, but this article argues the answer is not slower adoption, it is smarter scaling ...

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Chief Executive Officer Collections 

CEO Collections 

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The Accenture Research Journal

Published: September 2026

business leaders face much more than isolated challenges; they face everything at once—market volatility, geopolitical complexity and compressed technological shifts. To grow and lead in this climate, incremental change is no longer enough. Success demands a continuous, deliberate strategy of transforming every part of the organization. In this new reality, the ultimate winners will be those who realize that while technology is the catalyst, matching human ingenuity with rapidly improving machine capabilities is the key to establishing a new performance frontier.

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The Accenture
Research Journal

Research designed to help clients
reinvent their futures

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Accenture Research Top Ten

Contributors: Kaushal Mody, Francis Hintermann, Manish Sharma, Senthil Ramani, David Wood, Mauro Macchi, Mauro Capo, Bryan Rich, Surya Mukherjee, Michael Abbott, Ndidi Oteh, Oliver Wright, Nevine El-Warraky, Brett Leary, Karen Fang Grant, Jennifer Ducarre, Rajat Agarwal, Sean Lyons, Joshua Bellin, Harpreet Sidhu, Jason Lewkowicz, Charles Hosner, Yusof Seedat, Tracey Countryman, Prasad Satyavolu, Roland Mayr, Luis Luque, Inge Oosterhuis, Jaime Lagunas, Kristine Renker, Stephen Wroblewski, Stephen Meyer, Karalee Close, Jessica Van Singel, Sumreen Ahmad, Mamta Kapur, James Crowley, Kenneth Munie and Selen Karaca-Griffin
Published: September 2026

Accenture Research’s Top Ten brings together the year’s most influential research reports on how artificial intelligence is reshaping competitive advantage. Spanning sovereign AI, cyber resilience, banking, agentic commerce, manufacturing, supply chains and talent, the collection shows intelligence moving from isolated experiments into the fabric of the enterprise. Leaders build strong foundations, redesign work and operating models and turn human and machine intelligence into measurable growth, resilience and lasting value.

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Accenture Research
Top Ten

Accenture Research’s Top Ten brings together the year’s most influential research reports on how artificial intelligence is reshaping competitive advantage ...

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The C-Suite Guide
Volume 3

Research contributors: Kaushal Mody, Adam Burden, Ajoy Menon, Bryan Rich, Carl Dukatz, David Wood, Emily Thornton, Gargi Chakrabarty, Giju Mathew, Giovanni Cozzolino, Grace Campbell, Gururaj Rao, H. James Wilson, Harpreet Sidhu, Inge Oosterhuis, Jeff Wheless, Joey Cofsky, Joshua Bellin, Kathleen Trickey, Kunal Shah, Lan Guan, Laura Converso, Manish Sharma, Mauro Capo, Mauro Macchi, Michael Lyman, Muqsit Ashraf, Ndidi Oteh, Pankaj Kishnani, Paul R. Daugherty, Prashant P. Shukla, Ravi Chanmugam, Rushda Afzal, Sean Lyons, Shreyas Ramesh, Surya Mukherjee, Svenja Falk, Tomas Castagnino, Tracey Countryman, Yusof Seedat
Published: September 2026

The C-Suite Guide Volume 3 gathers ten research-based articles for executives confronting a fragmented and uncertain world. Across cybersecurity, AI economics, sovereign technology, quantum computing, global operating models, brand, manufacturing and leadership, it argues that reinvention must become a continuous corporate capability. Together, these essays republished from publications including Harvard Business Review offer leaders an agenda for turning disruption into growth.

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The C-Suite Guide
Volume 3

The C-Suite Guide Volume 3 gathers ten research-based articles for executives confronting a fragmented and uncertain world ...

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CEO brief, autumn issue, 2024—MNCs in China

Author: Samantha Zhu
Research lead: Serena Qiu
Research contributors: Shan He, Jenna Jiang, Rebecca Tan, Belén Rubio
Published: November 2024

This CEO brief draws on earnings call analysis and proprietary
survey data to guide multinational leaders navigating China’s
shifting landscape. Despite slowing growth, 86% of MNCs cite
China’s critical revenue role and 83% plan to scale digital
investment. While first-tier cities face demand contraction,
lower-tier markets show resilience. Generative AI is gaining
traction, with 48% of China-based MNCs balance near-term
returns with long-term bets, versus 66% globally. As local
competition intensifies, CEOs must boost resilience, rethink cost
structures and forge deeper local partnerships to sustain growth.
Strategic clarity, AI fluency and localization are essential.

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CEO brief, autumn issue,
2024—MNCs in China

This CEO brief draws on earnings call analysis and proprietary
survey data to guide multinational leaders navigating China’s...

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Accenture Research C-suite guide

Volume 2

Authors: Bhaskar Ghosh, Karthik Narain, H. James Wilson, Prashant Shukla, Muqsit Ashraf, Miguel Torreira, Tomas Castagnino, Rachel Barton, Ladan Davarzani, Adam Burden, Christian Souche, Shruti Shalini, Alpana Dubey, Paul R. Daugherty, Koenraad Schelfaut, Arnab Chakraborty, Laetitia Cailleteau, Philippe Roussiere, Professor Thierry Rayna, Oliver Wright, Emma Blackburn, Carl Dukatz, Laura Converso
Published: July 2025

The Accenture Research C-Suite Guide, Volume 2 brings
together ten research-based articles, originally published in
leading journals, to help executives navigate accelerated
disruption. Building on Volumes 1’s AI focus Volume 2 focuses
on the theme of reinvention. It broadens to a constellation of
frontier technologies—generative and agentic AI, digital brains,
humanoid robotics and quantum platforms—that are redefining
value creation. Organized around five imperatives—leading with
new value, reinventing talent, securing digital cores, closing the
responsible AI gap and driving continuous reinvention—it offers
tested insights from global surveys and case studies. Authored
by Accenture leaders and researchers, the collection sharpens
strategic edge for CEOs under mounting competitive and
societal pressures.

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Accenture Research C-suite guide Volume 2

The Accenture Research C-Suite Guide, Volume 2 brings
together ten research-based articles, originally published in
leading journals...

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Accenture Research C-suite guide

Volume 1

Research contributors: Tomas Castagnino, Patrick Connolly, Svenja Falk, Selen Karaca-Griffin, Dominic King, Philippe Roussiere, Prashant Shukla, Shalabh Kumar Singh, Praveen Tanguturi, H. James Wilson, Gargi Chakrabarty, Emily Thornton
Published: September 2024
​

We are in a remarkable period of constant change and
reinvention, where gen AI and transformative technologies are
redefining how companies operate, delivering superior
products, services and value. The Accenture Research C-suite
guide offers a collection of published articles tailored to help
C-suite executives stay ahead of the emerging innovations and
trends reshaping companies, industries and societies.

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Accenture Research C-suite guide Volume 1

We are in a remarkable period of constant change and
reinvention, where gen AI and transformative technologies are
redefining...

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Foresight 2026

Research contributors: Joshua B. Bellin, H. James Wilson, Steve Courtney, Matthew Lagodzinski, Luis Polanco, Surya Mukherjee, Amal Sebastian, Dr. Shubhashis Sengupta, Shruti Shalini, Laura G. Converso, Yusof Seedat, Shachi Jain, Pradeep Roy, Prashant P. Shukla, Avimanyu Basu, Svenja Falk, Giju Mathew, Shalabh Kumar Singh

Published: January 2026

Business leaders have always looked for signals that can guide their next moves, especially when growth depends on recognizing shifts before they fully take shape. What makes this moment distinct is the number of forces changing at once. Advances in AI, computing and science are unfolding alongside geopolitical and economic transitions, creating conditions where the path to growth is both more complex and more open than in years past. Foresights 2026, by Accenture Research, examines these developments with an eye on their implications for companies seeking to grow with confidence.

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Foresight 2026

Business leaders have always looked for signals that can guide their next moves, especially when growth depends on recognizing shifts before they fully take shape. What makes this moment distinct is the number...

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Foresight 2025

Research contributors: Joshua Bellin, Alex Blumberg, Patrick Connolly, Medb Corcoran, Francis Hintermann, Shachi Jain, Selen Karaca-Griffin, Rebecca Kelliher, Lohith Kumar, Omaro Maseli, Mike Moore, Surya Mukherjee, Rahul S. Raichura, Pradeep Roy, Philippe Roussiere, Shruti Shalini, Praveen Tanguturi, Rebecca Tan, Shekhar Tewari, Dikshita Venkatesh, H. James Wilson
Published: January 2025

Foresights 2025 helps companies stay ahead as rapid
technological change reshapes business, government and
society. Many leaders aim to reinvent but face hurdles in
adopting breakthroughs like synthetic data, agentic solutions
and gen AI. This inaugural collection decodes 10 emerging
trends and shows how to turn them into practical advantage.
Accenture Research experts went beyond their core work to
deliver insights that challenge assumptions and inspire action.
Built in collaboration with global leaders, Foresights 2025
gives organizations the tools to make sharper decisions,
unlock innovation and create value in the year ahead.

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Foresight 2025

Foresights 2025 helps companies stay ahead as rapid
technological change reshapes business, government and
society. Many leaders aim to reinvent...

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Chief Executive Officer

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Lead throughvalue migration

Authors: Samantha Zhu, Serena Qiu, Song Han, Sheryl Yu, Deng Ling, Daniel Yang

The 2026 China Digital Transformation Index (DTI) rose by 10 points year-on-year, with the sharpest gains in three areas: growth, manufacturing and digital core. Most organizations have become better prepared for today’s competition; few, however, are prepared for tomorrow’s challenges. Based on what leading companies are doing today, we believe Chinese enterprises need to make three shifts to win the next round of competition.

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Lead through value migration

How Chinese enterprises can turn reinvention into future advantage ...

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Unlocking AI Value at Scale: Workforce Adoption
A Practical Guide for Consumer Industries

Authors: Lan Guan, Muqsit Ashraf, Surya Mukherjee
Published: April 2026

Organizations today face the challenge of vast data reservoirs, yet limited capability to reason, learn and act efficiently. Traditional systems fall short, creating gaps in institutional knowledge and stalling transformative efforts. Addressing these challenges requires The Intelligent Digital Brain. A transformative cognitive system designed to enhance enterprise intelligence and competitive advantage, The Intelligent Digital Brain embeds structured reasoning, continuous learning and adaptive decision-making directly into organizational workflows. Unlike static knowledge bases, it dynamically adapts by integrating structured and unstructured data, proprietary workflows and institutional expertise. The result is a self-improving system that retains critical know-how, captures implicit knowledge and orchestrates actions autonomously, ensuring the enterprise consistently operates at its highest potential.

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Unlocking AI Value at Scale: Workforce Adoption

Organizations today face the challenge of vast data reservoirs, yet limited capability to reason, learn...

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Unlocking AI value in Finnish organisations
Success hinges on grounding AI strategies in customer needs, measuring impact and scaling decisions

Authors: Topi Hautanen, Heli Rantavuo, Mike Moore
Published: May 2026

Finland’s largest organisations face structural pressure from an ageing population, a shrinking labour force and export exposure in sectors where competitors are adopting AI at speed. For senior leaders setting investment priorities and operating model direction, AI is reshaping productivity, the speed of decisionmaking and how customers perceive value.

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Unlocking AI value in Finnish organisations

Finland’s largest organisations face structural pressure from an ageing population, a shrinking labour force and export exposure in sectors where competitors are adopting AI...

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Resilience redefined

Authors: Muqsit Ashraf, Rachel Barton, Miguel G. Torreira, Tomas Castagnino, Ladan Davarzani
Research lead: Tomas Castagnin
Published: June 2025

Resilience might be a top priority for many companies, but a
deeper analysis reveals significant cracks below the surface.
Accenture’s Resilience Index, which quantifies the resilience of
over 1,600 companies across six dimensions, highlights
vulnerabilities in people and operational resilience, despite
increased investment in technology. Adaptive resilience makes
a difference: 60% of top quartile performers on the Resilience
Index achieved profit gains after a severe shock, compared to
just 21% in the bottom quartile. To achieve adaptive resilience,
companies need to reframe volatility as a strategic advantage,
build flexible operating models that can stay ahead of crises
and invest in people, not just platforms. Accenture experts
have augmented this report with a series of blogs and articles
on different pillars of resilience, such as people, technology,
commercial and operational resilience.

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Resilience redefined

Resilience might be a top priority for many companies, but a
deeper analysis reveals significant cracks below the surface.

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For Multinational Companies, Localization Matters More Than Ever

Authors: Muqsit Ashraf, Tomas Castagnino and Giju Mathew
Published: January 2026
​

For decades, multinational companies optimized for scale, assuming global integration would outweigh local variation. That assumption no longer holds. In a world marked by geopolitical fragmentation, regulatory divergence and data sovereignty, firms can no longer rely on surface-level localization. The article argues that advantage now comes from operating as a network of deeply rooted regional businesses that can comply, compete and innovate locally while remaining globally coordinated. Companies that succeed invest in regional capabilities, shape local ecosystems and standards, and use AI to connect front-line decisions across markets. Today, enduring advantage depends less on size and more on the ability to operate independently everywhere while acting as one enterprise.

Read full report

For Multinational Companies, Localization Matters More Than Ever

For decades, multinational companies optimized for scale, assuming global integration would outweigh local variation. That assumption no longer holds. In a world marked by geopolitical fragmentation...

more

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Five Traits of Tech-Driven CEOs

Authors: Ravi Chanmugam, Michael Lyman, and Paul Daugherty
Published: October 2025

A new class of CEOs is redefining leadership in the age of AI. The article argues that technology-driven CEOs don’t treat digital tools as operational support but as a primary source of strategic advantage. These leaders personally engage with emerging technologies, make bold bets to reinvent business models, elevate data as a core asset, attract top technical talent and actively shape innovation ecosystems. Their edge comes not from technical backgrounds but from mindset: a willingness to learn, reimagine first principles and lead transformation hands-on. In an era of accelerating disruption, reinvention is no longer a function—it is the CEO’s job.

Read full report

Five Traits of Tech-Driven CEOs

A new class of CEOs is redefining leadership in the age of AI. The article argues that technology-driven CEOs don’t treat digital tools as operational support but as a primary...

more

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Ready for resilience
How to navigate the new tariff landscape

Authors: Muqsit Ashraf, Jack Azagury, Ben Carey, James Crowley, Andrew Levy, Chris Tomsovic, Nick Kojucharov
Research lead: Tomas Castagnino
Published: April 2025

The economic impact of the new US tariff regime is likely to be substantial. For example, the additional cost imposed on the average US household from higher tariffs could be around $2,000 per year. As noteworthy as the magnitude of the tariffs, however, is the unprecedented uncertainty introduced by their scale and ever-changing nature. To respond effectively, companies should focus on strengthening four key dimensions of enterprise resilience: operational, commercial, people and technology. Accenture Research creates reports that are customizable by industry to ensure relevance across sectors.

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Ready for resilience

The economic impact of the new US tariff regime is likely to be substantial. For example, the additional cost imposed on the average US household from higher tariffs could be around $2,000...

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Humans, AI and robots
The economics of reinventing work and the workforce

Authors: James Crowley, Karalee Close, Kenneth Munie, Silvia Hernandez, Selen Karaca-Griffin
Research lead: Selen Karaca-Griffin
Published: March 2025

AI, autonomous agents and robotics are reshaping the nature and economics of work. Joint research by Accenture and the Wharton School explores how organizations can go beyond automation to rearchitect work itself: augmenting roles, redesigning teams and restructuring entire processes. Initial findings highlight the potential of a Human + model—where people work alongside intelligent digital and physical agents— to unlock transformative value, including up to $240 billion annually in biopharma alone. The findings offer business and policy leaders a data-rich foundation for navigating the agentic age with purpose—maximizing productivity while advancing human dignity and long-term resilience.

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Humans, AI and robots

AI, autonomous agents and robotics are reshaping the nature and economics of work. Joint research by Accenture and the Wharton School explores...

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From early impact to enduring advantage

Authors: Manish Sharma, Senthil Ramani
Published: March 2026

With AI pilots everywhere, the harder question is how to turn pockets of impact into enterprise-wide value. This report identifies five realities shaping how AI delivers enterprise value from backloaded financial timelines and operational readiness barriers to the imperatives of strong data foundations, talent reinvention and future-ready operating models. Drawn from roughly 6,000 AI engagements and research, it charts a clear three-phase journey from Siloed AI to Structural AI and Systemic AI that create the base for an enterprise where intelligence is embedded at the core and value compounds continuously. The companies that sequence the foundations and move now will own the next decade.

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From early impact to enduring advantage

With AI pilots everywhere, the harder question is how to turn pockets of impact into enterprise-wide value. This report...

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The productivity payoff
Unlock competitiveness with generative AI

Authors: Christopher Roark, Stephanie Jamison, James Crowley, Tomas Castagnino, Kevin Millan
Research lead: Kevin Millan
Published: October 2024

Despite significant investments in various technologies in recent years, most companies are not yet seeing the payoff in terms of higher productivity. Indeed, nearly 40% of the large companies we analyzed (1,392) recorded negative annual productivity growth during the period studied. However, our research also found a few bright spots of productivity growth in firms across diverse industries and geographies. Three reasons for this stand out. First, high productivity growth companies define and measure productivity differently. Second, they invest boldly and strategically to boost their productivity. Third, they use gen AI to automate or augment many tasks.

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The productivity payoff

Despite significant investments in various technologies in recent years, most companies are not yet seeing the payoff in terms of higher productivity. Indeed, nearly...

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Chief economists look ahead to ‘particularly complex’ year of tariffs and tensions

Authors: Tomas Castagnino and WEF
Research lead: Tomas Castagnino
Published: January 2025

This issue of the Chief Economists Report published regularly by The World Economic Forum, expects 2025 to bring slower global growth, rising fragmentation and renewed uncertainty. Just 17% forecast improvement. Concerns include US trade policy shifts, widening geopolitical tensions and structural debt burdens. As tariffs rise and industrial policies grow more inward-looking, the risk of global economic splintering intensifies. Yet opportunities remain: AI-led productivity gains, easing inflation and resilient US and emerging market growth offer paths forward. The challenge for leaders is clear— navigate rising volatility while accelerating reforms, especially in developing economies. Those who foster cooperation, strengthen resilience and harness technology may still shape a more inclusive, stable global recovery.

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Chief economists look ahead to ‘particularly complex’ year of tariffs and tensions

This issue of the Chief Economists Report published regularly by The World...

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Chief Information Officer

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Intelligent Digital Brain
Uplifting enterprise competitive advantage

Authors: Lan Guan, Muqsit Ashraf, Surya Mukherjee

Published: April 2026

Data alone does not make an enterprise intelligent. Intelligence emerges when data, knowledge, and decisions work as one across the enterprise. With humans in the lead, intelligent systems help organizations continuously learn, improve decisions, and drive reinvention.

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Intelligent Digital Brain: Uplifting enterprise competitive advantage

Data alone does not make an enterprise intelligent. Intelligence emerges when data, knowledge, and decisions work as one across the enterprise. With humans...

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Sovereign AI

Authors: David Wood and Mauro Capo
Research lead: Surya Mukherjee​

The Sovereign AI: Own Your AI Future report argues that artificial intelligence has become a strategic asset—and a strategic risk—because data, compute and models are increasingly concentrated in a few global players. Sovereign AI enables nations and enterprises to retain control over critical AI assets while still leveraging global innovation through hybrid ecosystems. Our research shows sovereignty is no longer just about compliance or risk mitigation; it is a driver of growth, resilience and competitiveness. Leading companies treat sovereign AI as a CEO-level priority, apply it selectively across high-value workloads, build ecosystems that blend local trust with global scale, and redesign architectures for multi-cloud, multi-model and agentic AI.

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Sovereign AI

The Sovereign AI: Own Your AI Future report argues that artificial intelligence has become a strategic asset—and a strategic risk—because data, compute and models are increasingly concentrated...

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AI innovation is nonstop. Your cloud foundation should be too.

Author: Andy Tay, Lan Guan, Jason Dess, Jefferson Wang, Shalabh Kumar Singh
Research lead: Shalabh Kumar Singh
Research contributors: Mathew Giju, Subhransu Sahoo, Pradeep Roy, Aditi Abhijeet, Pratik Janaikar, Ajay Garg
Published: March 2026

AI investment is accelerating, but many companies still run cloud estates built for stability rather than reinvention. Fragmented, outdated foundations are constraining their ability to scale AI and capture value. In Accenture’s analysis of 216 organizations, 59% of workloads remain largely on premises and only 8% support advanced experimentation, even though 86% of C-suite leaders plan to increase AI investment in 2026. The report groups companies into three categories based on cloud maturity—stabilizers, optimizers and innovators. It explains what is holding each category back and how to build a cloud foundation ready for AI at scale.

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AI innovation is nonstop. Your cloud foundation should be too.

AI investment is accelerating, but many companies still run cloud estates built for stability rather than reinvention. Fragmented...

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Design Processes to Evolve with Emerging Technology

Authors: Manish Sharma, Lan Guan and H. James Wilson
Published: January 2026

For decades, companies have relied on episodic, high-cost transformation efforts that rarely changed how work actually gets done. This article argues that emerging technologies—especially generative and agentic AI—are enabling a fundamental shift: from periodic overhaul to continuous evolution. By making processes fully visible, testable through digital twins, and executable by autonomous AI agents, organizations can dramatically reduce coordination costs and redesign work on an ongoing basis. Leading companies are already using these capabilities to experiment safely, adapt faster and elevate human roles. The result is a new operating model built not for stability, but for perpetual reinvention in a rapidly changing world.

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Design Processes to Evolve with Emerging Technology

For decades, companies have relied on episodic, high-cost transformation efforts that rarely changed how work actually gets done....

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The secret to successful AI-driven process redesign

Publisher: Harvard Business Review
Authors: Paul Daugherty, H. James Wilson
Published: January/February 2025

AI agents, when paired with human oversight, can dramatically boost process efficiency and quality. The article addresses how AI is transforming industries, from manufacturing to pharmaceuticals, by empowering employees and reducing waste. A key challenge is integrating AI to augment human capabilities, not replace them. The solution lies in combining human oversight with AI autonomy, ensuring processes align with business goals. For instance, the AI model achieved 90% precision and 84% recall in workflow completion, and Merck saw a 50% reduction in false rejects. Potential clients should identify processes ripe for AI redesign, understand AI capabilities and empower employees through training, leading to enhanced efficiency and a culture of continuous improvement.

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The secret to successful AI-driven process redesign

AI agents, when paired with human oversight, can dramatically boost process efficiency and quality. The article addresses how AI is transforming industries...

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Technology vision 2025

Author: Karthik Narain
Research lead: Prashant P. Shukla

Published: January 2025

Accenture’s Technology vision 2025 report focuses on the
growing impacts of gen AI on business and technology. The
main theme explores the unifying thread between to trends
like how AI is becoming generalized, the autonomy it brings
to the things it touches and how it will be used to develop
“cognitive digital brains” for every enterprise. It also raises
how trust—both emotional and cognitive—will be paramount
to any AI-driven enterprise reinvention. The trends explore
these concepts through the dimensions of software and the
technology ecosystem, brand and customer experience, the
future of robotics and the intersection of AI and the workforce.

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Technology vision 2025

Accenture’s Technology vision 2025 report focuses on the
growing impacts of gen AI on business and technology. The
main theme explores the unifying thread between to trends...

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How to manage tech debt in the AI era

Publisher: MIT Sloan Management Review
Authors: Koenraad Schelfaut, Prashant P. Shukla
Published: September 2024​

Companies well-positioned for change allocate around 15% of their IT budgets to technical debt remediation. The article addresses the growing issue of technical debt in enterprise systems as companies adopt AI. Technical debt can hinder innovation and competitiveness, with annual costs in the US exceeding $2.41 trillion. All technical debt is AI technical debt. Our research found that effective management, not elimination, of technical debt is key to leveraging AI for innovation and growth. Our recommendations focus on recognizing that zero technical debt is not the goal, distinguishing between good and bad debt and prioritizing high-value fixes using the PAID framework. By reframing technical debt remediation as an investment in innovation capacity, companies can remain agile and competitive.

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How to manage tech debt in the AI era

Companies well-positioned for change allocate around 15% of their IT budgets to technical debt remediation. The article addresses the growing issue of technical debt in enterprise systems...

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The front-runners’ guide to scaling AI

Authors: Lan Guan, Senthil Ramani, Philippe Roussiere
Research lead: Philippe Roussiere
Published: May 2025

A small minority of companies are achieving considerable
success at reinventing their enterprises with gen AI. They all
get one very important thing right: They combine lower-value
“table stakes” investments in gen AI with “strategic bets”—
investments that aim to maximize the potential of gen AI to
drive exceptional productivity, innovation and revenue growth.
Compared to competitors that have not done so, companies
that have scaled at least one strategic bet are nearly 3x more
likely to have their ROI from gen AI surpass their forecasts.
Drawing on a survey of 2,000 organizations, this report
describes the essential capabilities and practices that all
companies need to deploy and scale strategic bets.

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The front-runners’ guide to scaling AI

A small minority of companies are achieving considerable
success at reinventing their enterprises with gen AI. They all
get one very important thing right: They combine lower-value
“table...

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To help improve the accuracy of generative AI, add speed bumps

Publisher: MIT Sloan Management Review
Authors: Arnab Chakraborty
Published: November 2024

The article addresses the growing issue of inaccuracies and uncritical adoption of AI outputs, which can lead to errors and biases. The major complication is that users often overestimate their ability to detect these errors, posing potential risks. Our research suggests introducing targeted friction, like highlighting potential errors, to improve accuracy. For potential clients, the article recommends evaluating organizational readiness, assessing AI system risk, fostering a culture of experimentation and operationalizing continuous monitoring. We found a medium-friction condition helped users catch inaccuracies and omissions without significantly increasing task completion time, demonstrating the effectiveness of this approach.

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To help improve the accuracy of generative AI, add speed bumps

The article addresses the growing issue of inaccuracies and uncritical adoption of AI outputs, which can lead to errors and biases. The major complication...

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Data readiness in the age of generative AI

Authors: Karthik Narain, Senthil Ramani, Lan Guan, Teresa Tung, Amit Bansal
Research lead: Praveen Tanguturi
Published: October 2024

Gen AI promises transformation, but 48% of CXOs say their organizations lack the high-quality data needed to scale it. Despite 97% of leaders calling gen AI a long-term investment, most firms remain underprepared. Accenture identifies six essentials for data readiness: prioritize proprietary data, tap unstructured data, use synthetic data to fill gaps, enable context through connected data, manage accelerated risks and apply gen AI to improve the data lifecycle. With only half of firms equipped to leverage synthetic data and 42% needing help with governance, success will hinge on reinventing architectures and embedding responsible AI practices.

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Data readiness in the age of generative AI

Gen AI promises transformation, but 48% of CXOs say their organizations lack the high-quality data needed to scale it. Despite 97% of leaders calling gen AI...

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The new rules of platform strategy in the age of agentic AI
Five priorities to help companies align people, platforms and intelligence

Authors: Frédéric Brunier, Christopher Roark
Research lead: Surya Mukherjee
Published: December 2025​

Enterprise platforms once kept finance, HR and supply chains humming, but agentic AI is turning that stable machinery into a bottleneck. Too many firms bolt AI pilots onto brittle cores, creating duplicate systems, stale data and operational drag. The fix is not to scrap platforms but to rewire them as living systems of intelligence: architect AI-ready infrastructure, modernise the digital core, define how humans, platforms and agents share accountability, reinvent operating models and build a culture of trust and fluency. In our survey of 1,031 executives, aligned companies averaged 2.2x higher revenue growth and up to 37% higher profitability overall.

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The new rules of platform strategy in the age of agentic AI

Enterprise platforms once kept finance, HR and supply chains humming, but agentic AI is turning that stable machinery into a bottleneck...

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Turning Real-Time Satellite Data into a Competitive Advantage

Authors: Adam Burden, Paul Thomas, Shubhashis Sengupta and Shruti Shalini
Published: November 2025

Reinsurer Swiss Re streams near-real-time flood maps into its catastrophe-risk services, accelerating its claims processing and disaster response. Cargill, the Minnesota-based agribusiness company, uses a satellite-monitoring platform to track land use and forest loss across its global supply chains, strengthening its pledge to be deforestation-free by 2030. Maersk, the Copenhagen-based shipping and logistics company, has installed SpaceX Starlink broadband on more than 330 container vessels, improving communication and operational efficiency with cloud tools and remote management...

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Turning Real-Time Satellite Data into a Competitive Advantage

As satellite technology becomes cheaper and smarter, space-based intelligence is moving from the fringe to the core of business strategy. ...

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Chief Marketing Officer

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Talk to my AI agent:
The new rules of brand value

Authors: Ndidi Oteh, Oliver Wright, Nevine El-Warrak, Brett Leary, Karen Fang Grant, Jennifer Ducarre
Research lead: Jennifer Ducarre
Published: June 2026

Consumers are rewriting the rules of brand value. Overwhelmed by too many options, too little time and too much fine print, people are turning to AI and going further than most brand leaders expect.

Our survey of 25,590 consumers across 16 countries finds that nearly three in four (74%) would trust a personal AI agent more than their best friend to make a purchase on their behalf. Not a chatbot. Not a search engine. An AI agent that acts, decides and buys at their instruction.

This is more than a shift in how people shop. AI agents will rewrite the rules of brand value and shape what gets purchased, when, where and by whom, redefining the relationship between consumers and the brands and retailers they choose.

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Talk to my AI agent:
The new rules of brand value

Consumers are rewriting the rules of brand value. Overwhelmed by too many options, too little time and too much fine print, people are turning...

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Agentic Commerce
Make Your Brand Unmissable

Author: Ndidi Oteh, Rajat Agarwal, Sean Lyons, Joshua Bellin
Research lead: Joshua Bellin
Published: April 2026

Digital commerce has not lived up to its promise. Consumers feel overwhelmed by choices and often struggle to find the products and services that best meet their needs. Brands absorb the cost in lost sales, returns and restocking expenses, and endless spending to reacquire the same customers. The system is accepted, not loved.

AI agents are upending that model, and the impact will be felt in every industry and every stage of the purchase journey. Agents can now compare features, read the fine print, choose a winner, complete a purchase and manage delivery and returns—all autonomously, on a customer's behalf. The long-held understanding of who makes buying decisions, and when, and how, is changing fast.

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Agentic Commerce
Make Your Brand Unmissable

Digital commerce has not lived up to its promise. Consumers feel overwhelmed by choices and often struggle to find the products and services that best meet...

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Life Trends 2026: Forward, together

Authors: Nick Law, Katie Burke, Jake Brody
Research lead: Agneta Björnsjö
Published: February 2026

In a world reeling from relentless change, people are being thrust into transformation journeys they never chose—emotionally, technologically, and culturally. Nearly 46% of global consumers say their desire for stability has grown stronger, while 54% use AI weekly to manage life’s complexity. Businesses must now evolve beyond customer centricity to life centricity.

This year’s five defining trends reflect that shift: a stability premium as people seek clarity in chaos; human journeys shaped by AI in daily and profound moments; finding Neo, where employees reimagine AI from the ground up; good vibrations as play and presence reclaim value; and coming of age, where older generations emerge as powerful cultural and economic forces.

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Life Trends 2026: Forward, together

In a world reeling from relentless change, people are being thrust into transformation journeys they never chose—emotionally, technologically, and culturally. Nearly 46% of global consumers say...

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Customer service on the brink
Course correct now for future growth

Authors: Sean Lyons, Alex Colcher, Erika Simpson, Dawn Anderson, Joshua Bellin
Research lead: Joshua Bellin
Published: June 2025

Customer service is failing. Just 18% of consumers say technology has improved their experience, and 87% would abandon a brand after a single bad interaction. As companies pursue cost-cutting, they’re overlooking what consumers actually want: effortless, empathetic and empowering support. Gen AI can reset the balance, automating 65% of agent tasks while enabling richer, more human conversations. To capture the opportunity, businesses must shift from fragmented service models to intelligence-led ecosystems that personalize every interaction, predict needs and embed service at the heart of customer experience. Done right, service becomes not a cost center—but a growth engine.

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Customer service on the brink

Customer service is failing. Just 18% of consumers say technology has improved their experience, and 87% would abandon a brand after a single bad interaction. As companies pursue...

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The Good Life, Reimagined​

Author: Christine Wang
Research lead: Deng Ling
Published: December 2025

What makes China’s 1.4 billion consumers so compelling is the powerful convergence of economic, demographic, technological and cultural forces reshaping their behaviors. Over the past decade, Accenture has traced these changing behaviors to connect the dots; this year’s study goes even further to put trends into their historical perspectives, shedding light on their significance.

Our 2025 study reveals that local brands are now preferred over international ones across the board, a reversal of the situation just four years ago. Furthermore, artificial intelligence (AI) has already transformed the consumer landscape and will have profound implications in the years to come. Contrary to conventional wisdom, Chinese consumers are not becoming more materialistic as their purchasing power grows. Instead, they are boldly redefining what a good life means and can look like.


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The Good Life, Reimagined

What makes China’s 1.4 billion consumers so compelling is the powerful convergence of economic, demographic, technological and cultural forces reshaping their behaviors. Over the past...

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China’s savvy silvers: The new face of aging

Authors: Christine Wang, Pornthip Suchanthabu
Research lead: Deng Ling
Published: March 2026

As China steadily progresses to a “super-aged” society, a new generation of older consumers is stepping from the sidelines into the spotlight. This cohort is redefining old age, turning what used to be seen as a retreat from society into a fresh chapter full of options.

At a macro level, the silver economy is no longer a peripheral niche. By 2035, it is expected to reach CNY 30 trillion (approximately USD 4.3 trillion), representing about 10% of the country’s GDP and a meaningful driver of long-term demand.

But older consumers are not monolithic; they are a vast and diverse group spanning a wide age range and exhibiting highly varied behaviors. This research focuses on a specific group: the “savvy silvers”, 55–65-year-olds mostly in tier 2 cities and above, who tend to have relatively stable household income and higher digital fluency.



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China’s savvy silvers: The new face of aging

As China steadily progresses to a “super-aged” society, a new generation of older consumers is stepping from the sidelines into the spotlight. This cohort is redefining old age, turning what used...

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Me, my brand and AI: The new world of consumer engagement

Authors: Oliver Wright, Emily Weiss, Brett Leary,
Emma Blackburn, Jen Ducarre
Research lead: Emma Blackburn, Jen Ducarre
Published: June 2025

Gen AI is rapidly transforming consumer engagement,
becoming a trusted companion and decision-maker in everyday
life. With 72% of consumers using gen AI regularly and 75%
open to AI-powered personal shoppers, brands face a shift in
how trust and loyalty are built. The report finds gen AI is now
the second-highest source for purchase recommendations,
with emotional intelligence and agentic capabilities reshaping
buying behavior. To stay relevant, brands must define their role
in the LLM ecosystem, prioritize experiential differentiation
and design proactive, emotionally engaging AI experiences
that integrate across services and platforms—before AI
bypasses them altogether.

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Me, my brand and AI: The new world of consumer engagement

Gen AI is rapidly transforming consumer engagement,
becoming a trusted companion and decision-maker in everyday
life. With 72% of consumers using...

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Reinventing relevance in the age of overload
Accenture 2024 China market CMO research

Authors: Christine Wang
Research lead: Ling Deng
Published: March 2025

Chinese consumers are overwhelmed—76% have abandoned purchases due to decision fatigue, driven by content saturation and an overload of options. In response, companies have shifted heavily toward performance marketing, now comprising 60–70% of budgets, but this has led to brand sameness and declining differentiation. Accenture urges CMOs to refocus on brand love through four actions: clarify brand purpose, create emotionally resonant communications, simplify choices using AI and use technology to unleash creativity. Success lies in balancing short-term ROI with long-term emotional connection— helping brands stand out, not just sell more.

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Reinventing relevance in the age of overload

Chinese consumers are overwhelmed—76% have abandoned purchases due to decision fatigue, driven by content saturation and an overload...

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Chief Human Resources Officer

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Talent Reinventors
Delivering value with and for people in the age of AI​

Authors: Karalee Close, Stephen Wroblewski, Jessica Van Singel, Sumreen Ahmad 
Research lead: Mamta Kapur
Published: March 2026

The last few years have revealed AI’s enormous potential and a simple truth: Real value shows up when people and technology advance together. As AI adoption accelerates, returns are uneven. Many organizations are investing heavily in AI, but have not updated their talent strategy accordingly.

Our latest research uncovers new opportunities to deliver innovation with talent. We surveyed 1,320 C-suite executives and 4,560 employees across 20 industries and 12 countries between August and September 2025 and found an elite group—just 18% of organizations—that are taking a different approach to talent and delivering real value. We call them Talent Reinventors.

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Talent Reinventors

The last few years have revealed AI’s enormous potential and a simple truth: Real value shows up when people and technology advance together. As AI adoption accelerates, returns are uneven...

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The Skills Mismatch Economy

Authors: Eric Bradlow, James Crowley, Ken Munie, Selen Karaca-Griffin
Published: January 2026

Wharton and Accenture collaborated to introduce the Wharton–Accenture Skills Index (WAsX), an empirical benchmark that examines the evolving mismatch between workforce skills and employer needs. The report highlights significant shifts that AI is driving, showing an oversupply of generalist skills and critical deficits in specialized, technical and execution-oriented capabilities. WAsX demonstrates how skill values are highly context-specific, challenging the traditional notion that certain skills universally command high value. The study urges employers to redesign job roles based on precise skill needs, while employees can leverage insights to build a targeted portfolio of high-value skills.

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The Skills Mismatch Economy

Wharton and Accenture collaborated to introduce the Wharton–Accenture Skills Index (WAsX), an empirical benchmark that examines the evolving mismatch...

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Learning, reinvented
Accelerating collaboration between humans and AI

Authors: Karalee Close, Kishore Durg, Prof. Majid Sakr, Stephen Wroblewski, Leila Yousef
Research lead: Leila Yousef
Published: August 2025

To unlock the potential of human-AI collaboration, organizations must reinvent learning. Companies fostering “co-learning”—where people teach AI and learn from it—are seeing 5x higher engagement, 4x faster skill development, and stronger innovation and profitability. Success hinges on four conditions: leading with curiosity, integrating learning into work, building trust, and designing AI to complement human workflows. Based on insights from 14,000 workers, 1,100 executives and 40 interviews across 20 industries, this report details how leaders can embed these practices to enable continuous, mutual learning between people and machines— and stay competitive in an AI-driven future.

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Learning, reinvented

To unlock the potential of human-AI collaboration, organizations must reinvent learning. Companies fostering “co-learning”—where people teach AI and learn from it—are seeing...

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Bridging the gap
Navigating the talent shortage in the semiconductor industry​

Authors: Deb Garand, Megan C. Berner, Stephen Hardin, Matthew Haggerty
Research lead: Matthew Haggerty
Published: August 2025

A deepening labor shortage threatens the U.S. semiconductor industry’s push for self-sufficiency. While federal investments and reshoring strategies are underway, Accenture forecasts a talent gap of up to 153,000 roles by 2035—double today’s shortage—even with a projected 25% growth in the talent pool. The industry must act across three fronts: strategic workforce planning to unlock untapped talent pools, reskilling to meet evolving needs and scaling automation and AI to boost productivity. Our research also shows that 74% of manufacturers plan to upskill their workforce, yet 67% of workers remain dissatisfied with current training, a mismatch that calls for urgent, systemic change.

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Bridging the gap

A deepening labor shortage threatens the U.S. semiconductor industry’s push for self-sufficiency. While federal investments and reshoring strategies are underway, Accenture...

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Untapped talent: Women in semiconductors

Authors: Timothy Chu, Cathy Chen
Research lead: Matthew Haggerty
Published: April 2025

The semiconductor industry faces both a talent crisis and a trillion-dollar opportunity. Yet women remain significantly underrepresented—especially in technical leadership, where 72% of companies report less than 20% female director representation. Now in its sixth year, the Accenture–Global Semiconductor Alliance study identifies concrete actions to improve recruitment, retention and advancement. While mentorship programs are common, sponsorship and allyship lag. Only 54% of companies publicly commit to equality. To compete at scale, the industry must unlock the full talent pool—building inclusive cultures and rethinking leadership pipelines to ensure women can rise with the technologies they help shape.

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Untapped talent: Women in semiconductors

The semiconductor industry faces both a talent crisis and a trillion-dollar opportunity. Yet women remain significantly underrepresented—especially in technical...

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The AI Participation Gap

Authors: Matthew Prebble, Camilla Drejer, Dal Channa, Mamta Kapur
Published: March 2026

Small, people-first interventions can help people who struggle with digital inclusion use AI to great benefit, according to a study conducted by Accenture in partnership with Good Things Foundation and Generation UK. The key is helping people overcome fear and distrust of AI, ; existing cognitive overload, which AI may not alleviate; and basic issues of dependence, for example, those driven by language barriers. Effective actions include” being transparent about the brand or institution behind the AI tool:; creating safe spaces for practicing AI, with live guides available to offer support and guidance; and making deliberate design choices to simplify what people see, signpost key messages and ensure broad accessibility.


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The AI Participation Gap

Small, people-first interventions can help people who struggle with digital inclusion use AI to great benefit, according to a study conducted by Accenture in partnership with Good Things Foundation...

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Reinventing enterprise models in the age of generative AI

Authors: Karalee Close, Kestas Sereiva
Research lead: Mamta Kapur
Published: March 2025

Gen AI is redefining work. While 97% of executives expect it to transform their industries, only 35% feel equipped to lead that change. To unlock its full value, organizations must move beyond pilots and restructure for continuous reinvention. Accenture identifies four imperatives: amplify intelligence through human + AI collaboration; build dynamic skills as job half-lives shrink; dissolve traditional boundaries between teams and functions; and design adaptable structures where human-machine partnerships are the new unit of work. Those that evolve now—replacing static hierarchies with agile, AI-infused operating models—will lead the next era of enterprise performance.

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Reinventing enterprise models in the age of generative AI

Gen AI is redefining work. While 97% of executives expect it to transform their industries, only 35% feel equipped to lead that change...

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RISE with AI
Get your workforce AI-ready for the future of financial service

Authors: Sophie Hulm, Paul Stanley, Camilla Drejer,
Andrew Young, Mamta Kapur, Cyrus Suntook, Alessandra Corti
Research lead: Mamta Kapur
Published: March 2025

Gen AI is transforming UK financial services, but a two-tier workforce is emerging—those ready to thrive in an AI-driven economy, and those left behind. Only 8% of firms have scaled AI successfully, largely due to a lack of workforce readiness. Employees from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are disproportionately excluded. Accenture proposes the RISE model—Reinforce readiness, Inspire confidence, Strengthen governance and Empower employees—to close the AI divide. Firms applying this people-centric approach achieve up to 30% productivity gains and 8% revenue growth. In the AI era, inclusive talent strategy is not optional—it’s the foundation for sustainable advantage.

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RISE with AI

Gen AI is transforming UK financial services, but a two-tier workforce is emerging—those ready to thrive in an AI-driven economy, and those left behind. Only 8% of firms have scaled AI successfully...

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Accenture pulse of change​

Authors: Jill Kramer, Francis Hintermann
Research leads: Michael Malinosky, Corbin Lazier
Published: January 2025

C-suite leaders expect continued disruption in 2025— especially from gen AI. While 86% are prepared to invest and 60% plan to scale AI across their organizations, just 12% cite workforce skill-building as a top priority. A growing gap is emerging: Only 35% of employees understand gen AI’s value to a great extent, and 68% lack full access to AI tools. Accenture’s Pulse of Change, published regularly during the year, surveyed 6.450 leaders and workers for this issue. It reveals that trust, training and infrastructure are critical to capturing value. Without closing the disconnect between leaders and employees, the potential of AI-driven transformation may stall before it scales.

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Accenture pulse of change

C-suite leaders expect continued disruption in 2025— especially from gen AI. While 86% are prepared to invest and 60% plan to scale AI across their organizations...

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Hidden workers: The case for caregivers

Authors: Joseph B. Fuller, Manjari Raman, Francis Hintermann
Research lead: Hélène Vallières-Goulet
Published: October 2024

In tight labor markets, employers face mounting challenges filling roles—yet millions of capable workers remain sidelined. Chief among them: caregivers, individuals who leave or reduce paid work to care for children, elderly parents or ill family members. These workers often face rigid hiring systems that penalize résumé gaps, making them “hidden” from applicant pools. New research from Accenture and Harvard Business School finds 86% of such hidden workers are caregivers. Yet only 23% of employers actively recruit them. By redesigning hiring practices and offering targeted support, companies can unlock this overlooked talent and close persistent workforce gaps.

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Hidden workers: The case for caregivers

In tight labor markets, employers face mounting challenges filling roles—yet millions of capable workers remain sidelined. Chief among them: caregivers, individuals...

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Chief Information Security Officer

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Reinventing the cyber workforce
Three moves to address the cybersecurity talent gap​

Authors: Harpreet Sidhu, Vikram Desai, Christian Weiss, Mariana Perez, Yusof Seedat
Research lead: Yusof Seedat
Published: June 2026

Cybersecurity is a critical enabler of enterprise resilience, regulatory accountability and digital growth. Yet the cybersecurity workforce designed to protect the business is misaligned with the demands it faces. Fifty-nine percent of open roles now require a hybrid blend of technical depth, business acumen and strategic leadership, which includes soft skills like problem-solving, communication and cross-functional collaboration.

Only 40% of professionals, however, currently hold such roles. This highlights a capability imbalance that hiring alone will not correct. Cyber and talent leaders must address this gap holistically to make cybersecurity a sustaining force that helps the business thrive through change.

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Reinventing the cyber workforce

Cybersecurity is a critical enabler of enterprise resilience, regulatory accountability and digital growth. Yet the cybersecurity workforce designed...

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Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026

Authors: Yusof Seedat, Shachi Jain, Toms Bernhards Callahan
Published: January 2026

The World Economic Forum's Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026, written in collaboration with Accenture, examines the cybersecurity trends that will affect economies and societies in the year to come. The report explores how accelerating AI adoption, geopolitical fragmentation and widening cyber inequity are reshaping the global risk landscape. As attacks grow faster, more complex and more unevenly distributed, organizations and governments face rising pressure to adapt amid persistent sovereignty challenges and widening capability gaps. Drawing on leaders’ perspectives, the report provides actionable insights to inform strategy, investment and policy.

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Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026

The World Economic Forum's Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026, written in collaboration with Accenture, examines the cybersecurity trends that will affect...

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Three essentials for agentic AI security

Publisher: MIT Sloan Management Review
Authors: Paolo Dal Cin, Daniel Kendzior, Yusof Seedat, Renato Marinho
Published: June 2025

The article presents a three-phase framework to secure autonomous AI systems. Phase one involves threat modeling and mapping to identify vulnerabilities, especially data poisoning and prompt injection. Phase two includes stress- testing through adversarial simulations like red-teaming exercises to expose and mitigate threats. Phase three enforces real-time safeguards, such as enhancing guardrails, validating inputs and controlling access. A Brazilian healthcare company’s example illustrated the importance of secure data access, governance protocols and continuous monitoring. This framework is crucial for organizations scaling AI agents while ensuring robust security and trust.

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Three essentials for agentic AI security

The article presents a three-phase framework to secure autonomous AI systems. Phase one involves threat modeling and mapping...

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State of cybersecurity resilience 2025

Authors: Paolo Dal Cin, Daniel Kendzior, Yusof Seedat
Research lead: Yusof Seedat, Manav Saxena
Published: June 2025

AI is outpacing cybersecurity. Accenture finds that while 86% of
leaders plan to expand AI investments, only 20% feel confident
in securing their AI models. Meanwhile, 90% of organizations
lack the maturity to defend against AI-driven threats. To close
this gap, the report introduces the Reinvention-Ready Zone—
a benchmark for resilient security strategy and capability.
Companies that reach it are 69% less likely to suffer advanced
cyberattacks. Four actions can accelerate this shift: embed
AI-secure governance, build resilient AI systems, maintain
continuous threat readiness and reinvent cybersecurity using
gen AI to boost speed, scale and defensive strength.

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State of cybersecurity resilience 2025

AI is outpacing cybersecurity. Accenture finds that while 86% of leaders plan to expand AI investments, only 20% feel confident in securing their AI models...

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C-Suite Playbook: From Software-Defined Vehicles to Strategic Differentiation

Authors: Christof Horn, Juergen Reers
Research lead: Belen Rubio
Published: March 2026

Cars are becoming computers on wheels, and that shifts the industry’s battleground from horsepower to software. Yet for many carmakers, the prize remains elusive: unclear returns, fragmented architectures and hardware-led habits still slow progress. This playbook, a collaborative effort by the World Economic Forum and Accenture, argues that leaders must simplify the stack, industrialize software development and reorganize around cross-functional ownership if they want software-defined vehicles to pay off. The gains could be material: open-source foundations could cut lifecycle operating costs by 25%, virtual validation can reduce hardware costs by up to 30% and cross-functional teams can speed time-to-market by 20%.

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C-Suite Playbook: From Software-Defined Vehicles to Strategic Differentiation

Cars are becoming computers on wheels, and that shifts the industry’s battleground from horsepower...

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Cybersecurity in aviation: Mitigating risk, maximizing growth

Authors: Ahmed Etman, Dr. Radwane Saad, Yusof Seedat, Manav Saxena
Research lead: Yusof Seedat
Published: July 2025

As retail and hospitality companies accelerate digital reinvention, cybersecurity struggles to keep pace. Joint research from Accenture and Retail & Hospitality Information Sharing and Analysis Center (RH-ISAC) reveals that companies with strong security capabilities enjoy 60% higher revenue growth and 2.5x lower technical debt. Yet, 82% of firms lack security maturity in their digital core, widening exposure to AI-fueled threats. Budget constraints and competing priorities remain the top barriers. The report urges CISOs to close maturity gaps, embed zero trust and elevate cybersecurity to a strategic board-level priority. In this environment, securing the digital core isn’t defensive—it’s foundational to long-term resilience and performance.

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Cybersecurity in aviation: Mitigating risk, maximizing growth

As retail and hospitality companies accelerate digital reinvention, cybersecurity struggles to keep pace. Joint research...

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2025 CISO benchmark report
Securing the digital foundation for reinvention​

Authors: Piyush Jain, Yusof Seedat, Kristen Dalton
Research lead: Arlene Lehman
Published: April 2025

As retail and hospitality companies accelerate digital reinvention, cybersecurity struggles to keep pace. Joint research from Accenture and Retail & Hospitality Information Sharing and Analysis Center (RH-ISAC) reveals that companies with strong security capabilities enjoy 60% higher revenue growth and 2.5x lower technical debt. Yet, 82% of firms lack security maturity in their digital core, widening exposure to AI-fueled threats. Budget constraints and competing priorities remain the top barriers. The report urges CISOs to close maturity gaps, embed zero trust and elevate cybersecurity to a strategic board-level priority. In this environment, securing the digital core isn’t defensive—it’s foundational to long-term resilience and performance.

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2025 CISO benchmark report

As retail and hospitality companies accelerate digital reinvention, cybersecurity struggles to keep pace. Joint research from Accenture and Retail ...

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Reinventing with a digital core

Authors: Karthik Narain, Lan Guan, Ram Ramalingam, Koenraad Schelfaut, David Wood, Surya Mukherjee
Research lead: Surya Mukherjee
Published: November 2024

Thriving requires reinvention, with the digital core at the heart
of this transformation. It connects data, processes and
technology, enabling businesses to adapt, learn and innovate.
Built with engineering principles “Architect for Intent,”
“Connect the Dots” and “Thrive with Ecosystems,” it evolves
with change, staying smart, efficient and free from rigid
systems. The report outlines actionable strategies to achieve
this transformation: adopting AI-first architectures, integrating
systems for real-time analytics and partnering with ecosystems
to access cutting-edge innovations.

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Reinventing with a digital core

Thriving requires reinvention, with the digital core at the heart
of this transformation. It connects data, processes and
technology...

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Guardians of trust: Navigating cybersecurity in banking

Authors: Valerie Abend
Research lead: Yusof Seedat
Published: March 2025

There’s a critical gap between banks’ cybersecurity investments and consumer trust. Despite a 140% increase in cybersecurity spending by banks over two years, 58% of banking customers remain concerned about data security and potential hacks when banks offer personalized services. This scepticism extends beyond individual banks to include third-party vendors and the broader banking ecosystem. In this report we distilled three critical actions to enable banks to close the trust gap.

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Guardians of trust: Navigating cybersecurity in banking

There’s a critical gap between banks’ cybersecurity investments...

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Securing the digital core in the gen AI era
Cybersecurity as a strategic enabler of reinvention

Authors: Paolo Dal Cin, Rex Thexton, Andrew Winkelmann, Yusof Seedat
Research lead: Yusof Seedat, Manav Saxena
Published: November 2024

Securing the digital core is vital as it forms the foundation of an enterprise’s transformation, integrating platforms, AI and data. Neglecting security opens vulnerabilities, hindering agility and resilience. This report illustrates how enterprises can embed robust cybersecurity measures to safeguard innovation, build trust and ensure sustained growth in a rapidly evolving technological landscape.

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Securing the digital core in the gen AI era

Securing the digital core is vital as it forms the foundation of an enterprise’s transformation, integrating platforms...

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Supply Chain and Engineering

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Systemic AI at the root of manufacturing performance

Authors: Tracey Countryman, Prasad Satyavolu, Roland Mayr, Luis Luque
Research lead: Edward Blomquist
Published: April 2026

Most manufacturers concentrate AI efforts on operations and maintenance, where data is richest and ROI is easiest to prove. That focus misses the bigger opportunity. Manufacturing value accrues across the full plant lifecycle, from design through construction, commissioning, ramp-up and decades of operation. An AI program targeting only the operating phase is likely to stall. Fragmented data, unclear ownership and workforces not yet designed for AI are not late-stage problems; they run through the entire lifecycle.

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Systemic AI at the root of manufacturing performance

Most manufacturers concentrate AI efforts on operations and maintenance, where data is richest and ROI is easiest to prove. That focus misses the bigger opportunity. Manufacturing...

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The capital projects execution gap

Authors: Adam Shaw, Jonas Kampik, Alberto Sanz
Published: August 2026

Capital project leaders are investing in digital tools, planning systems and governance, yet a persistent gap between leadership strategy and site execution continues to undermine performance. Accenture’s research among 1,050 leaders and frontline workers reveals a stark disconnect: 73–77% of senior leaders believe they positively influence cost, planning and schedule performance, but only 13% of workers say leadership decisions consistently shape their daily work. The report recommends strengthening the flow of real-time field intelligence, aligning leaders and site teams around a shared definition of value and designing technology around execution realities to enable faster decisions and improve project outcomes.

The capital projects execution gap

Your strategy is clear. Your investment is real. So why isn't it reaching the site?

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Turning the supply chain talent shortage into strength

Authors: Inge Oosterhuis, Jaime Lagunas, Kristine Renker, Stephen Wroblewski, Stephen Meyer
Published: April 2026​

Every time a supply chain adds complexity, leaders reach for the same lever: hire more people. More volume means more planners. More suppliers means more buyers. More compliance pressure means more managers. That instinct has carried the function for decades. Today, the math is moving faster than that playbook.

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Turning the supply chain talent shortage into strength

Every time a supply chain adds complexity, leaders reach for the same lever: hire more people. More volume means more planners. More suppliers means more buyers. More compliance pressure...

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Sustainable procurement barometer 2026
How leading Businesses Are Turning Sustainable Procurement Into Measurable Value and Resilience

Authors: Matias Pollmann-Larsen, Stephen Meyer, Deepak Tantry, Dhriti Hazarika, Ajaykrishnan Sivaramakrishnan
 Published: April 2026

The 2026 Sustainable Procurement Barometer, developed by EcoVadis in collaboration with Accenture, shows leading organizations now use sustainable procurement to drive performance, resilience and growth, not just compliance. Based on insights from more than 1,000 global companies, the report highlights five priorities: value measurement, environmental, social and governance visibility, workflow integration, supplier engagement and innovation at scale.

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Sustainable procurement barometer 2026

The 2026 Sustainable Procurement Barometer, developed by EcoVadis in collaboration with Accenture, shows leading organizations now use sustainable procurement to drive performance, resilience and growth...

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Reinventing for Human + AI Engineering Five moves to turn engineering into a compounding growth engine 

Authors: Roland Mayr, Jean Cabanes, Götz Erhardt, Tobias Geissinger, Jeff Brehm, Andreas Egetenmeyer
Published: May 2026

Software-defined products, tighter regulation and relentless cost pressures are changing what engineering departments must deliver. By 2030, adaptability and speed will be the defining measures of performance.

Leading companies recognize that the compounding realities of this decade cannot be resolved with incremental process tweaks or another tool added to existing systems. Instead, they are reinventing processes, data, tools and how work gets done across the value chain to dramatically improve critical outcomes like cycle times, launch reliability and update velocity.

Our new research clearly confirms this. Across our interviews with 100 engineers and 36 engineering leaders, we found legacy systems nearing their limits. Products are becoming more complex as cycles compress, and engineers report spending roughly half their day on documentation, reporting and information search rather than core engineering work. According to our estimation, this represents a US$ 39 billion annual loss in productivity globally.1 The engineering system is under strain in both its operating model and tool landscape

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Reinventing for Human + AI Engineering

Software-defined products, tighter regulation and relentless cost pressures are changing what engineering departments must deliver. By 2030, adaptability and speed will be the defining measures of performance...

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Orchestrating the ecosystem

Authors: Christophe Mouille, Götz Erhardt, Kerstin Stapelmann
Research lead: Jeff Wheless
Published: April 2026

The problem: Industrial manufacturers run on a complex web of specialized platforms— Siemens, PTC and Dassault Systèmes across engineering and PLM; SAP, Blue Yonder and Kinaxis in supply chain planning; Rockwell, Aveva and Honeywell in manufacturing operations; Bentley and Ansys in digital twinning; and hyperscalers providing the cloud substrate underneath all of it. Each generates intelligence. None coordinates action across the others.

The urgency: Every one of these partners is now deploying agentic AI. SAP alone is targeting over 1,000 agents this year. Multiply that across Siemens, PTC, Blue Yonder, Rockwell and every tier-one supplier in a manufacturer’s network, and the coordination problem doesn’t just persist, it compounds exponentially.

The answer: Engineer three layers of coordination: inside the value chain, across ecosystem boundaries and within a governance framework that keeps humans accountable.

The payoff: Manufacturers that do this operate with greater reliability at lower cost and turn fragmented digital investment into measurable operational outcomes.

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Orchestrating the ecosystem

The problem: Industrial manufacturers run on a complex web of specialized platforms— Siemens, PTC and Dassault Systèmes across engineering and PLM; SAP, Blue Yonder and Kinaxis in supply...

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Making autonomous supply chains real

Authors: Max Blanchet, Chris McDivitt, Stephen Meyer
Research lead: Stephen Meyer
Published: May 2025

Sixty-six percent of companies plan to advance their supply
chain autonomy by 2035, aiming to cut order lead times by
27%, boost productivity by 25% and reduce emissions by 16%.
Yet only 25% of leaders are making autonomy a top investment
priority. To unlock this potential, companies must act
decisively by building a secure, integrated digital core,
investing in AI-enabling technologies and redesigning how
people and technology collaborate. Those who delay these
actions risk being outpaced by more agile competitors
leveraging AI to transform supply chain resilience, enhance
responsiveness and create enterprise-wide value.

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Making autonomous supply chains real

Sixty-six percent of companies plan to advance their supply
chain autonomy by 2035, aiming to cut order lead times by
27%, boost productivity by 25% and reduce emissions by 16%.
Yet only 25% ...

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Supply chain networks in the age of generative AI

Turning promise into performance

Authors: Maria Rey-Marston, Jaime R. Lagunas
Research lead: Stephen Meyer
Published: February 2024

Generative AI has taken the world by storm. Its massive potential has captured the attention of business leaders across industries, with 95% of executives agreeing it will be transformative for their company. And 100% anticipating workforce changes as a result.

The implications for supply chain leaders? There are countless opportunities to apply generative AI across end-to-end supply chain networks. Performance gains are waiting to be tapped in everything from sourcing and planning, through manufacturing and fulfilment, to aftersales and service.

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Supply chain networks in the age of generative AI

Generative AI has taken the world by storm. Its massive potential has captured the attention of business leaders across industries, with 95% of executives agreeing it will be transformative for their company. And 100%...

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Blueprint for success

Authors: Andy Webster, Bryan Carruthers, Jeff Wheless
Research lead: Somioranjan Mekap
Published: February 2025

As capital projects grow in scale and complexity, the industry faces mounting pressures—from supply chain disruptions to regulatory demands and net-zero commitments. Yet, only 6% of companies consistently deliver their projects on time and under budget, achieving up to 30% cost savings. What sets them apart? Our research reveals four priority actions: 1) turn insight into foresight; 2) manage diverse stakeholders; 3) embrace ESG beyond compliance; and 4) build and sustain critical skills.

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Blueprint for Success

As capital projects grow in scale and complexity, the industry ...

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Designing Autonomous Enterprises for Industry 5.0

Authors: Max Blanchet

Across industries, organizations are at an inflection point. For more than a century, they have been built on two primary assets: labor and capital. Now, a third has emerged—data intelligence. Real-time data flows, AI agents and the embedded knowledge they generate are rapidly becoming the foundations of autonomous activities that create value. This new asset class is forcing leaders to rethink not just how their companies operate, but how they are organized, led and governed.

Autonomy is not automation. While automation executes predefined tasks, autonomy (enabled by AI) perceives context, analyzes situations, makes decisions and acts—without human intervention. Autonomy reorganizes decision-making itself, shifting away from human bottlenecks and toward intelligent systems that operate at speed and scale.

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Designing Autonomous Enterprises for Industry 5.0

This article explores how organizations can transition to autonomous enterprises by combining AI, robotics and IoT in ways that augment human capabilities ...

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Industry - Resources 

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Powered for Change 2025

Authors: Stephanie Jamison, Rob Hopkin, Lasse Kari
Research lead: Lasse Kari
Published: July 2025

Industrial decarbonization is currently costly, fragmented
and slow. Most projects still follow one-off, bespoke models,
which hinder scalability and compound risk. Accenture’s
research shows 90% of projects lack repeatability, and only
10% benefit from shared teams or infrastructure. The solution?
A multigenerational approach: Shifting to modular, standardized
systems that build learning across deployments. AI and gen AI
can supercharge this by embedding institutional knowledge and
optimizing decisions at scale. With four key levers—resilient
supply chains, stakeholder alignment, talent reinvention and
digital integration—companies can accelerate execution and
capture long-term value in a volatile, net-zero economy. This
collection was created in close collaboration with Accenture’s
Marketing and Communications team.

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Powered for Change 2025

Industrial decarbonization is currently costly, fragmented
and slow. Most projects still follow one-off, bespoke models,
which hinder scalability and compound risk. Accenture’s...

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Explore to ore
How data and AI can radically tighten the mineral exploration lifecycle

Authors: Liv Carrol, Dr. Bernd Elser, Sachin Kumar Chaudhary
Research lead: Sachin Kumar Chaudhary
Published: April 2025

Discoveries of new mineral deposits are less frequent, while
exploration timelines have extended significantly. It now takes
about 40% longer, on average, than it did just 15 years ago to
get from discovery to production. As companies seek to
“tighten,” or shorten their exploration lifecycles, artificial
intelligence offers invaluable possibilities to help firms
discover economic deposits faster and at lower cost. This
report identifies three priorities—invest more, become
data-ready and refocus talent and skilling strategies—that
would enable exploration companies to realize the value of AI.

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Explore to ore

Discoveries of new mineral deposits are less frequent, while
exploration timelines have extended significantly. It now takes about 40% longer, on average, than...

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The future of demand
Opportunities for chemicals to capture growth

Authors: Dr. Bernd Elser, Serge Lhoste, Sachin Kumar Chaudhary
Research lead: Dr. Karin Walczyk
Published: March 2025

Our research shows that demand for sustainability-related chemical products will grow 4.5x faster than for conventional products. Given changing demand and the fact that price premiums for sustainability-related chemical products may not be shared across the value chain, chemical companies will need to revise how they go to market, from creating new value propositions to applying new business models. We identified three key actions to help companies succeed in this fast- changing landscape: 1) accelerate innovation by reinventing R&D, based on digital, data and AI; 2) develop and communicate a compelling value proposition, including traceability and transparency; 3) build value-chain partnerships.

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The future of demand

Our research shows that demand for sustainability-related chemical products will grow 4.5x faster than for conventional products. Given changing demand and the fact that price premiums for sustainability...

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Power 2 people
5 commitments to support residential
customers in their energy transition

Research lead: Saad Tazi
Published: June 2025

The EU’s residential energy transition remains uneven because of structural barriers like cost, complexity and digital exclusion. A 2024 survey across 12 member states found that while 80% of consumers take actions to reduce their environmental impact, only 5% own an electric vehicle and just 3.3% generate and sell their own electricity. Upfront costs remain the top hurdle. In response, Eurelectric outlines five commitments— ranging from consumer empowerment to demand flexibility— supported by policy reforms and supplier innovation. With two in three consumers open to flexible tariffs, unlocking demand- side engagement could accelerate electrification and lower bills by up to 45%.

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Power 2 people

The EU’s residential energy transition remains uneven because of structural barriers like cost, complexity and digital exclusion. A 2024 survey across 12 member states found that while...

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Growth and sustainable products with biomass-based chemicals

Authors: Holger Vegelan, Felix Schröder
Research lead: Karin Walczyk
Published: November 2024

Demand for sustainability-related chemical products will increase by about 70% from 2023 to 2028, with a compound annual growth rate of 11%, according to previous research by Accenture. To help meet this demand, chemical companies should consider using “biomass” organic waste materials to make low-carbon chemicals. Our latest research shows that chemical companies can capitalize on the promising, sustainability-oriented market by focusing on five key actions: 1) leverage 2G biomass to produce eco-friendly chemicals; 2) invest in platform molecule production to decrease costs; 3) establish remote modular plants in markets near biomass sources; 4) collaborate for sustainable biomass management; and 5) encourage increased recycling rates and invest in recycling capabilities.

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Growth and sustainable products with biomass-based chemicals

Demand for sustainability-related chemical products will increase by about 70% from 2023 to 2028, with...

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The future of demand for chemicals

Publisher: CHEManager
Authors: Bernd Elser
Published: March 2025

The chemical industry is seeing a major shift toward sustainability, with demand for sustainability-related chemical products growing 4.5x faster than conventional ones. This trend is driven by consumer preferences and companies across industries aligning their offerings. To capitalize on this opportunity, chemical companies must revise how they go to market, from value propositions to business models.

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The future of demand for chemicals

The chemical industry is seeing a major shift toward sustainability, with demand for sustainability-related chemical products growing...

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Industry - Comms, Media and Technology

Industry - CMT

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Reinvent for growth: The signals shaping media’s next chapter

Authors: John Peters, Stuart Green, Giovanni Francesco (Gianfranco) Sorace, Neeraj S. Sharma, Geoff Pangman, Mark Flynn, Swati Vyas, Samyukta Mallapragada
Research lead: Swati Vyas
Published: February 2026

The media industry is at an inflection point. While a handful of players have made bold structural moves, many transformation efforts remain incremental—just as consumer behaviors, industry economics, and disruptive technologies continue to shift at speed.

To better understand what’s changing and what it means for growth, Accenture analyzed insights from its global consumer research alongside a first-of-its-kind survey of media executives across the value chain. What emerged was a set of clear signals—revealing where value is expanding, where legacy approaches are under strain, and where leaders are struggling to translate ambition into action.

These Signals that Matter are not predictions. They are evidence-based indicators of how the industry is already evolving—and where momentum is building next.


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Reinvent for growth: The signals shaping media’s next chapter

The media industry is at an inflection point. While a handful of players have made bold structural...

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Artificial Intelligence in Media, Entertainment and Sport
Transformation of Industries in the Age of AI

Author: Francesco Venturini, Kathryn White Krumpholz, Matteo Orsenigo, Swati Vyas
Research lead: Swati Vyas
Published: January 2025

Gen AI is profoundly transforming the media, entertainment and sport industry by accelerating content creation, enhancing personalization and reshaping monetization strategies. Our research in collaboration with AI Governance Alliance and The
World Economic Forum shows that the key challenge lies in managing risks around misinformation, IP rights, workforce disruption and data governance. Adoption is growing fast— 92% of creators report using genAI in some capacity, up from 34% in late 2023—yet 90% feel they aren’t using it to its full potential. Gen AI can boost creative productivity by 25% and reduce editors’ work time by 72%. To unlock its full value, the report recommends ethical frameworks, robust infrastructure and multistakeholder collaboration that ensures responsible, inclusive and scalable adoption.

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Artificial Intelligence in Media, Entertainment and Sport

Gen AI is profoundly transforming the media, entertainment and sport industry by accelerating content creation, enhancing...

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From data debt to enterprise intelligence

Authors: Francesco Venturini, Boris Maurer, Davide Bellini, Marco Grigoletti, Mathangi Sandilya, Andrew Lanktree, Swati Vyas, Andrea Orlando
Research lead: Swati Vyas
Published: August 2025

Telcos entered the AI era believing years of cloud, data and platform investment had prepared them for reinvention. Yet beneath that ambition sits data debt: fragmented, low-quality information that leaves nearly 80% not ready to become data-first, AI-driven businesses, while data teams spend 62% of their time cleaning instead of analyzing. The tension is rising because 84% of enterprise executives still see telcos as key gen AI partners. The breakthrough, the report argues, is to treat data as a strategic asset, build AI-native fabric-and-mesh architectures and use gen AI itself to automate metadata, improve quality and unlock faster growth enterprise-wide.

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From data debt to enterprise intelligence

Telcos entered the AI era believing years of cloud, data and platform investment had prepared them for reinvention. Yet beneath that ambition sits data debt...

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The Strategic Role of Telecom Providers Across the AI Value Chain

Author: Boris Maurer
Research lead: Swati Vyas
Published: March 2026

Telecommunications companies (telcos) stand at a structural inflection point. While enabling the digital economy, telcos have only captured a fraction of the value. Artificial intelligence (AI) and geopolitical forces now drive a reallocation of where data, compute and trust sit – and with that, a redefinition of telcos’ relevance.

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The Strategic Role of Telecom Providers Across the AI Value Chain

Telecommunications companies (telcos) stand at a structural inflection point. While enabling the digital economy, telcos have only captured...

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A renaissance for connectivity
How telcos can create new value in the AI economy

Authors: Francesco Venturini, Boris Maurer, Astha Bhardwaj
Research lead: Swati Vyas
Published: July 2025

Telcos stand at a once-in-a-decade inflection point as enterprises race to embed AI across operations. In our survey of 1,200+ leaders, 73% rank telcos among their top three providers for integrated B2B solutions, with 81% preferring them for sovereign AI adoption and 70% for AI-ready data centers. Yet nearly half of enterprises are dissatisfied with current telco offerings, citing gaps in connectivity, portfolios and execution. To seize the AI economy, telcos must transform from bandwidth providers into platform orchestrators. They should build integrated connectivity-cloud-edge-AI infrastructure, adopt outcome-based business models and reshape talent and operations to deliver enterprise-grade intelligence at scale.

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A renaissance for connectivity

Telcos stand at a once-in-a-decade inflection point as enterprises race to embed AI across operations. In our survey of 1,200+ ...

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From lead to cash: Simplify and scale with revenue ops

Authors: Prem Ananthakrishnan, Christian Kelly, Paul Johnson
Research lead: Paul Johnson
Published: January 2025

Only 6% of software and technology companies have reached a scaling level of RevOps maturity even as 75% of high-growth companies are expected to adopt the RevOps model by 2026. Progress is slow because teams remain siloed, data is often unreliable and leadership support tends to be inconsistent. We introduce a RevOps Maturity Framework that evaluates how well companies are advancing across the core pillars of people, process and technology. With clearer roles, betterintegrated systems and smarter use of AI, businesses can simplify operations and accelerate the lead-to-cash cycle, unlocking stronger performance and real, sustained growth.

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From lead to cash: Simplify and scale with revenue ops

Only 6% of software and technology companies have reached a scaling level of RevOps maturity even as 75% of high-growth...

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Industry – Products

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Artificial intelligence in aerospace and defense

Authors: Tim White, John H. Schmit
Research lead: Edward Blomquist, Jeff Wheless
Published: June 2025

The Aerospace and Defense (A&D) industry is facing significant capacity challenges hindering its ability to meet soaring demand. Commercial aerospace alone has a global backlog of 17,000 aircraft. Additional challenges like supply chain bottlenecks and technical debt are leading executives to seek alternative technology solutions to improve process efficiency. Talent challenges and rising turnover rates pose further complications. This paper, written in collaboration with the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) explains how A&D companies can address these challenges and realize increased manufacturing capacity by leveraging a step change increase in AI and automation by building a strong digital foundation, embedding AI into operational processes at scale and establishing an AI-ready workforce.

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Artificial intelligence in aerospace and defense

The Aerospace and Defense (A&D) industry is facing significant capacity challenges hindering its ability to meet soaring demand. Commercial aerospace...

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Defense disrupted: New players, new pressures, new possibilities
International defense insight report

Authors: John Schmidt, Patrice Barbier
Research lead: Jeff Wheless
Published: June 2025

The defense industry is at an inflection point. As geopolitical tensions mount and procurement priorities shift, established players and new entrants alike face mounting pressure to adapt. Accenture’s second annual International Defense Insight Report reveals that 89% of executives surveyed in North America and 87% in Europe see significant changes in military requirements—driven by AI, autonomous systems and rising demand for sovereign defense capabilities. Both incumbents and startups struggle to scale, stymied by legacy inertia or regulatory hurdles. Strategic partnerships—cited by 49% as essential—offer a path forward. The report charts a course for resilience through collaboration.

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Defense disrupted: New players, new pressures, new possibilities

The defense industry is at an inflection point. As geopolitical tensions mount and procurement priorities shift, established...

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Navigating uncertain skies
Commercial aerospace insight report

Authors: John Schmidt, Patrice Barbier
Research lead: Abhishek Kumar
Published: April 2025

Securities exchanges worldwide are under pressure. The traditional business of exchanges (notably listings and trading services) saw profit margins collapse by almost 80% over the past 10 years. Many established exchanges are also dealing with operational efficiency challenges stemming from outdated infrastructure. To navigate these and other challenges, exchanges need to take four critical steps: 1) design a simpler, fully integrated and modernized technology architecture; 2) turn this new architecture into reality with cloud; 3) harness the power of gen AI and distributed ledger technology to bolster client experiences and operational efficiency; and 4) tap new sources of revenue through product innovation and nontraditional services.

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Navigating uncertain skies

Despite macroeconomic volatility and fresh geopolitical risks, commercial aerospace is on track for recovery, supported by long-term backlogs and rising aftermarket...

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The $86 billion wake-up call for beauty brands
How changing consumer preferences impact the true cost of innovation

Authors: Nick Benson
Research lead: Gayathri Thampi
Published: March 2025

The beauty industry is under pressure. While consumer preferences shift rapidly, most brands remain trapped in legacy operating models, with 59% taking over a year to react to market changes. The result? A potential $86 billion in unrealized revenue. Co-published by Atelier and Accenture, this report introduces a strategic alternative: composable manufacturing. By leveraging AI, digital twins and modular networks, companies can cut product development cycles from 18 months to three. Early adopters are already seeing 2x margin uplifts and double-digit growth. Agility, not scale, is now the differentiator—and those who fail to reinvent risk being left behind.

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The $86 billion wake-up call for beauty brands

The beauty industry is under pressure. While consumer preferences shift rapidly, most brands remain trapped in legacy operating models, with 59% taking...

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Space for growth
Why every company has a stake in the new space economy

Authors: John Schmidt, Paul Thomas
Research lead: Jeff Wheless
Published: March 2025

As Earth-bound industries grapple with volatility and complexity, a new frontier is opening up for them. This report reveals that over 80% of executives view space-based technologies as vital to revenue growth—yet only 18% have integrated them at scale. From real-time satellite imaging to autonomous supply chains, space is already transforming sectors from agriculture to energy. But barriers like cost, talent gaps and fragmented ecosystems persist. To close the intent-to-action gap, companies must define a space strategy, build digital skills and activate partnerships. The message is clear: In the new space economy, every business has a stake.

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Space for growth

As Earth-bound industries grapple with volatility and complexity, a new frontier is opening up for them. This report reveals that over 80% of executives view space-based technologies...

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Rethinking the course to manufacturing’s future

Authors: Patrick Vollmer, Enno Danke, Stefan Hattula, Matthias Wahrendorff, Jeff Wheless
Research lead: Jeff Wheless
Published: March 2025

The future of manufacturing has started to take shape. Accenture’s global survey of 552 factory managers reveals that 53% expect autonomous operations by 2040, yet only 38% are currently building toward hyper-automated factories. The report outlines how today’s focus on incremental automation and digital maturity is misaligned with tomorrow’s competitive edge. A looming workforce gap of 3.8 million jobs in the US alone underscores the urgency of reskilling and AI integration. To close the gap, manufacturers must act across four enablers— workforce, automation, AI and digitalization—and shift from static systems to orchestrated, self-optimizing ecosystems.

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Rethinking the course to manufacturing’s future

The future of manufacturing has started to take shape. Accenture’s global survey of 552 factory managers reveals that 53% expect autonomous operations...

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In the retail-led future of airlines, the sky’s the limit

Authors: Mike Tansey, Carsten Weisse, Tuba Guclu, Sankar Subramaniam
Research leads: Neha Sansanwal, Utsav Mahajan
Published: February 2025

Airlines stand to gain billions in untapped revenue from modernized offer, order, settle and deliver (OOSD) systems. Despite the potential, the complexities involved in transitioning from legacy systems to modern retailing platforms are slowing progress. To capture the full value at stake, airlines must adopt a holistic approach for success through a new, agile and data-driven operating model.

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In the retail-led future of airlines, the sky’s the limit

Airlines stand to gain billions in untapped revenue from modernized offer, order, settle and deliver (OOSD) systems. Despite the potential, the complexities...

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2025 state of the industry report

Authors: Liselotte de Maar, Fannelie Gerard, Samarjit Pattanaik
Research lead: Sankar Subramaniam
Published: January 2025

The US hotel industry is entering a phase of cautious growth as travel demand stabilizes and operational costs rise, challenging traditional revenue models. While 2025 occupancy rates are projected at 63.38%, still shy of pre-pandemic highs, guest spending is expected to reach a record $777.25 billion. Workforce shortages remain a top concern, with 64.9% of hoteliers still reporting staffing issues. To drive future growth, this joint report by Accenture and the American Hotel and Lodging Association recommends expanding into new guest segments, diversifying revenue streams beyond overnight stays and embracing gen AI to rebuild trust and personalize experiences. These strategies empower brands to meet evolving traveler expectations with innovation and resilience.

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2025 state of the industry report

The US hotel industry is entering a phase of cautious growth as travel demand stabilizes and operational costs rise, challenging traditional revenue models...

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Industry – Financial Services

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Unconstrained Banking​

Published: December 2025
Authors: Michael Abbot, Sulabh Agarwal, Brian Shniderman
Research lead: Francesca Caminiti

Accenture’s Top Banking Trends 2026 report positions banking at an inflection point, as long-standing constraints on growth, cost, technology and capacity begin to dissolve. Drawing on multiple executive and consumer surveys, economic modeling and global client work, the report identifies forces reshaping the industry across six areas: money, experience, work and talent, technology, risk and regulation, and competition. It highlights how digital currencies, tokenization and agentic payments could shift up to $13 trillion in transaction value by 2030, placing $13 billion in payment fees at risk. It shows how agentic AI can decouple growth from headcount, enabling “10× banks” with sharply higher productivity. The report also warns that rising tech debt, fragmented risk oversight and intensifying competition threaten profitability, with more than $200 trillion in global deposits and loans exposed to disruption. Together, the trends provide a practical roadmap for banks to modernize, manage risk holistically and compete in an AI-first future.

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Unconstrained Banking

Accenture’s Top Banking Trends 2026 report positions banking at an inflection point, as long-standing constraints on growth, cost, technology and capacity begin to dissolve. Drawing on multiple...

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Underwriting rewritten
Harnessing the power of gen AI for data-driven risk management

Research lead: Michael Reilly, Matthew Madsen, Teifion James
Research lead: Juan Demarchi
Published: July 2025

Underwriting is set for reinvention as insurers rapidly scale AI and Gen AI. Accenture’s survey of 430 executives shows adoption climbing from 14% today to 70% within three years, with 81% expecting new roles and efficiency gains. Challenges include siloed data, heavy reliance on PDFs and limited synthetic (44%) and structured data (38%) use, especially in life insurance. External pressures—regulation (77%), technology change (68%) and customer expectations (67%)—intensify the need for change. To capture full value, insurers must deploy agentic AI, redesign workflows for human-AI collaboration and invest in skills, ensuring underwriting evolves into a faster, smarter, data-driven function.

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Underwriting rewritten

Underwriting is set for reinvention as insurers rapidly scale AI and Gen AI. Accenture’s survey of 430 executives shows adoption climbing from 14% today to 70% within three years, with...

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Getting past the transformation euphemism
How insurance outperformers tackle change and deliver sustainable results

Published: June 2025
Authors: Jeff Mitch, Kenneth Salddanha, Khalid Lahraouri
Research lead: Andre Schlieker

This report shows that insurance outperformers achieve results through disciplined execution rather than broad “transformation” rhetoric. Over two years, they outpaced peers by 8.1 percentage points in premium revenues and 2.6 points in expense ratio reduction. Top change drivers are technological advances and product innovation, both cited by 61% of insurers. Outperformers emphasize automation (82%), digitization (79%) and operating model streamlining (55%), significantly above peers. Yet many insurers face transformation fatigue, technical debt, and only 15% believe savings are sustainable. The report concludes sustainable success requires clarity, purpose and disciplined alignment of change with measurable business outcomes.

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Getting past the transformation euphemism

This report shows that insurance outperformers achieve results through disciplined execution rather than broad “transformation”...

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Banking consumer study 2025
Where is the love?

Authors: Michael Abbott, Kim Kim Oon, Antonio Coppolecchia, Mauro Centonze
Research lead: Mauro Centonze
Published: March 2025

To differentiate and grow, banks must turn customers into advocates who recommend their services. Accenture’s study identifies four advocacy drivers: reassuring customers that their financial well-being matters, remembering unique needs, delighting them with valued interactions and rewarding loyalty in tailored ways. Banks with the highest advocacy scores see 1.7x faster revenue growth than those with the lowest scores, with higher growth seen in North America (2.6x).

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Banking consumer study 2025

To differentiate and grow, banks must turn customers into advocates who recommend their services. Accenture’s study identifies four advocacy drivers: reassuring...

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Elevating the exchange
Your guide to bringing digital infrastructure to the next level

Authors:  Oscar Garcia, Schira Lillis
Research lead: Schira Lillis
Published: February 2025

Securities exchanges worldwide are under pressure. The traditional business of exchanges (notably listings and trading services) saw profit margins collapse by almost 80% over the past 10 years. Many established exchanges are also dealing with operational efficiency challenges stemming from outdated infrastructure. To navigate these and other challenges, exchanges need to take four critical steps: 1) design a simpler, fully integrated and modernized technology architecture; 2) turn this new architecture into reality with cloud; 3) harness the power of gen AI and distributed ledger technology to bolster client experiences and operational efficiency; and 4) tap new sources of revenue through product innovation and nontraditional services.

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Elevating the exchange

Securities exchanges worldwide are under pressure. The traditional business of exchanges (notably listings and trading services) saw profit margins collapse by almost 80% over...

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Powering wealth management with generative AI

Authors: Saira Shariff
Research lead: Matthew Bonshak
Published: February 2025

Gen AI is poised to transform North American wealth management by enabling hyper-personalized services, smarter investment strategies and stronger client relationships. Accenture’s survey of 500 financial advisors shows 96% see gen AI as a game changer, and 97% expect major impact within three years. Yet only 41% of firms are scaling adoption, creating a first-mover advantage. The report urges firms to move beyond experimentation and embed AI into core strategy. Key blockers—legacy tech, poor data and client trust—must be addressed. Recommendations include investing in modern data infrastructure, fostering transparency and embedding responsible AI practices to ensure trust and a sustained competitive edge.

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Powering wealth management with generative AI

Gen AI is poised to transform North American wealth management by enabling hyper-personalized services, smarter investment...

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Banking: The future is back
Trends shaping the industry in 2025 and beyond

Authors: Michael Abbott
Research lead: Dariusz Orynek
Published: January 2025

The report reveals that while digitization boosted efficiency, it also left banking impersonal—over 40% of consumers struggle to distinguish brands and only 29% are “very satisfied” with chatbot interactions. Now, gen AI is set to transform banking by restoring personalization and deepening trust. The report outlines 10 key shifts, including AI-powered customer experiences, a surge in private credit—growing 20% annually— and the dominance of scale, with larger banks consistently showing higher price-to-book ratios. Platforms like Nubank serve over 100 million users at just $2/month in operating costs. Banks must move from siloed products to customer-first ecosystems, adopt open-source and cloud-native infrastructure and modernize legacy code using AI. The future lies in combining tech with empathy to become true financial partners.

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Banking: The future is back

The report reveals that while digitization boosted efficiency, it also left banking impersonal—over 40% of consumers struggle to distinguish brands and only 29% ...

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Universal wallet infrastructure
Setting the stage for truly user-centric business models

Authors: Tejas Patel, Pooja Sanghvi, Michael Klein, Marie Wallace, John Lee
Research lead: Shruti Shalini
Published: January 2025

Today’s digital world is fragmented. Consumers manage multiple wallets, platforms and identities, while businesses struggle to deliver trust-based, personalized services. This white paper by Accenture and NTT Digital proposes a new model— the Universal Wallet Infrastructure (UWI)—to address these issues. UWI is a secure, interoperable system where users control their identity, money and digital assets through a single wallet. Powered by tokenization, verifiable credentials and AI agents, it enables consent-driven data exchange, streamlines processes and unlocks hyper-personalized experiences. More than a wallet, UWI is the infrastructure for a user-centric digital economy—connecting individuals, businesses and ecosystems in trusted, intelligent and scalable ways.

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Universal wallet infrastructure

Today’s digital world is fragmented. Consumers manage multiple wallets, platforms and identities, while businesses struggle to deliver trust-based, personalized...

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A new legacy of payments growth

Authors: Sulabh Agarwal, Ryan McQueen, Kimberly Kacal, Brian Shniderman, Edlayne Burr, Hannes Fourie
Research lead: Hannes Fourie
Published: December 2024

Banks face fierce competition from fintechs, bigtechs and new players like central banks and telecoms. Yet, they can unlock a $55 billion growth opportunity by modernizing payments with a strong digital core. Accenture’s study of 326 banking executives highlights four key actions: move from one-off to continuous modernization, invest in digital core infrastructure, tackle technical debt and embrace gen AI. Leading banks— those with high digital core maturity—have already captured $14 billion in benefits and expect a 2% increase in payments profitability by 2025. They outperform peers with advanced AI, seamless integration and faster innovation cycles. Case studies from Nationwide, DBS and VeloBank show how tech investments reduce costs, speed up deployments and transform payments.

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A new legacy of payments growth

Banks face fierce competition from fintechs, bigtechs and new players like central banks and telecoms. Yet, they can unlock a $55 billion growth opportunity by...

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Foresight Notes

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Steel's next R&D advantage
How materials informatics can accelerate the development of special grades

Contributors: Mithilesh Kumar, Dhiraj Kumar Pandey, Manish Kumar and Sunny Sankit
Published: September 2026​

The energy transition is placing new demands on steel, as emerging applications call for grades with different performance and sustainability characteristics. Steel R&D, however, still relies heavily on slow, trial-based development cycles that can leave new grades lagging behind customer needs. To keep pace, steelmakers should explore materials informatics, which uses data science and AI to learn from decades of experimental knowledge and develop new grades faster.

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Steel's next R&D advantage

The energy transition is placing new demands on steel, as emerging applications call for grades with different performance and sustainability...

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The proof problem with synthetic media
Why companies must fix how they verify content

Contributors: Shubhashis Sengupta, Ben McCarty, Milind Savagaonkar and Rhine Andotra
Published: May 2026​

The spread of generative and other types of AI makes it easier to impersonate people and fabricate convincing content. As a result, companies will increasingly be asked to show where synthetic media comes from and who approved it. Organizations that respond with clear records will resolve questions about authenticity faster and be less likely to act on false or manipulated information.

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The proof problem with synthetic media

The spread of generative and other types of AI makes it easier to impersonate people and fabricate convincing content. As a result, companies will increasingly...

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The new third layer of connectivity
What high-altitude platforms mean for visibility and decisions as operations move by land, sea and air

Contributors: Sankar Subramaniam, Amal Sebastian and Aditi Abhijeet
Published: May 2026

A high share of business operations take place in transit, where traditional networks provide only intermittent visibility. High-altitude platforms (HAPs) promise a way to maintain continuous coverage across routes, changing how quickly companies can monitor and respond to what’s happening. Companies that identify where visibility matters most for them can begin to test and apply HAPs selectively to improve their operations as the technology scales.

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The new third layer of connectivity

A high share of business operations take place in transit, where traditional networks provide only intermittent visibility. High-altitude platforms (HAPs) promise...

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Decarbonizing chemicals at the source.
What it will take to move beyond fossil feedstocks

Authors: Dr. Karin Walczyk, Sachin Kumar Chaudhary, Mithilesh Kumar
Published: April 2026

The chemicals industry is often described as essential to modern life—and with good reason. Its materials sit inside packaging, construction materials, vehicles, electronics, fertilizers and
pharmaceuticals. Yet the industry still relies heavily on raw materials derived from oil and gas and contributes significantly to global emissions.

In this Foresight Note, we draw on our patent analysis and publicly available market data to examine where alternative feedstock options stand today. We calculate how much plastic waste can be converted into usable feedstock, as well as how wide the cost gap remains compared with oil and gas. We also explain why hydrogen pricing matters for CCU and how digital systems can improve plant and materials performance. And we close with five actions that chemical producers should consider.

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Decarbonizing chemicals at the source.

The chemicals industry is often described as essential to modern life—and with good reason. Its materials sit inside packaging, construction materials, vehicles, electronics...

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Making blockchain work in mining
Why traceability is the next strategic edge

Authors: Dhiraj Kumar Pandey, Reshu Rathi
Published: April 2026

Mining companies face increasing pressure to demonstrate where their materials come from and how they’re handled as they move through global supply chains. Blockchain can help companies provide that proof by creating shared records that follow minerals from extraction to end use and reduce reliance on fragmented reporting systems. But for blockchain to deliver on its promise, mining companies will need to connect the technology to legacy systems, expand its use gradually, manage energy demands and address legal and data challenges.

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Making blockchain work in mining

Mining companies face increasing pressure to demonstrate where their materials come from and how they’re handled as they move through global supply chains. Blockchain...

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Competing in the age of brain-computer interfaces
How to harness new human capabilities in a multipolar world

Authors: Pradeep Roy, Shachi Jain

Published: March 2026

Brain–computer interfaces are moving from clinical trials into commercial markets. As the United States and China advance competing models of innovation in this transformative technology, the rules around standards, regulation and governance are still being written. Companies that move now will be better positioned to thrive as this new layer of computing takes shape.

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Competing in the age of brain-computer interfaces

Brain–computer interfaces are moving from clinical trials into commercial markets. As the United States and China advance competing ...

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Why the CIO must lead reinvention in the age of AI
Transformation succeeds when a technology leader redesigns the enterprise

Authors: Tony Leraris, Steve Courtney, Surya Mukherjee
Published: March 2026

Every era of business reinvention has followed a familiar arc: a disruptive new technology appears, executives rally around the opportunities and innovation flourishes. That story has held true across decades—through computing, cloud and, now, artificial intelligence. But as the capabilities of generative AI surge ahead, a quiet but fundamental shift is underway.

This time, the center of gravity is not just the technology itself, but the leaders orchestrating its adoption. At the center of this shift stands the Chief Information Officer. We spoke with 20 senior technology leaders—from CIOs to transformation leads—at some of the world’s most ambitious and complex enterprises. We also compared notes with Accenture’s own CIO organization. What we discovered surprised us.

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Why the CIO must lead reinvention in the age of AI

Every era of business reinvention has followed a familiar arc: a disruptive new technology appears, executives rally around the opportunities...

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The new shape of corporate growth
How regions and industries are diverging—and who’s pulling ahead

Authors: Himanshu Patney, Francis Hintermann
Published: February 2025

Corporate growth is returning, but many companies are still expanding without creating meaningful value. Our analysis shows that performance varies widely across regions, industries and company size. Amid these differences, a small group of “outperformers” shows what it takes to turn growth into real value.

Our analysis was supported by a proprietary AI agent, developed by Accenture Research, that continuously monitors the financial performance of more than 6,000 companies worldwide; in 2024, each of these companies had revenues of over $500 million. We used the Capital Asset Pricing Model to calculate the industry-specific weighted average cost of capital (WACC). Our valuation analysis split enterprise value into two components: 1) current
value, which reflects the perpetuity value of current operations; and 2) future value, which captures the market expectations embedded in current enterprise value.

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The new shape of corporate growth

Corporate growth is returning, but many companies are still expanding without creating meaningful value. Our analysis shows that performance varies widely...

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Enterprise security is being rewritten by AI and quantum
Here’s how leaders can strengthen their organization’s defenses

Authors: Yusof Seedat, Shachi Jain
Published: January 2026

AI is altering how enterprise security works, while advances in quantum computing threaten the long-term viability of current cryptography. Because these changes are unfolding faster than most executives realize, many organizations underestimate the risks they face and are not yet prepared to manage them. Our research shows that leaders should prioritize four steps to keep their companies safe—and thriving—in the coming years.

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Enterprise security is being rewritten by AI and quantum

AI is altering how enterprise security works, while advances in quantum computing threaten the long-term viability of current cryptography...

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AI meets quantum
The compute ceiling no one sees

Authors: Laura G. Converso, H. James Wilson,
Dr. Shubhashis Sengupta
Published: August 2025

Executives are investing heavily in AI while gradually preparing
for quantum, but the real breakthrough will come from fusing
both technologies into hybrid systems. As AI models hit
compute limits, especially in areas like molecule simulation
where delays can cost up to $1 million per day, organizations
face growing inefficiencies and diminishing returns. The
resolution lies in adopting quantum-AI hybrid architectures that
blend classical, GPU and quantum processors, cutting time-tosolution by up to 20x in early-stage trials. The report
recommends building hybrid fluency, launching pilots in
high-complexity areas and forming partnerships to unlock
competitive advantage from this convergence.

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AI meets quantum

Executives are investing heavily in AI while gradually preparing
for quantum, but the real breakthrough will come from fusing both technologies into hybrid systems...

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Artificial general intelligence
A shift in systems, not just a leap in capability

Authors: H. James Wilson, Shubhashis Sengupta, Shruti Shalini
Published: July 2025

Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) represents a shift in how
strategic decisions are made, as AI systems grow more
capable of reasoning, adapting and acting with minimal
oversight. The complication is that as these systems become
more autonomous, traditional governance, regulation and
accountability models begin to break down. This Foresight Note
calls for anticipatory governance and redesigned operational
models that embed flexibility, ethics and control into AI
adoption strategies. With AGI projected to add $7 trillion to
global GDP and raise productivity growth by 1.5 percentage
points, clients must prepare for judgment at scale by rethinking
leadership, workforce design and technology governance.

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Artificial general intelligence

Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) represents a shift in how
strategic decisions are made, as AI systems grow more
capable of reasoning, adapting and...

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Scaling clean hydrogen for the green industrial transitionion

Authors: Dominic King and Dibyajyoti Dash
Published: July 2025

Clean hydrogen plays a critical role in decarbonizing heavy
industry and large-scale transport by offering a zero-emission
alternative in sectors where few exist. High costs, limited
infrastructure and stalled projects continue to hold back its
potential. Falling production costs, emerging technologies and
stronger policy support now offer a clear path to scale. Global
hydrogen demand reached 97 million tons in 2023, but clean
hydrogen made up only 0.7 million tons. Leaders need to act
now to shape standards, pricing and infrastructure that can
move clean hydrogen from pilot to global commercial viability.

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Scaling clean hydrogen for the green industrial transitionion

Clean hydrogen plays a critical role in decarbonizing heavy
industry and large-scale transport by offering a zero-emission...

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Call me Alex
How to build loyalty with customers and AI in the agent economy

Authors: Joshua B. Bellin, H. James Wilson
Published: June 2025

AI-powered Personal Autonomous Agents (PAAs) now research,
negotiate and make decisions on behalf of consumers. As
customers increasingly rely on their own agents, brands have
new opportunities to engage through both emotional and
algorithmic resonance. Leading companies build transparency,
optimize for AI preferences, measure trustworthiness and
design systems that interact seamlessly with PAAs. By creating
adaptive front offices that shift intelligently between human
and agent interactions, businesses can enhance relevance and
responsiveness. In this evolving agent economy, those who
embrace collaboration with PAAs can deliver smarter, faster
and more personalized experiences, shaping a new standard
for customer relationships.

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Call me Alex

AI-powered Personal Autonomous Agents (PAAs) now research, negotiate and make decisions on behalf of consumers....

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Urban mining
How digital technologies can unlock trapped value in the circular economy

Authors: Dominic King, Dominique Lewis
Published: June 2025

As demand for critical minerals surges, urban mining offers a
powerful way to recover valuable materials from e-waste and
infrastructure. Yet technical barriers, economic inefficiencies
and low consumer engagement have stalled circular business
models. The report shows how digital technologies—like AI,
digital twins and blockchain—can overcome these challenges
by improving collection, disassembly and traceability. Recycling
could reduce demand for new copper, cobalt and lithium by
25–40% and cut mine development costs by 30% by 2050.

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Urban mining

As demand for critical minerals surges, urban mining offers a
powerful way to recover valuable materials from e-waste and
infrastructure...

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Intelligence Curve

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Where AI is actually earning its keep

Published: July 2026

As researchers, we live for the moments when a signal bubbles up out of the noise. For the work we do, this could be when a technology turns out to be quietly reshaping how an entire discipline works.

That was at the heart of why we built our emerging tech rankings. We wanted a holistic view of where the AI landscape was shifting, but also the ability to examine what that view might be leaving out: the gaps between what one community is building and what another is studying or buzzing about, at the very same moment.


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Where AI is actually earning its keep

Four months after our inaugural emerging tech ranking, we look at what shifted and what surprised us...

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Cyber resilience scales on machines. It succeeds with people

Published: July 2026

For nearly a decade, a central thread in our research has been the relationship between humans and machines. Time and time again, we’ve seen the organizations that pull ahead are the ones that figure out how humans and machines make each other better.

In 2018, when our colleagues Paul Daugherty, Accenture’s former technology officer, and Jim Wilson, Accenture Research’s global managing director of IT research, published Human + Machine, many people worried that AI would replace human workers. We presented a different view. The real opportunity lay in reimagining how humans and machines could collaborate. Each would do what the other couldn’t. That argument has been central to our research ever since. (One of Jim’s latest projects is an emerging technologies ranking that we explored in a previous Intelligence Curve issue. It tracks how ideas move from research to real-world use before they surface in the market. Look out for the latest iteration of the rankings in our next edition.)


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Cyber resilience scales on machines. It succeeds with people

The organizations that prove most resilient are the ones that solve the human + machine equation....

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What happens when the checkout window goes away?

Published: July 2026

In a recent edition, we introduced the idea of agentic commerce and what it means when AI agents acting on behalf of consumers find, evaluate and choose brands. We explored how the agent layer is reshaping discovery and brand visibility and why connecting with a machine requires a form of trust that machines and humans earn in different ways.

This edition goes deeper into what happens at the moment of purchase and what it means for the loyalty businesses have spent years building.

A simple way to think about what’s changing is to consider how you pay for something today. When you shop online, you probably already know how you’re going to settle up. You add your items to the basket, head to checkout and select your card, Apple Pay or even points, press “place order,” et voila. One to three business days later you’ll receive your package.


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What happens when the checkout window goes away?

As AI agents take over more of customers’ purchase journey, the loyalty and trust that businesses spent years building will face a new kind of test...

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Organizations that earn trust in AI build it in from the start

Published: June 2026

Something interesting happens when you talk about AI to different audiences. I have been on stage twice this month—once in Europe, once in New York—and I spotted subtle differences. Not in the questions exactly, but in the mood. The anxieties were different. The appetite was different. What struck me, though, is that underneath all of it, people were asking the same thing: can we trust this?

Part of what makes that question so charged is what AI systems actually are. They speak in human language. They take actions that look like human decisions. They learn from how we use them.

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Organizations that earn trust in AI build it in from the start

Why governance is now a growth strategy, starting with the architecture behind the agents...

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The probability stack could redefine what's possible

Published: June 2026

In business, management guidelines are based around the idea that the right answer exists and the job of a leader is to find it. It’s a worldview the French philosopher René Descartes would have recognized: reason as the path to certainty, logic as the ultimate guide.

Our technology followed the same logic. The computers are viewed as “certainty machines.” They operate on fixed rules and deterministic outputs.

But there is a category of problems that this foundation was never built to handle. Not because the technology wasn’t good enough, but because, as in life, some problems don’t have a single right answer. They live in uncertainty. Demand that shifts without warning. Supply chains disrupted by events no model predicted. Drug molecules with thousands of possible configurations.

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The probability stack could redefine what's possible

Your competitive edge isn't just about having the right technology; it's also knowing which assumptions to test with that tech...

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Planning for multiple futures at once

Published: April 2026

There’s a tendency, in business and in life, to plan around what feels likely. The scenarios we outline and decisions we make are often built on patterns we’ve seen before. But the events that most profoundly influence our lives are often those we don’t fully prepare for, even when their consequences can be severe. In other terms it is critical to anticipate potential events with low probability and high impact.

Author Nassim Nicholas Taleb captured this idea in his book The Black Swan. He used the now famous example of a turkey that grows more confident in its safety with each passing day it’s fed and cared for. That is until it meets its Thanksgiving Day fate. His point was not just about unpredictability (from the bird’s point of view), but about how easily we rely on past experience to guide future decisions.



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Planning for multiple futures at once

Agentic AI is making real-time scenario planning accessible to any organization navigating uncertainty...

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What can emerging technologies tell us before they fully arrive?

Published: May 2026

Much of the conversation around emerging technology tends to focus on what’s most visible. The latest models, the newest applications, the breakthroughs that make headlines. These moments matter, but they’re often the result of changes that have been percolating for some time, out of view.

For those trying to understand where the curve is moving, the harder question isn’t just what’s happening now, but what signals are forming beneath the surface and how to interpret them before they become obvious.

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What can emerging technologies tell us before they fully arrive?

A new ranking tracks how ideas move from research to real-world use before they surface in the market...

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The AI skills reset

Published: April 2026

There’s a lot of discussion about how AI will change work, often focused at the level of jobs: What will be lost? What will be created? And while that conversation is important, it only captures part of what’s happening. What we’re seeing in the data is something more fundamental: The composition of work is changing.

I see this in the students I teach. They are quick to adopt AI and use it to expand what’s possible. At the same time, what matters most isn’t new. The ability to lead, exercise judgment and use creativity to solve problems remains central. If anything, these skills are becoming more important as AI becomes embedded in how work gets done.

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The AI skills reset..

By breaking work into its core components, leaders can develop a clearer, more precise view of where AI creates value and how to capture it.

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What executives can learn from their digital twins

Published: March 2026

Last year, I wrote about what I called a “Big Bang” moment in research. For decades, the process of generating insight followed a familiar pattern: define the question, design the survey, collect responses, analyze the results. It worked well, but it moved at the pace of weeks and months.

What caught my attention then was the emergence of agent-based research—using synthetic agents to simulate how leaders, consumers or employees might respond to a question. Insights could be generated within days, at greater scale and far lower cost.



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What executives can learn from their digital twins

The most valuable insights sometimes appear when human judgment and machine logic disagree...

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The next edge belongs to those who scale intelligence

Published: March 2026

Welcome to the first edition of Intelligence Curve. I’m Francis Hintermann. I lead Accenture Research, a global team that studies how markets shift, how new technologies reshape performance and how leaders translate insight into action.

I’ve spent much of my career studying how technologies evolve—how they rise, reshape markets and enable organizations to innovate and reach a higher level of performance. The “curve” has always been central to that work: understanding where we are in an arc of change and what comes next.

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The next edge belongs to those who scale intelligence

As capital reshuffles in the Age of AI, who is positioned to capture value?

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Accenture Research Live

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Talk to my AI agent

Speakers: Oliver Wright, Jen Ducarre, Juan Martinez
Published: August 2026

Join Juan Martinez (Senior Editor, Harvard Business Review), Jen Ducarre (Senior Manager, Accenture Research), and Oliver Wright (Senior Managing Director, Accenture) as they discuss how AI agents are reshaping consumer behavior and redefining brand value. Based on Accenture's latest Consumer Pulse Research, the conversation explores what business leaders need to know as AI moves from assisting consumers to making decisions on their behalf.

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Talk to my AI agent

Join Juan Martinez (Senior Editor, Harvard Business Review)...

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Agentic commerce: Make your brand unmissable

Speakers: Rajat Agarwal, Joshua Bellin, Juan Martinez
Published: July 2026

In this episode of the Accenture Research Executive Briefing, Juan Martinez, Senior Editor at Harvard Business Review, is joined by Rajat Agarwal, Senior Managing Director and Global Commerce Practice Lead at Accenture Song; and Joshua Bellin, Thought Leadership Research Lead at Accenture Song.

Together, they explore:
• The shift to agentic commerce: How AI agents are transforming commerce from search-driven transactions to intent-based experiences.
• A new audience for brands: Why businesses must prepare for a future where AI agents influence—and increasingly make—purchasing decisions.
• “Choice of agent” vs. “agent of choice”: How companies can win by being discoverable in AI ecosystems while building differentiated agent experiences of their own.

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Agentic commerce: Make your brand unmissable

In this episode of the Accenture Research Executive Briefing...

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The Skills Mismatch Economy

Speakers: Eric Bradlow, James Crowley, Selen Karaca-Griffin Juan Martinez
Published: April 2026

In this episode of the Accenture Research Executive Briefing, Juan Martinez, Senior Editor at Harvard Business Review, is joined by Eric Bradlow, Vice Dean of AI & Analytics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania; James Crowley, Global Products Industry Practices Chair at Accenture; and Selen Karaca-Griffin, Global Research Lead for Accenture Products and Life Sciences.

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The Skills Mismatch Economy

In this episode of the Accenture Research Executive Briefing, Juan Martinez, Senior Editor at Harvard Business Review, is joined by Eric..

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Top Banking Trends 2026

Speakers: Michael Abbot, Francesca Caminiti, Juan Martinez
Published: February 2026

Michael Abbot and Francesca Caminiti are joined by Harvard Business Review editor Juan Martinez to dive into the latest insights from Accenture’s Top Banking Trends 2026 report. They explore how generative AI, digital money, evolving customer experiences and new competitive dynamics are reshaping the future of banking.

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Top Banking Trends 2026

Michael Abbot and Francesca Caminiti are joined by Harvard...

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Sense-maker sessions 2.3: Francis Hintermann

Speakers: Francis Hintermann
Published: January 2026

Featuring content leaders from world-leading companies across professional services, telecoms, financial services and more, 'Sense-maker sessions: Content leaders' is a series of interviews with the major players in corporate thought leadership.

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Sense-maker sessions 2.3: Francis Hintermann

Featuring content leaders from world-leading...

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Generative AI in Practice
How It’s Reshaping Products, Work, and Organizations - BIG.AI@MIT 2026

Published: April 2026

The potential of gen AI is clear, but what does successful implementation actually look like?

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Generative AI in Practice

The potential of gen AI is clear, but what does successful implementation actually look like?

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Green backlash webinar v2

Published: July 2024

Matthew Robinson discusses green backlash at Financial Times Longitude event.

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Green backlash webinar v2

Matthew Robinson discusses green backlash at Financial Times Longitude event.

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Sovereign AI - Accenture Research Executive Briefing

Speakers: Mauro Capo, Surya Mukherjee, Juan Martinez
Published: February 2026

In this episode of the Accenture Research Executive Briefing, Juan Martinez, Senior Editor at Harvard Business Review, is joined by Mauro Capo, Accenture’s Europe Lead for Sovereign Cloud, and Surya Mukherjee, Global Sovereign AI Research Lead.

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Sovereign AI - Accenture Research Executive Briefing

In this episode of the Accenture Research...

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Build a new deal for workers

Contributors: Laurel Mikalouski and Reggie Romain
Published: October 2026

As work becomes less predictable, companies can no longer rely as heavily on job security and linear career progression to sustain their relationship with employees. Employability is becoming a more important part of the bargain: helping people build skills and experience that remain valuable as roles evolve, while giving companies a workforce better able to adapt as business needs change. Our research shows that leaders should prioritize three actions to help build this new deal for workers.

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Build a new deal for needs a reset workers

Why employability belongs at the center of
see the full picture today’s employee value proposition

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The uniquely human capacities that make, or break, AI

Contributors: Charles Ayoubi, Nicolas Bassan,
Louise Blart, Sandra Najem, Philippe Roussière and Leila Yosef
Published: August 2026

Companies have moved quickly to put generative AI in employees’ hands, but usage alone says little about whether the technology is improving work. Our research suggests that value depends on six human capacities that shape how people regulate their attention and judgment while working with AI. Leaders should identify how those capacities show up across their teams, then design adoption efforts that help people get the most out of the technology.

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The uniquely human capacities that make, or break, AI

Companies have moved quickly to put generative AI in employees’ hands, but usage alone says little about whether the technology...

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Achats responsables
La clé pour transformer l'IA souveraine en valeur pour les entreprises françaises ?

Authors: Chantal Jouanno, Edvina Kapllani
Published: Août 2026

À l’occasion de la 8e édition du World Giverny Forum, le Cercle de Giverny et Accenture dévoilent en exclusivité les enseignements de l’étude « Achats responsables : la clé pour transformer l’IA souveraine en valeur pour les entreprises françaises ?

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Achats responsables

À l’occasion de la 8e édition du World Giverny Forum, le Cercle de Giverny et Accenture dévoilent en exclusivité les enseignements de...

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Enterprise performance management needs a reset

Why companies require an integrated system to see the full picture

Authors: Jens Laue, Michela Coppola and Dominique Lewis
Published: July 2026

Most companies today are making decisions with an incomplete view of performance. Issues once treated as peripheral, from water availability and supply chain resilience to workforce practices, now affect costs, capital, risk and execution. To see the entire business clearly before they act, leaders need to build integrated enterprise performance management (EPM) systems that bring sustainability-related performance into the same view as financial and operational performance.

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Enterprise performance management needs a reset

Most companies today are making decisions with an incomplete view of performance. Issues once treated as peripheral...

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Breaking the scarcity cycle
What it takes to solve the aerospace parts crisis

Contributors: John Schmidt, Patrice Barbier and Abhishek Kumar
Published: June 2026

The commercial aerospace industry has known parts scarcity is a shared, multi-tier execution problem for years. It now needs to unlock sustainable growth through better execution and targeted capacity expansion.

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Breaking the scarcity cycle

The commercial aerospace industry has known parts scarcity is a shared, multi-tier execution problem for years. It now needs to unlock sustainable growth...

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The reinvention of research in the age of generative and agentic AI
How Accenture Research uses Google Cloud to transform the way it produces insights

Authors: Philippe Roussiere and Vincenzo Palerm
Published: June 2024

Beginning in 2023, Accenture Research rebuilt its research model around generative and agentic AI, creating a human-led system that can test more hypotheses, synthesize more evidence and respond faster to shifting markets. Working with Google Cloud, researchers and editors at Accenture Research used AI to broaden their insights and dedicate more time to critical thinking, strategy and interpretation. As their experience shows, AI delivers the greatest value when companies redesign knowledge work around it and build governance into the model from the start.

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The reinvention of research in the age of generative and agentic AI

Beginning in 2023, Accenture Research rebuilt its research model around generative and agentic AI, creating a human-led system...

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How public-safety leaders can build trust in AI agents
Move from framework to infrastructure, govern behavior, monitor in real time and make decisions explainable

Contributors: James Slessor, Daniel Tang, Patrick Connolly
Published: April 2026

AI agents are poised to enter public-safety operations. Yet without new approaches to control, visibility and accountability, agents risk undermining the trust needed for them to be used effectively. Public safety leaders should prioritize four actions to deploy agents in ways that earn and sustain public trust.

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How public-safety leaders can build trust in AI agents

AI agents are poised to enter public-safety operations. Yet without new approaches to control, visibility and accountability...

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AI can help Europe close its productivity shortfall
But only if barriers to adoption for small and medium-sized enterprises are tackled

Contributors: Lie Junius, Dominic King, Dominique Lewis
Published: April 2026

AI has the potential to revitalize European growth prospects. However, broad productivity gains will remain elusive unless small and medium-sized enterprises—which form the backbone of Europe’s economy— integrate the technology into core business processes. To close Europe’s competitiveness gap, public and private actors must mitigate the risk, relevance and talent barriers restricting SMEs’ adoption of AI.

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AI can help Europe close its productivity shortfall

AI has the potential to revitalize European growth prospects. However, broad productivity gains will remain elusive unless small and medium-sized enterprises...

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