UPDATED 13:30 EDT / FEBRUARY 15 2018

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Human plus machine equals the intelligent enterprise unleashed: Accenture’s Vision report

Accenture PLC released its “Technology Vision 2018” report on Wednesday, predicting key technology trends that will disrupt business over the coming three years. Not surprisingly, artificial intelligence is expected to play a major role. The report also documented how rapid advancements in areas such as the cloud and analytics are changing not only the ways in which companies interact with customers, but how we work and live as well.

“Technology isn’t just a peripheral or something that people use,” said Paul Daugherty (pictured), chief technology and innovation officer at Accenture. “Technology is core to the human experience.”

Daugherty stopped by the set of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, at the Accenture Technology Vision event in San Francisco, California, and spoke with host Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick). They discussed the report’s findings, recent dialogue about technology with global leaders, and a forthcoming book that discusses humans and technology.

An integral part of daily life

Accenture’s report was based on a survey of more than 6,300 business and information technology executives worldwide. There was a strong consensus, 84 percent, that technology is allowing companies to become an integral part of people’s lives.

Technology is extending the nature of how people experience the world around them, a form of extended reality. “Think about what’s going to happen as we have ubiquitous voice communication, natural language understanding, extended reality interfaces to connect people,” Daugherty explained. “The real core of the vision theme that we have this year is around what we call ‘the intelligent enterprise unleashed.’”

Daugherty attended January’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he engaged with attendees from around the globe about the future impact of technology. Much of the discussion centered around the power of corporate and non-profit partnerships to address global issues. One example of this can be found in a joint initiative called ID2020 — launched by Accenture, Microsoft and Identity2020 Systems Inc. last year — that leverages blockchain and biometric technologies to solve documented identity issues for refugees and others around the world.

“The takeaway from Davos is there’s tremendous power to use technology to address some of the fundamental issues that we have in society and in the world today,” Daugherty said.

In addition to Accenture’s Vision report, a new book written by Daugherty and H. James Wilson titled “Human + Machine: Reimagining Work in the Age of AI” will be available soon. The book documents how the movement toward artificial intelligence is transforming business processes throughout organizations and the potential this offers in the intelligent enterprise.

“It’s a leader’s guide for how to deploy AI in a responsible fashion to retool your workforce,” Daugherty concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Accenture Technology Vision event.

Photo: SiliconANGLE

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