Accenture India has 20,000 genAI proficient staffers: HR head

Accenture India has 20,000 genAI proficient staffers: HR head

BENGALURU: India is at the heart of Accenture’s strategy to reshape its workforce by instilling in them generative AI fluency. The company has identified 12 new data and AI roles to focus on, including data architecture, full-stack LLM (large language model) development, industry and function AI value strategy, visualisation science and BI (business intelligence) engineering, and roles in areas such as responsible AI, AI LLM technology architecture, AI/ML computational science, and AI workforce transformation.

“Our talent strategy is powered by our own digital core,” Accenture’s chief leadership & human resources officer Ellyn Shook told TOI on a visit to Bengaluru. “We want to double the number of people with data and AI skills from 40,000 to 80,000 in the next three years. And to do that, we’ve defined 12 roles that didn’t exist before. We already have 30,000 people mapped to those new roles. And each one of those roles has learning pathways so that our people can pursue those paths,” she said.

Shook said Accenture has set up an India-based Generative AI Academy that trains its employees on the 12 new roles. “Of the 30,000 people globally mapped to those roles, 20,000 of them are here in India, and that academy, while very relevant to India, it’s also enabling our people around the globe,” she said. Accenture has over 3 lakh employees in India out of the 7.3 lakh employees it has globally. And nearly half of the employees in India are women.

Shook said the employees can see the skills they have today, and they can see the skills they need for the 12 new roles, and they can follow the learning path to reskill themselves toward that role. “Accenture invests about $1 billion a year in the learning and development of our people. And so, reskilling at scale and at speed is a core competency of ours,” she added.

Accenture is also equipping 250,000 people globally this year in genAI fundamentals. “We are capturing AI talent both at the top and the bottom of our career model. So, we are going to universities that have AI programmes. But we’re also hiring PhDs and people that have long-standing AI capabilities and experiences,” she added.

Accenture has had an early-mover advantage in genAI deals compared to peers. In its first quarter that ended in November, Accenture said demand continued to accelerate with over $450 million in genAI sales. In the past one year, Accenture has worked on over 700 genAI projects.

Shook said only 2% of companies in the world have responsible AI programmes, and the company has created a role with skills around responsible AI because it’s important and it’s a scarce skill.

Asked about job losses due to embracing genAI, Shook said, “The headlines in the news are either very dystopian or very optimistic. I’m not a futurist and I can’t predict the future. I think the reality will lie somewhere in between. And that is why it is so essential for organisations to lead responsibly.”

Leaders in Accenture are also embracing genAI. “Over the past fiscal year, the members of the global management committee (GMC) spent 10 hours, so essentially one hour a month, learning together about genAI. It spanned from understanding the components of LLMs, the compute power necessary, why generative AI is to be used sometimes and predictive AI should be used at other times. And all of us, regardless of our roles, including me, had to go through that level of learning to prepare ourselves to lead the organisation,” Shook said.

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