Do You Know Your AIQ?

Investments in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are at an all-time high. Take funding for AI start-ups as just one example--over the last five years, start-up funding has grown at a CAGR of nearly 60 percent.[i] This activity is definitely contributing to the growth potential of AI, which Accenture’s macroeconomic research shows could add as much as $8 trillion to the US economy in the next 15-18 years.[ii] Increasingly, Fortune 500 CEOs recognize the area as crucial for investment, too, with 81 percent citing artificial intelligence and machine learning as either very important or extremely important to their company’s future.[iii]

Clearly the potential for AI advancement is here, but an essential element is missing to realize it. In yet another major step forward in measuring the impact of AI, our latest research, Boost Your AIQ: Transforming into an AI Business, reveals a yawning gap between implementation and actual business impact: only a small minority (17 percent) of the world’s largest companies and advanced players in AI currently demonstrate high levels of AIQ—an artificial intelligence quotient.

What needs to change? Today, at the G20 Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance (YEA) event in Berlin, Accenture unveiled in the knowledge report a first of its kind, and much-needed, matrix to evaluate AIQ across two capabilities: invention and collaboration. Entrepreneurs, such as the young leaders at the G20 YEA event, and business leaders alike need to push themselves and their organizations to raise their individual and collective AIQs by focusing on the three key attributes: technology, data and people.  

Each of these areas is essential to realize the growth potential of AI. Mixed with innovation, however, they become an unstoppable force for both incumbent and entrepreneurial companies to apply AI technology for the good of all people. 

AIQ: the ideal intersection of collaboration and invention

A high AIQ enables companies to make effective investments in AI technology and turn those investments into AI-driven businesses for new growth. Success will be determined by a keen ability to integrate a combination of AI technologies and access platforms for AI services, converge data sets and inspire trust for data sharing, and secure diverse talents through reskilling and being resourceful in AI ecosystem collaborations to access knowledge at scale.

To help companies take the next steps, we created two indexes to see what is working so far. We studied both the Fortune Global 100 and what we call the Intelligent Global 100—pioneers in the development of AI technologies and applications—for the period 2010 to 2016. For those 200 companies, we looked at both their in-house focus (their AIQ for invention) and their outside focus (their AIQ for collaboration[CER1] ).

We based the AIQ for invention score on three things: number of patents related to AI technologies; number of acquisitions of AI start-ups; number of announcements on keywords related to setup of AI R&D lab or AI-related hiring.

The AIQ for collaboration factor depended on two areas: number of announcements on keywords related to usage or adoption of AI vendor solutions, joint ventures and collaborative agreements on AI; number of announcements on keywords related to participation in AI start-up accelerators, venture investments in AI start-ups, university tie-ups and sponsorships, open innovation with third-party developers.

The evidence in the report proves that companies with high AIQ deliver greater value for shareholders, almost double increase in enterprise value compared to the remainder of our sample (4.2 percent compared to 2.3 percent since 2013).

Incumbent companies accomplish this by striking a balance between in-house innovation and external collaboration. In other words, they will need in-house, proprietary capabilities for AI, but they will need to be deeply involved in a broader ecosystem.

These “collaborative inventors” apply their AIQ to harness the technologies, data and talent they need to build new business models. We are seeing this activity happening on both fronts.

On the AIQ for invention side, for example, media companies are applying AI to develop cinematic virtual reality and holographic content, while the telecommunications sector is working on machine learning and massive data modeling platforms to support emerging intelligent services.

As for AIQ on collaboration, the financial services and consumer staples sectors are increasing investments in tactical initiatives to adopt AI solutions by collaborating in the broader ecosystem—but do not invent where it makes little financial sense to develop futuristic technologies in-house.

This “collaborative inventors” principle applies to startups and small businesses as well. In fact, in the complex field of AI, collaboration between large enterprises and startups is more significant than ever before. Entrepreneurial companies will have to work with large companies to achieve results. In the name of fast-paced innovation, this is already starting to happen.

As described in the report, Apple is now letting its AI researchers engage with the greater AI community on open innovation.[iv] And Fanuc Corporation brought its edge and fog computing into the factory environment by collaborating with Cisco, Rockwell Automation and a Japanese AI startup called Preferred Networks (PFN).[v] PFN also collaborates with Toyota on autonomous driving technologies.[vi]

Clearly, innovation and collaboration go hand in hand as the world forges ahead with AI. Whether incumbent or entrepreneur, how will your company boost its AIQ and work toward becoming a “collaborative inventor”?

[i] Accenture Research based on CBInsights, Tracxn, Derwent World Patents databases

[ii] Why Artificial Intelligence is the Future of Growth, Accenture, 2016

[iii] Fortune 500 CEO Survey, Fortune, May 2017. https://fortune.com/2017/06/08/fortune-500-companies-ceo-survey/

[iv] “Apple will break with tradition and start publishing AI research,” The Verge, December 2016. https://www.theverge.com/2016/12/6/13858354/apple-publishing-ai-research-siri-self-driving-cars

[v] “Manufacturing Automation Leaders Collaborate: Optimizing Industrial Production Through Analytics,” FANUC website, April 2016. https://www.fanucamerica.com/fanucamerica-news/press-releases/PressReleaseDetails.aspx?id=79

[vi] “Toyota to Boost Investment in Artificial Intelligence by Strengthening Relationship with Preferred Networks Inc., Toyota website, December 2015. https://newsroom.toyota.co.jp/en/detail/10679722/