Salesforce and Accenture: Accelerating intelligence with Einstein

It was a great week at Dreamforce. A huge range of speakers, some really thought-provoking panels and an amazing opportunity to discuss how what we call Applied Intelligence is gaining real traction across every industry.

So what do we mean by Applied Intelligence? It’s the power that’s generated when AI, automation and analytics come together to reimagine business and achieve totally new outcomes. One common theme I’ve been hearing is the challenge of moving from Applied Intelligence pilots or points solutions to enterprise-wide scale. Accenture research[1] shows that the C-Suite is all too aware of this tension: 75% agree that failing to scale represents an existential threat.

That’s the principal reason that I am so excited by Salesforce EinsteinTM – Salesforce’s end-to-end AI and analytics solution. It offers unique out-of-the-box capabilities and ease of use that can enable companies to unlock the full potential of Applied Intelligence across the enterprise. End to end really means just that. Einstein spans data management, easy data integration, analytics and visualisation that gives business users intuitive access to new insights at speed.

We are far from the only ones to spot Einstein’s appeal. Seventy percent of our top clients have Einstein licences. However, some of them have yet to take advantage of everything that Einstein has to offer. And that’s where we come in.

The solutions that Accenture Applied Intelligence is building with Einstein can enhance everything it provides and accelerate the insights journey. By introducing our accelerators and assets, we’re helping our clients find answers to some of their biggest business challenges. Thanks to Einstein’s ‘open box’ approach, market-ready solutions are easy and quick to deploy.

So what are some of the areas we’re focused on right now? The first is to use Applied Intelligence to reimagine customer engagement in any industry—from telcos to utilities—with new intuitive ways to interact with customers and manage support through the channel of their choice. Benefits include reduced cost, more self-service options and improved customer agent performance.

The second area we have developed is helping banks to drive revenue growth by harnessing data from multiple sources, including dark data, to achieve a true 360-degree picture of every B2B and B2C customer. Those richly detailed profiles enable a degree of personalization that’s never been possible before, enabling banks to engage with customers in a profoundly different way.

Our third focus for Einstein is helping consumer goods companies harness data and analytics to optimise pricing and promotions across brands, seasonal offers, geographies and more, The result? A new ability to answer key questions such as which offers will drive the highest ROI, how to manage promotion spend without eroding margins, and which customers respond best to discounts.

As we launch these, we’ll be adding extra capabilities, functions and data skills that will extend Einstein’s power even further. With Einstein and Accenture Applied Intelligence working together, we’re helping companies to overcome the barriers to AI and analytics at scale. We’ve already achieved a lot together, but I believe this is just the start. Watch this space! 

[1] Accenture AI at scale research