Accenture adopts German accent for AI research
AI at DFKI (Image source: DFKI)
Accenture and the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) have formed an alliance to make the most out of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.
Accenture Analytics, part of Accenture Digital, will work with DFKI (Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz). Accenture will get access to DFKI research results, AI tools, and its “Living Labs”.
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Wahlster, CEO of DFKI, says it is seeing a “high degree of maturity for applications in the areas of smart data and services, deep learning, human-robot-collaboration and AI-based retail”.
According to Accenture, AI is a major growth and productivity factor for the economy, and is projected to boost labour productivity by up to 40% through “fundamentally changing how we work and reinforcing the role of people to drive growth in business”. The firm adds that AI has the potential to more than double Germany’s annual growth rate of gross value added from 1.4% to 3% by 2035.
DFKI has sites in Kaiserslautern, Saarbrücken, Bremen (with an associated branch in Osnabrück) and a project office in Berlin.
It says it is currently the “biggest research centre worldwide in the area of AI and its application regarding the number of employees and the volume of external funds”. Its financial budget in 2016 was €44.1 million.
