Accenture is acquiring Faculty, a UK-based AI firm specializing in applied AI services and products. This move is poised to significantly enhance Accenture’s capabilities in delivering secure and effective AI solutions to its clients, particularly in reinventing core business processes. Faculty’s expertise lies in its unique “decision intelligence” product, which leverages advanced simulation and optimization techniques, and its strong foundation in AI safety.
Founded in 2014, Faculty has established a solid reputation for deploying AI solutions across both public and private sectors in the UK and other key markets. Their service offerings encompass AI strategy, AI safety protocols, and the design, development, and implementation of high-performance AI systems, all aimed at facilitating the scaled and secure adoption of AI by client organizations. A core tenet of Faculty’s approach is its deep commitment to AI safety, ensuring that systems are designed with ethical considerations and risk mitigation in mind from the outset. This includes addressing potential issues like bias, privacy concerns, and the challenge of unexplainable AI outcomes, embedding safety measures throughout the entire AI development lifecycle – from conception and validation to deployment and ongoing monitoring. Faculty actively collaborates with leading AI research institutions such as OpenAI and Anthropic, as well as governmental bodies like the UK AI Security Institute, to advance AI safety standards and conduct foundational safety assessments of general-purpose AI models.
The acquisition is expected to bring Faculty’s team of over 400 AI specialists, including highly skilled data scientists and AI engineers, into Accenture’s fold. This integration aims to bolster Accenture’s global AI capabilities. Marc Warner, Faculty’s CEO, will assume the role of Chief Technology Officer at Accenture and join its Global Management Committee. Warner’s background includes a research fellowship in Quantum Physics at Harvard and advisory roles on the UK’s AI Council, underscoring his deep technical and strategic understanding of the AI landscape.
Julie Sweet, Chair and CEO of Accenture, stated, “With Faculty, we will further accelerate our strategy to bring trusted, advanced AI to the heart of our clients’ businesses. I’m pleased to welcome the Faculty team to Accenture and look forward to Marc’s contribution shaping our technology vision and strategy as Chief Technology Officer.”
Faculty’s flagship enterprise decision intelligence product, Faculty Frontier™, will be integrated into Accenture’s product portfolio. This platform is designed to empower organizations with improved decision-making by unifying data, AI models, and business processes into a cohesive decision system. Accenture and Faculty have already demonstrated the efficacy of Frontier™ through a collaboration with life sciences companies like Novartis, where the product is being used to optimize the planning and execution of clinical trials.
Marc Warner, CEO of Faculty, commented, “Our vision has always been a world in which safe AI delivers widespread benefits to humanity. We have spent the last ten years supporting our clients to bring this world about, step by step. As AI advances rapidly, the ambition of our clients is now, rightly, no less than the reinvention of their business. I am delighted that by teaming up with Accenture, we have everything in place to support AI transformation from start to finish.”
Faculty’s track record in mission-critical AI applications includes the development of the UK National Health Service’s (NHS) Early Warning System during the COVID-19 pandemic. This system was instrumental in enabling daily predictions of patient demand and the optimal allocation of critical care resources.
Manish Sharma, Chief Strategy and Services Officer at Accenture, added, “Accenture bridges the best of technology and human ingenuity to maximize returns on AI investments. Together with Faculty we will assemble a powerhouse of talent helping clients make AI work in the real world—linking data, processes, and people so value shows up faster, orchestrated through multiple combinations of bespoke client specific solutions, partner solutions and Faculty Frontier™. This will help our clients stay competitive, pursue sovereign solutions, and reinvent their operations with transparency and resilience at a critical time.”
Accenture also plans to extend Faculty’s highly regarded Fellowship Program globally. This program focuses on training promising STEM PhD and master’s graduates, as well as post-doctoral researchers, to transition from academia into industry roles.
Accenture and Faculty have been collaborating since December 2023, with Accenture serving as a preferred implementation partner for Faculty Frontier™.
The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval. Financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
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