Accenture Appoints Arnab Chakraborty As Its 1st Chief Responsible AI Officer

To help clients scale generative Al responsibly, Accenture has appointed Arnab Chakraborty as its first chief responsible AI officer, effective immediately. With more than two decades of expertise, Chakraborty holds 10 patents in machine learning solutions for business challenges. He has been involved in shaping the WEF AI Governance Alliance and as a member of the US Senate AI Insight Forum where he advises on the practical considerations of balancing AI innovation while mitigating risks.

"Clients are eager to embrace the potential of generative AI, and we are ready to help them build responsible AI into every use. We do this for ourselves, and we can use that example to help our clients find success faster,” said Julie Sweet, chair and CEO, Accenture. “Our focus is to enable our clients to innovate AI safely and be ready to seize the opportunities that AI will bring in the decades ahead.”

The current rise of AI is unlike previous waves of innovation — the technology, regulation and business adoption are accelerating exponentially and simultaneously, creating a unique set of challenges and implications for organizations.

With the appointment of its first chief responsible AI officer, Accenture is taking steps to expand its responsible AI capabilities, solutions, platforms, ecosystem partnerships and thought leadership including:

• Expanding advisory and technology services to help companies establish policies, principles and standards and implement them through risk assessments and testing frameworks, powered by technology, assets and platforms, as well as ongoing monitoring and compliance, including navigate evolving regulatory landscapes, such as the EU AI Act.
• Introducing managed services that monitor AI solutions, systems and controls to help companies comply with fast-changing regulations.
• Investing in capabilities in gen AI testing, ongoing compliance, regulation management and security, and scaling these with its ecosystem partners.
• Focusing on education and empowerment through responsible AI academies for Accenture people and for clients, including their boards of directors and top leadership.

With a rich history of leading with responsible AI, Accenture will also extend the focus of its research partnerships, including with Stanford, MIT and the World Economic Forum, as well as expand its roles as a leading voice on responsible AI standards and governance. Combined with its work with ecosystem partners and experience with more than 1,000 generative AI client projects, Accenture is bringing its clients the capabilities they need to implement AI rapidly and safely throughout the enterprise.

Accenture recognizes that responsible AI requires taking intentional actions to design, deploy and use AI to create value and build trust and fuel innovation, while protecting from potential AI risks. The company has led by example since 2017, when it first embedded commitments to use AI responsibly in its Code of Business Ethics.

In 2022, the company implemented an enterprise-wide responsible AI program, which focuses on tracking where AI is being used, understanding what it is being used for, assessing AI systems for levels of risk and implementing mitigation strategies to address those risks, and developing post-deployment monitoring programs to oversee AI systems on an ongoing basis. The program leverages technology to improve speed and user experience and also focuses on improving responsible AI literacy through required ethics and compliance training, deep technical training for AI practitioners and responsible AI training for the company’s more than 742,000 people as part of its Technology Quotient (TQ) program.

"Leaders acknowledge the importance of responsible AI principles, but there is a gap in their practical implementation—our research shows that only 2% of companies have fully operationalized responsible AI across their organizations,” said Chakraborty. “Accenture will pave the way to help our clients establish and embed responsible AI, closing the gap between principles and action."

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