Ms Hilary O'Meara:

We will have 24 GenAI studios around the world. We are proud of the fact that the content and design of the studios around the world originate from Ireland and the global research and development centre in the Dock Innovation Hub. The studio is a place where our clients can come in and talk about GenAI. At the very start 12 months ago, they were coming in to understand GenAI, have conversations like this one, get educated, see demos and examples, touch and feel as much of it as they possibly could, and start to explore different use cases in which they might have been able to experiment. I believe that all of our clients have been to the studio not just once, but many times. They are now starting to think about how they can move to the point where they can apply this technology seriously in their businesses to achieve value. We are helping them with their strategies by starting early discussions of where they would start, what technology they might deploy and how they would go about ensuring they did so responsibly. It is an opportunity to be immersive.

At a global level, Accenture has a centre of excellence for GenAI where we are building our own tools, technologies, etc. We are also sweeping up all of the client examples of what is going on globally, putting those in one place and then pushing them down to the studios. An Irish client coming to our studio will hear about the best examples and the best industries, not just in Ireland, but all across the world where GenAI is moving ahead. This is proving beneficial.

There is a major appetite for this among our customers. I am sure the other witnesses’ organisations are seeing the same. We ran a series of three events back to back from February to April, with well over 100 people at each event. There is an incredible interest in this area. While it is early days, the pace is very different from what has gone before. This technology will be transformative. Maybe it is because I do not have a very good imagination, but I do not believe we have reached the point yet where we can imagine what a teacher or doctor will be in future. That is all to be determined. Therefore, we have to stay with it as it goes or we will get left behind.