RESEARCH REPORT

Reinventing Business in the Age of Generative AI


  


In short

  • Disruption is the new normal, and reinvention is becoming the mandatory strategy for growth in a time of constant change.
  • Reinventing the enterprise is profitable, and Reinventor organizations are getting ahead of their competitors, spurring other businesses to take action.
  • Generative AI represents a clear opportunity to accelerate reinvention and close the performance gap.
  • According to our research, there are five key actions executives must take to completely reinvent the enterprise in the era of generative AI.

Reinvention is the strategy for success

We predict that over the next 12-24 months, there will be a significant increase in companies adopting generative AI as a catalyst for reinvention.

Why is generative AI different from other technological innovations of recent years? Because this technology has the power to reinvent every aspect of an organization, and this is unprecedented. Our work has uncovered empirical evidence that this trend is already underway and that generative AI is revolutionizing every market sector.

A response to disruption

Organizations are still operating in a turbulent environment. The Accenture Pulse of Change Index reveals that the rate of change impacting businesses has grown steadily since 2019, increasing 183% over the past four years. In response, 83% of organizations have accelerated their transformation execution since last year.

Reinventing the enterprise: the scenario

Many organizations want to reinvent themselves, and some are further along the path than others.
A small number of "Reinventor" organizations (9%) have already achieved a significant milestone: building the solid technological foundation that enables continuous business reinvention. These organizations are making rapid progress in executing their strategy and are defining new performance levels by placing technology at the heart of their reinvention journey.

Among large companies, especially those with revenues above $50 billion, the number of Reinventors has quadrupled in the past year. Unlike the digital revolution, these market giants are assuming a leading role, thanks to significant investments aimed at strengthening their digital core and resources. Two sectors in particular have seen double-digit growth in the number of Reinventors: in "software and platforms," ​​the figure increased by 34 percentage points to 43%, and "life sciences" grew by 13 percentage points to 20%.

Most organizations are still at the beginning of their reinvention journey, and few have scaled their reinvention. Similar to last year, the majority (81%) are still in the "Transformer" stage. Transformers must now move forward. They are already on the right path toward reinvention, but they are less likely to build sustainable capabilities for continuous reinvention and may not achieve the speed and cost efficiencies that come from a mature, full-scale reinvention strategy. We also see a difference in financial performance: Reinventors are ahead of the curve here. The remaining 10% of "Optimizer" organizations have not yet prioritized reinvention.

Reinventors are inspiring other organizations to take action.

Over the next three years, we expect a significant value gap to open up between Reinventor organizations and others.

Why Generative AI Shouldn't Be Underestimated

In recent decades, no other technology has had such potential and such a profound impact on every aspect of a company. This is why we closely connect generative AI with reinvention. The only way to realize the full potential of generative AI is to embrace the need to reinvent processes and talent, while also managing the technology through a new, responsible AI and a generative AI backbone integrated into the digital core.

Generative AI has become a powerful force for enabling reinvention and accelerating organizations' progress toward a new frontier of performance. Some have understood this potential and are taking action: Reinventors and a group of Transformers.

What Reinventors Know:

  • Generative AI is unparalleled in its ability to impact the entire value chain and drive both productivity and growth in ways that redefine business performance levels.
  • Reinvention through generative AI is only possible by developing end-to-end capabilities, rather than focusing on individual use cases.
  • Developing end-to-end capabilities requires radical and coordinated changes in processes, people, and technologies. Processes must be redefined, people must be retrained, and a generative AI backbone must be integrated into the digital core.

Generative AI in action

3 million hours saved

A public administration has responsibly used the latest digital technologies to quickly and at scale automate certain processes, thus saving 3 million man-hours in Operations.

16 million offers for customers

A bank delivered hyper-personalized offers to 16 million customers just three months after implementing a generative AI-powered marketing solution.

10% increase in revenue

An insurance company is reinventing its entire underwriting workflow. The potential revenue increase is 10%.

Reinvent yourself today to be a leader tomorrow

Generative AI represents a clear opportunity to accelerate reinvention. Let's explore, through examples from our current clients, the five key actions to achieve this goal.

Five key actions in the era of generative AI

1
Leading by putting value first
2
Understanding and developing a secure AI-enabled digital core
3
Reinventing HR strategy and the way we work
4
Bridging the gap on responsible AI
5
Promoting continuous reinvention

1. Lead by putting value first

It's time to look at the entire value chain for an objective assessment of the business case, enterprise readiness, and the associated return on investment. Companies can choose between two investment approaches: "bare minimum" investments that deliver radical productivity improvements, and "strategic bets" that deliver a true competitive advantage and redefine the way industries operate.
Action 1

It's not enough to look at individual use cases. We need to understand the potential to reinvent the entire value chain and develop end-to-end capabilities powered by generative AI and new ways of working.

Action 2

Let the value generated by every business capability reinvented with generative AI guide you.

Action 3

Identify strategic choices where technology opens up new opportunities that competitors cannot easily capture.

Action 4

Redesign your organization from siloed functions to end-to-end business and decision-making capabilities, leveraging a unified data architecture and cross-departmental teams.

Roche: Overcoming barriers to deliver new data-driven cancer treatments

Realizing the potential of personalized medicine requires a new way of working that overcomes barriers along the patient care cycle. Roche is building platforms that aggregate data from various sources. One such platform is the Oncology Hub, which allows for the secure management of all patient data and provides medical staff with a single, centralized workspace for collaboration. This helps initiate the treatment journey faster, saving more lives.

2. Understand and develop a secure AI-enabled digital core

In the era of generative AI, companies must strengthen their IT to connect datasets and technologies through a secure, AI-enabled digital core. Generative AI requires a fundamentally different enterprise architecture, where data is more fluid and unstructured and synthetic data becomes much more important. Infrastructure is more demanding, and IT operating models will need to change. Reinventors prioritize their digital core as a core competency.

Don't miss our next research on the digital core.


Action 1

Examine your technology objectively to understand where your “digital core” stands compared to the industry and, most importantly, what is needed to use generative AI.

Action 2

Learn more about the concept of a data and generative AI backbone and what you need to build it.

Action 3

Ensure your CIO integrates cybersecurity practices early in the technology lifecycle. Create a strong security culture to prioritize resilience.

Action 4

Understand your current technology and advisor ecosystem and update your strategy on how to best collaborate with them to accelerate reinvention.

Action 5

Rigorously measure progress: More than 50% of technology investments must go toward building new capabilities.

A state-owned oil company in Southeast Asia is simplifying large volumes of data.

This client has enormous volumes of data in various formats and generates new data every day. After holistically assessing its needs and challenges, the company implemented generative AI and cognitive search to fully extract the value of its data and generate growth. Today, the new knowledge base incorporates over 250,000 documents and easily retrieves the necessary information by converting it into the desired format. This new integrated configuration makes it much easier to find information, automates the data collection process for various business users, and helps reduce errors.

3. Reinvent HR strategy and the way of working

For this latest technological revolution to succeed, executives must design and adopt a strategy to reinvent the way they work, revamping human resources management and preparing people for the era of generative AI. Companies must quickly identify how work needs to be reinvented and reshape their workforce accordingly. This will require qualified personnel and continuous training at all levels, including leadership. Success requires people to be at the center of change and leaders to have the skills needed for the generative AI era, effectively guiding the reinvention of entire value chains and business processes.
Action 1

Create a talent strategy that identifies how work will change, documents the impact on different roles, and assesses which skills are needed for each generative AI use case.

Action 2

Build strong, people-centric change management capabilities to understand the impact of generative AI on every aspect of the employee experience.

Action 3

Develop the capacity to offer ongoing training to support reinvention. Ensure your people have relevant skills for the generative AI market and are actively involved in the change.

Action 4

Analyze your HR capabilities and invest in the skills and technologies needed to support your business reinvention strategy. Human resources management is a fundamental part of your business strategy.

Action 5

Review your employee value proposition to ensure you're still the best company for your people. Also, ensure your use of generative AI is consistent with your commitments to your people.

A biopharmaceutical company supports its ambitions with reinvention

Aiming to become the leading research-intensive organization specializing in the discovery and development of new therapies, this client is creating new types of training and experiences for its leaders to help foster an innovative, entrepreneurial mindset. This includes engaging people in process design, an upskilling program for thousands of internal resources to make them generative AI experts, and hiring new talent with the right skills.

4. Bridging the gap on responsible AI

Design, implement, and use AI to create value while mitigating its risks, including bias, liability and compliance, unreliable outputs, confidentiality and security, sustainability, and workforce transition. Given the speed of evolution and adoption of generative AI, these risks must be addressed now to avoid future challenges, including regulatory costs. The vast majority (96%) of organizations support some form of government regulation of AI, yet only 2% say they have fully operationalized responsible AI within their organizations. Bridging the gap requires a concrete action plan that moves from commitment to on-the-ground action.


Action 1

Adopt principles for responsible AI, with clear accountability and governance for design, implementation, and use.

Action 2

Conduct an AI risk assessment: Understand the risks of existing AI use cases, applications, and systems through qualitative and quantitative assessments.

Action 3

Conduct continuous and systematic testing of AI to ensure fairness, transparency, accuracy, and safety, using the best tools available, and implementing mitigation measures.

Action 4

Establish continuous monitoring of AI systems and oversee responsible AI initiatives while implementing containment and compliance measures.

Action 5

Engage all business functions in AI adoption to assess impacts on people, regulatory compliance, sustainability, and privacy and security programs.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore has launched a highly innovative responsible AI program.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the Asian nation's central bank, is one of the first financial regulators to implement a responsible AI program. The Authority established the Veritas industry consortium to help financial services institutions (FSIs) assess the alignment of their AI and data analytics solutions with the principles of fairness, ethics, accountability, and transparency. A core team within Veritas has developed a methodological framework to operationalize these principles. This helps FSIs derive value from AI responsibly and build a more equitable future for billions of consumers worldwide.

5. Promote continuous reinvention

Because change is constant, reinvention never ends. It can't be approached as a one-off initiative or one that happens every now and then. Instead, executives must build the capabilities to continually reinvent themselves. This involves moving to a state of openness to new ideas, which requires a cultural and operational mindset geared toward continuous change and built on a flexible digital core that enables the implementation of generative AI quickly and at scale.

Where could your business go with reinvention?

Our research helps organizations map out a successful reinvention and identify the best ways to use generative AI across the organization. Exclusive tools like our AI Navigator for Enterprise, a generative AI-based platform, can help you on your reinvention journey and create value responsibly.
Visit one of our Generative AI Studios around the world to learn how you can reinvent your business through the responsible use of generative AI applications.