The digital core as the foundation for AI-driven transformation

28 January 2025 Consultancy-me.com
Author: Muqsit Ashraf is the Global CEO of Accenture Strategy and Global co-lead of the Strategy & Consulting business

While the UAE has long been known as an energy powerhouse and a tourism hub – which remain a key part of its story – it is also focused on driving innovation in areas such as transforming their social welfare programs, fortifying their public services, or most recently, setting out to be a leader in AI.

Every action, every message has helped advance its story toward economic diversification and capitalizing on technological advancements. Moving quickly and intentionally to become a leader in AI – launching in Falcon an open-source, sovereign large language model ahead of most nations, recently quadrupling its AI workforce and hosting multiple data centers to support the technology – are just the latest moves in this effort.

In announcing Falcon, for instance, the UAE Government’s research group shared that it could power chatbots and image generators like other generative AI tools, and in its latest iteration, claims to be the first LLM model with image-to-text conversion.

At the heart of this rise in AI tools, which has been underpinned by ChatGPT and generative AI more broadly coming onto the scene two years ago, is a clear reminder of how important agility and intentionality can be for leaders.

With the technology moving from media headlines into my boardroom discussions with CEOs and C-suite leaders, what’s clear is that – despite most using AI and wanting to leverage it to advance business growth – less than a third of companies are seeing the value that they’re seeking from AI.

Part of that is because unlocking this value requires a full reimagining and continuous reinventing of functions, processes and most other ways of working within an organization. It begins with – and is enabled by – a strong digital core that combines the right data and technology with people at the very center.

At a time of constant change, where business leaders rank technology as the most disruptive force for companies, up from the number 6 position just two years ago, having a robust digital core can put businesses on track to meet the current digital transformation needs.

The Digital Core: Foundation for AI-Driven Transformation

So, what is the digital core? At Accenture, we define the digital core as the critical technological capability to create and empower an organization’s reinvention ambitions. It means reintegrating advanced digital platforms, having a seamless data and AI backbone and building a secure foundation using new engineering principles.

Enterprises that have done this well have seen 60% higher revenue growth rate and 40% higher profitability. They’ve adopted a digital core tailored to their industry and company, consistently increased investments in innovation and have addressed technical debt in their IT systems.

Energy companies for instance are facing rapid change ahead, which will require new skillsets. Technologies like robotics and drones will account for 20% of the global workforce by 2028. To address these changes effectively, energy leaders must focus on moving quickly to modernize their technology operations and shifting away from legacy infrastructures.

A sign of their efforts has been consistent investment in technology like generative AI, data analytics, machine learning and cloud to drive three primary goals: operational excellence (71%), increased employee productivity (40%) and business resilience (31%).

Customizing the Digital Core

A digital core goes hand in hand with new ways of working and adoption of new operating models, methods and processes alongside expanding employee skillset. For energy companies, as an example, this can mean a shift away from legacy IT systems that are often siloed to a more comprehensive view of their technology foundations that can help drive decision-making.

When built well, a strong digital core can enable companies to have:

  • Data Integration and Accessibility: Breaking down silos to create a unified view of enterprise data.
  • Real-Time Analytics: Providing instant insights to speed up decision-making.
  • Scalability: Allowing rapid deployment of AI solutions across the organization.
  • Enhanced Security: Protecting valuable data assets and AI models from threats.

A multinational oil company, for example, successfully enabled its crews to make decisions on and deliver operations remotely by migrating to the cloud, leading to significant operational cost savings and to better user experience. And a US chemicals company used AI-enabled market analysis tools to create a relevant value proposition, and further, equip sales and engineers with the data to better anticipate and address customer demands.

Leading the way

The companies that are well suited to make AI a success are those that are intentional about building a strong digital core and using AI to address challenges specific to their business.

With the economic potential for technology like generative AI to reach $10.3 trillion by 2038, the imperative couldn’t be clearer: companies must adapt to these technological advancements, or risk being left behind while their peers gain a competitive advantage.

More on: Accenture
Middle East
Company profile
Accenture is a Middle East partner of Consultancy.org
Partnership information »
Partnership information

Consultancy.org works with three partnership levels: Local, Regional and Global.

Accenture is a Local partner of Consultancy.org in Middle East, Africa, South Africa, Netherlands and Canada.

Upgrade or more information? Get in touch with our team for details.