Accenture adds nearly 50 data scientists and engineers to its payroll by acquiring an Indian firm Byte Prophecy

• Global services giant Accenture acquires Ahmedabad-based Byte Prophecy.
  
• The acquisition will help meet the artificial intelligence (AI) skill gap in the market by putting 50 data scientists and engineers on its payroll.
  
• While the demand for AI is high, the talent pool is scarce.
  

Accenture and Ahmedabad-based Byte Propechy are old friends — they have been working together since 2018. Now, 50 of the latter’s data scientists and data engineering experts will be added to Accenture’s 509,000-strong staff, with a particular focus on insight automation.


While the demand for AI is high, the talent pool is scarce. Deloitte estimates that AI researchers and data scientists are some of the most sought-after professionals. However, their survey also shows that 68% of executives report a ‘moderate-to-extreme skills gap’, which makes acquiring Byte Prophecy all the more integral.


“Officially making Byte Prophecy’s people and capabilities part of Accenture is a testament to the shared vision of shared success we’ve seen in our joint efforts,” said Athina Kanioura, Accenture’s chief analytics officer and global lead for Applied Intelligence.


The global IT services giant based out of Ireland has clients that want to foray into enterprise-scale artificial intelligence (AI), and the Ahmedabad-based startup caters to that demand.


The company believes that the move will help them deepen their existing consulting and technology capabilities by providing a boost to data foundations and advanced analytics.


“Across industries, decision making has become more complex, and businesses are increasingly relying on advanced analytics and AI to ensure insight-driven, rapid decision making,” said Piyush N. Singh, Accenture’s market unit lead for India and sales lead for Growth Markets.


Even though neither company disclosed the financial terms of the acquisition, Gartner estimates that the enterprise AI market will be worth $6.14 billion by 2022. As AI matures, it’s going to become an integral part of how companies form their digital strategies, according to the researcher company.