Artificial Intelligence Offers Path to Greater Profits, Report Finds

Businesses that successfully apply artificial intelligence could increase profitability by an average of 38% by 2035, according to a new report from Accenture.

Furthermore, the introduction of AI could lead to an economic boost of $14 trillion in additional gross value added across 16 industries in 12 economies, the report suggests.

“Artificial intelligence will revolutionize how businesses compete and grow, representing an entirely new factor of production that can ignite corporate profitability,” explains Paul Daugherty, chief technology and innovation officer for Accenture.

The research compared the economic growth rates of 16 industries in 2035 in a baseline scenario showing current assumptions of expected growth, to an AI scenario showing expected growth with AI integrated into economic processes—finding that AI has the potential to increase economic growth rates by a weighted average of 1.7 percentage points.

“To realize this significant opportunity, it’s critical that businesses act now to develop strategies around AI that put people at the center, and commit to develop responsible AI systems that are aligned to moral and ethical values that will drive positive outcomes and empower people to do what they do best – imagine, create and innovate,” noted Daugherty.

In labor-intensive sectors, such as wholesale and retail, AI augments the human workforce, enabling people to become more productive, leading to a profit increase of almost 60 percent. In capital-intensive industries such as manufacturing, AI powered machines will eliminate faulty machines and idle equipment, delivering constantly rising rates of return, resulting in equally dramatic profit increases of 39 percent by 2035, according to Accenture.

“By exploring the macroeconomic impact of AI as it matures over the next few decades, it’s clear that organizations in every industry have tremendous opportunities to apply AI to unleash remarkable benefits,” said Mark Purdy, managing director, Accenture Research. “By optimizing processes with intelligent automation, augmenting human labor and physical capital, and propelling new innovations, AI can drive dramatic and long lasting profitability and economic growth.

A report last year, titled “Why Artificial Intelligence is the Future of Growth,” found that AI could double annual economic growth rates by 2035 and boost labor productivity by up to 40 percent by fundamentally changing the way work is done.