Companies use consultants for advice in a variety of areas. Now, many companies, including BCG (Boston Consulting Group), will also provide generative AI support.
Last week, Anthropic announced its partnership with BCG to offer its AI models, including its Claude 2 assistant, to BCG customers. Through this partnership, BCG will help educate its clients on the best ways to strategically apply AI and also help them deploy Anthropic models.
Use cases for businesses include “knowledge management, market research, fraud detection, demand forecasting, reporting and business analytics,” according to the release.
All consulting firms are jumping on AI
Throughout the press release, emphasis is placed on the ethical and responsible use of AI. Probably to address concerns about replacing human labor with AI and the burning issue of enterprise data security. “Our collaboration with Anthropic will help align the ethics and effectiveness of GenAI,” says Sylvain Duranton, Global Head of BCG to security so that AI is deployed ethically.”
Last week, consulting firm EY also announced a $1.4 billion investment in its own generative AI platform called EY.ai. This platform is also intended to help customers adopt AI to achieve their business goals.
BCG and EY join an already long list of consulting firms with AI projects underway, including KPMG, Accenture and McKinsey.
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The timing of these AI investments is interesting since major consultancies have all suffered layoffs, hiring freezes, or start-up delays over the past year. According to The Wall Street Journal, after hiring heavily to meet growing demand linked to the pandemic, some of the Big Four consulting firms, including KPMG, Deloitte and EY, have had to reduce their staff.
Another WSJ article shows that recently hired “entry-level” consultants don’t have enough work to do. As a result, they are laid off, as in the case of KPMG and EY, or have their start dates delayed, as in the case of McKinsey and Bain, which pushed back their start dates until ‘in 2024.
As the industry as a whole suffers from the pandemic, it’s interesting to see companies investing time and money into AI initiatives, which can be seen as an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of generative AI to attract customers.
Source: “ZDNet.com”