Accenture Launches New Artificial Intelligence Testing Services
February 20 2018 - 12:00AM
Business Wire
Powered by a “Teach and Test” methodology, the
new services help companies validate the safety, reliability and
transparency of their artificial intelligence systems
Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has launched new services for testing
artificial intelligence (AI) systems, powered by a unique “Teach
and Test” methodology designed to help companies build, monitor and
measure reliable AI systems within their own infrastructure or in
the cloud.
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Accenture’s “Teach and Test” methodology ensures that AI systems
are producing the right decisions in two phases. The “Teach” phase
focuses on the choice of data, models and algorithms that are used
to train machine learning. This phase experiments and statistically
evaluates different models to select the best performing model to
be deployed into production, while avoiding gender, ethnic and
other biases, as well as ethical and compliance risks.
During the “Test” phase, AI system outputs are compared to key
performance indicators, and assessed for whether the system can
explain how a decision or outcome was determined. It uses
innovative techniques and cloud-based tools to monitor the system
on an ongoing basis for sustained performance. For instance, a
patent-pending normalization technique uses a unique algorithm to
test object recognition more quickly.
“The adoption of AI is accelerating as businesses see it’s
transformational value to power new innovations and growth,” said
Bhaskar Ghosh, group chief executive, Accenture Technology
Services. “As organizations embrace AI, it is critical to find
better ways to train and sustain these systems—securely and with
quality – to avoid adverse effects on business performance, brand
reputation, compliance and humans.”
According the Accenture Technology Vision 2018, AI systems
require addressing many of the same challenges faced in human
education and growth: fostering an understanding of right and
wrong, and what it means to behave responsibly; imparting knowledge
without bias; and building self-reliance while emphasizing the
importance of collaborating and communicating with others.
“Testing AI systems presents a completely new set of challenges.
While traditional application testing is deterministic, with a
finite number of scenarios that can be defined in advance, AI
systems require a limitless approach to testing,” said Kishore
Durg, senior managing director, Growth and Strategy and Global
Testing Services Lead for Accenture. “There is also a need for new
capabilities for evaluating data and learning models, choosing
algorithms, and monitoring for bias and ethical and regulatory
compliance. Accenture’s “Teach and Test” methodology takes all of
this into consideration to help companies develop and validate AI
systems with confidence.”
Accenture used its “Teach and Test” methodology to train a
conversational virtual agent for a financial services company’s
website, so that it could engage in accurate, unbiased
conversations and know when to refer conversations to a
human. The agent was trained 80 percent faster than
previously possible and achieved an 85 percent accuracy rate on
customer recommendations.
The methodology was also used to teach a sentiment analysis
solution to evaluate a brand’s service performance by analyzing
social media, news and other sources in real time. Having the right
training data enabled the solution to correctly interpret
sentiments in different contexts and domains. The training time for
models was cut in half, enabling faster analysis and business
results.
Accenture AI Testing is part of a complete range of testing
services that helps quality engineering professionals be a catalyst
for speed, agility and business performance while achieving radical
productivity. Accenture serves over 1,000 testing clients across
more than 40 industries and is recognized as an industry leader in
testing innovation. More information on the ”Teach and Test”
methodology can be found here.
About Accenture
Accenture (NYSE: ACN) is a leading global professional services
company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in
strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining
unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40
industries and all business functions – underpinned by the world’s
largest delivery network – Accenture works at the intersection of
business and technology to help clients improve their performance
and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. With
approximately 435,000 people serving clients in more than 120
countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world
works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com.
Copyright © 2018 Accenture. All rights reserved. Accenture, its
logo, and High Performance Delivered are trademarks of
Accenture.
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AccentureJulie Bennink,
+1-312-693-7301julie.l.bennink@accenture.com
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