Editors’ Note

As chief responsible AI officer at Accenture, Arnab Chakraborty oversees the company’s strategy, market-leading capabilities, and C-suite client engagements, as well as technology ecosystem relationships and research partnerships related to responsible AI. He is a regular contributor to important conversations on AI regulation, including speaking to the U.S. Senate AI Insight Forum in 2024 to address the impact and implications of AI on the workforce. Chakraborty also led discussions on responsible AI at the World Economic Forum 2024. With more than 25 years of experience, he has led data-driven transformation for Fortune 100 companies and holds 10 patents in machine learning solutions for business challenges. Throughout his career, he has built diverse, global teams to deliver high performance with 1000+ practitioners across multiple levels of leadership. He is a member of the advisory board of Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois and serves as the Accenture national sponsor and board member of Upwardly Global, providing support and mentorship for immigrants and refugees to restart their careers in the U.S. Chakraborty earned a BE degree in mechanical engineering from National Institute of Technology Rourkela and an MBA in industrial management from Indian Institute of Management Mumbai.

Company Brief

Accenture (accenture.com) is a leading global professional services company that helps the world’s leading organizations build their digital core, optimize their operations, accelerate revenue growth, and enhance services – creating tangible value at speed and scale. The company is a talent- and innovation-led company with 779,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Technology is at the core of change today, and Accenture is one of the world’s leaders in helping drive that change with strong ecosystem relationships. The company combines its strength in technology and leadership in cloud, data and AI with industry experience, functional expertise, and global delivery capability. Accenture’s broad range of services, solutions and assets across Strategy and Consulting, Technology, Operations, Industry X and Song, together with a culture of shared success and commitment to creating 360° value, enables the company to help its clients reinvent and build trusted, lasting relationships.

Will you provide an overview of your role and areas of focus?

As Accenture’s Chief Responsible AI Officer, my role is to ensure that AI is developed, deployed, and scaled responsibly across industries. This means embedding trust, fairness, and transparency into AI systems while helping clients unlock AI’s full potential for business transformation. This exciting opportunity blends strategy, governance, and innovation. My view is that technology should be designed to empower people – that’s why our focus is not just on building AI solutions, but also on equipping leaders and employees with the skills and confidence to work alongside AI in meaningful ways.

AI is creating opportunities no one had imagined. It’s reshaping the way we work, how decisions are made, and even how we experience the world around us. To get it right, to harness its power optimally, AI needs the right infrastructure to be used responsibly; it has the potential to drive progress in ways we can’t yet fully grasp. But that means making fairness, transparency, and accountability as non-negotiables from the start.

How critical is it for the role of the Chief Responsible AI Officer to be engaged in business strategy?

Responsible AI isn’t just a technology conversation – it’s a business imperative. Building a foundation of trust, fairness, and accountability is directly linked to adoption and performance of AI. That’s why the role of the Chief Responsible AI Officer is so critical – not just for governance, but for shaping business strategy itself. AI isn’t operating in a silo; it’s influencing decisions, customer experiences, and even entire business models. The Chief Responsible AI Officer ensures AI is explainable, ethical, and aligned with broader business goals, turning responsible AI from a compliance checkbox into a true competitive advantage. And yet, while 96 percent of leaders agree that managing AI risk should be a top priority, only 2 percent of organizations have fully operationalized responsible AI. That gap is where the real challenge – and opportunity – lies.

Will you highlight Accenture’s Data & AI practice?

Accenture’s Data & AI practice is designed to help clients scale AI responsibly while delivering meaningful business value. We’ve built a framework that guides organizations through AI strategy, model customization, governance, and continuous monitoring. With over 2,000 generative AI projects across industries, 35+ ecosystem partnerships, and a workforce of 69,000 AI practitioners, we’re not just advising clients on AI – we’re actively shaping its evolution. Our AI Refinery platform and industry-specific solutions are accelerating AI adoption while ensuring governance remains at the core.

How is Accenture expanding its capability to assess, design, implement, scale, and monitor AI systems responsibly?

We take a holistic approach to responsible AI, combining policy, technology, and human oversight. Accenture has developed AI governance frameworks that integrate fairness, explainability, and risk mitigation into AI systems from day one. Our Responsible AI Compliance Program – scaled across 779,000+ employees – ensures that ethical AI principles are operationalized at every stage. We recently partnered with Amazon Web Services and launched the Accenture Responsible AI platform to help clients create an ongoing cycle of monitoring, testing, and remediating for compliance throughout the enterprise.

Further, Accenture’s Center for Advanced AI provides businesses with the skills, knowledge and confidence to navigate AI’s complexities. As a company, we believe that AI should be practical, understandable, and built for real-world impact. That’s why we’re backing this with a $1 billion investment in employee learning through our LearnVantage program – because technology alone isn’t enough. People need to feel ready and empowered to use AI effectively, and we’re committed to making that happen. In addition, we are rolling out over 100 industry-specific AI agent solutions as part of Accenture AI Refinery, enabling businesses to operationalize AI safely and effectively while fostering a workforce that is confident and prepared to work alongside AI.

What do you tell clients about balancing AI innovation while mitigating risks?

What we know with certainty is that companies that embed responsible AI from the start realize better results – faster adoption, stronger trust, and fewer regulatory headaches down the line. AI is all about trust. I often compare it to aviation – before a plane ever takes off, there are countless safety checks to ensure passengers feel secure. AI needs that same level of care.

What really matters is that responsible AI isn’t just about avoiding risks – it’s about building AI that lasts. The companies that put strong governance in place, conduct thorough risk assessments, and ensure human oversight is much more than just checking a compliance box are setting themselves up to lead, to innovate with confidence, and to gain a competitive edge in a world where trust is everything.

What are the keys to effectively scaling AI across an enterprise?

Business leaders need to understand that scaling AI isn’t just about rolling out more models – it’s about making AI a seamless part of how a business operates. Companies that do this well have three things in common: a strong data foundation, clear governance, and a workforce that’s ready to collaborate with AI. Surprisingly, the biggest challenge often isn’t the technology itself – its helping people trust and adopt AI. That’s why the human side of AI is just as important as the tech. When teams are trained, engaged, and see AI as an enabler rather than a threat, adoption happens faster and more effectively. I’ve seen this play out time and time again. People who are using AI, whether in marketing, automotive or legal are witnessing a complete transformation in their work – they have more time to do the thinking and creative work while they let their AI tool manage the tedious, mechanical stuff. It’s helping teams work smarter, focus on higher-value tasks, and ultimately drive more impact. The onus is on businesses to lead with value, keep their talent front and center, and move with transparency.

What are you most excited about when you look at the future of AI, and what concerns you the most?

The future of AI is incredibly exciting – we’re moving toward AI that doesn’t just automate tasks, but collaborates with humans to solve complex problems in ways we never imagined. It’s about efficiency and collaboration. Agentic AI, for example, will fundamentally change how businesses operate, with AI agents making decisions and acting autonomously within teams. I still remember the first time I saw an AI system make an independent decision – it was just a simple recommendation, but it felt like a glimpse into the future. Technology in the future will become more intelligent and less artificial.

But what’s equally concerning is the gap between AI ambition and AI readiness. Businesses and governments are rushing to adopt and scale AI, and everyone wants to win that race. But without the right data maturity, governance, and trust frameworks, they risk moving in the wrong direction. My focus is to help businesses innovate responsibly, ensuring AI remains fair, transparent, and, most importantly, human-centered.