As companies scramble to adopt generative AI, one of Accenture's artificial intelligence (AI) executives is giving business leaders a hard reality check. It's not a side project.
At the recent Fortune Brainstorm AI conference, Arnab Chakraborty, chief AI officer at Accenture, argued that the days of treating technology roadmaps separately from corporate goals are over. “Data and AI strategies are not separate strategies, they are business strategies,” he said, emphasizing that for modern organizations these elements must be the foundation of their entire operations.
This insight comes from an extensive and ongoing collaboration between Accenture and Australian telecommunications giant Telstra. In January 2025, the companies established a dedicated joint venture, moving beyond their traditional client-consultant relationship. This is a move aimed at avoiding the stagnation of typical corporate structures. Dayle Stevens, Telstra's data and AI executive, told moderator Jeremy Kahn that the company had a five-year strategic roadmap but realized the market was moving too quickly for standard timelines. “I thought I could do what I wanted to do within five years, but I wanted to do it within two years.”
To achieve this, the partners needed to be freed from the rigidity of annual budget cycles that plague most large companies. Chakraborty said the joint venture is a “very bold move” and an “industry first” for both communications and consulting. “We had to form a new company, and this whole data and AI setup is being formed there, and what we’re doing there is creating a new identity.” He said the company was still very integrated with Telstra, but was bringing in innovation from the consulting industry and Silicon Valley.
First, solidify the foundation
Based on what he learned, Chakraborty argued that it is important to think more than just technology when forming an agent organization. “Think about people and culture. That's really important.” This is important, he added, because to accelerate the adoption of AI, “you're really redefining the culture of your organization.”
Of course, when it comes to technology, you need to clean up the mess of legacy systems. Chakraborty warned leaders not to get “obsessed with the shiny AI” and ignore the humble work of data infrastructure.
Stevens gave a candid look at the technical debt faced by large organizations. Telstra, like many incumbent companies, has traditionally allowed its various departments to source data independently, adding to the complexity of operating “80 different data platforms”.
“You can't ensure data quality unless you improve your data ecosystem,” Dale says. The company is currently in the midst of a major simplification to consolidate its 80 platforms into just three. They have already reduced that number to 27 and plan to complete the merger within 18 months.
flexibility and empathy
Annual cycles can be a trap, Stevens added, as large companies lock in spending plans every 12 months. But “AI moves very fast.” He said Telstra's internal turmoil is “about us needing to be more adaptable. We need to be more nimble so we can pivot and change as new technologies and opportunities come along.”
Mr Stevens detailed how Telstra has rolled out a generative AI tool called 'Ask Telstra' to frontline staff. Rather than framing it as part of an efficiency drive, we introduced it as a solution to employees' biggest complaints, or “problems.” The response was overwhelming: “We literally got a standing ovation,” she said, suggesting that workers are ready to embrace AI, but that there are many problems to be solved and that employers need to recognize and support them.
Telstra executives also said Australian media had been fooled by the narrative that AI would replace jobs, and that Telstra had introduced an “AI academy” to tell workers it was actively reskilling talent. Stevens added that the work has been very well-received because it focuses on the human side and those issues.
Earlier in the panel, Chakraborty highlighted another human element missing from the AI story. “I think trust is key,” he said. “Look, today's challenge is [return on investment] “It comes down to a lack of trust,” he added, hinting that billions of dollars have been spent on data center infrastructure to support AI deployments without a fundamental trust in the future benefits, and extends to “how do we focus on trust in the design of AI systems?” And how can we enable employees and organizations to reduce trust with stakeholders? So how did we do it?
This is a question that executives strongly encourage all business leaders to consider. “I think a leader's commitment to 'walking the talk' is very important,” Chakraborty said. “[The] CEO and CEO's direct reports [have to be] It's totally behind this. There is a pull from them. They're talking privately. I think that will go a long way in bringing people along. ”
