Accenture to acquire UK AI startup Faculty

"Co-founded in 2014 as ASI Data Science by then Harvard quantum physics research fellow Warner, it was renamed Faculty in 2019. This might have been an attempt to disassociate it from allegations, which it strenuously denied, that it was part of the same internship program as scandal-hit company Cambridge Analytica, through the latter's parent company, SCL Group. Since then, Faculty has established a solid reputation through its work with the UK government,"

"including the creation of an NHS Early Warning System (EWS) system used to predict hospital admissions and ventilator requirements during the Covid pandemic. This dovetails well with Accenture's direction; it has spent the last year undergoing an AI makeover. In June, the company folded five business units into a single division, Reinvention Services,"

Faculty began as ASI Data Science in 2014, founded by Warner while at Harvard, and was renamed Faculty in 2019 amid denied allegations linking it to Cambridge Analytica's internship program via SCL Group. Faculty developed a strong reputation through work with the UK government, including building an NHS Early Warning System to predict hospital admissions and ventilator needs during the Covid pandemic. Accenture has pursued an AI-focused restructuring, merging five business units into Reinvention Services and promoting an internal identity around AI transformation by calling employees "reinventors." The two firms' directions align around AI and public-sector deployments.

Read at Computerworld