MANILA, Philippines — A chat bot that can manage a business, an augmented reality (AR) tutorial on how to fix a car engine, drone farming. These innovative ideas may seem straight out of the next “Iron Man” movie script but they were built and now up and running at Accenture’s newly launched Liquid Studio in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.

With over 20 studios in key locations around the world including Silicon Valley, Paris, Sydney, and Singapore, Accenture has chosen Manila because of the abundance of trainable and adaptable talent.

It shows Accenture’s commitment to the Philippines in making it a center of innovation for our clients,” said Ambe Tierro, Technology Lead, Accenture Philippines.  “This space is dedicated to our people to serve as inspiration and to upgrade their skills through technology.”

Accenture also considers the Philippines as one of their biggest markets, hosting clients from all over the world. It is the first studio co-located in a delivery center.

“We want to help our clients to adapt to technology to improve their business models,” said Bhaskar Ghosh, Group Chief Executive, Accenture Technology Services. “So we must bring more of the tech and innovation here.”

At Liquid Studio Manila, the talents are made up of 87% millennials and are given resources and opportunities to build the next big thing. There are regular innovation challenges, for example, where winners are sent to Liquid Studios abroad.

Young men and women engineers and developers have created game-changing technology like a virtual assistant that can troubleshoot through chat, and image analyzers that can deliver targeted ads. These sophisticated tools are built in a matter of weeks or even days inside the studio.

“Liquid Studio is a critical component of the Innovation Architecture of Accenture,” said JP Palpallatoc, Digital Lead of Accenture Philippines.

Accenture also works with schools and universities to train students and offer career opportunities. The launch of Liquid Studio Manila aims to augment that effort by opening the space to students who would like to learn about artificial intelligence, data, and analytics, and to work on their own innovative ideas.

“We recruit Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) grads. We encourage STEM and advocate women in STEM,” said Tierro. “But we are not restricted by STEM. As long as the talent is trainable, we are open to hiring them.”

These are just some of the steps that Accenture is taking not just to help their clients build better businesses but to also build a better world.

Through technology, they want to enable people with disabilities like speech or hearing impairment to work seamlessly with their colleagues by using special communication tools. Apart from diversity, Accenture is also promoting gender equality, with the aim to declare a gender equal company by 2025.

After all, they are not only in the business of technology and digital solutions but also in the business of training people.

“We are driving the rotation to new agenda within Accenture throughout the globe,” shared Ghosh. “We invest in people. We train people in the new or else they will not be relevant in the future.” – Rappler.com