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Accenture has appointed Rajendra Prasad, a long-time technology executive, to the newly created role of chief information and asset engineering officer.

In that role, Prasad will lead all of Accenture’s internal technology development efforts. That’s a big responsibility: Accenture builds software for over 9,000 clients, including most of the Global Fortune 500, as well as its internal workforce of 738,000 employees.

Accenture is the world’s largest IT consulting firm. It builds everything from websites to complex public cloud environments and does some work outside the technology world as well, notably marketing projects.

Besides internal technology development initiatives, Prasad will also be tasked with overseeing “Accenture systems and Accenture assets for clients.” Those assets include the firm’s entire IT infrastructure.

Before his latest promotion, Prasad spent about three decades in the IT industry. About 18 of those years were spent at Accenture in a variety of executive positions.

Prasad most recently held the title of global automation lead for technology. In that role, he helped spearhead Accenture’s efforts to incorporate AI into its employees day-to-day work.

That an executive with extensive AI experience was appointed as chief information and asset engineering officer is no coincidence.

Accenture, like many other large IT consultancies, is looking into ways that it can apply AI to improve employees’ productivity. To advance that effort, it needs a leadership team with extensive machine learning experience, which is what Prasad will bring to the table.

“Rajendra’s deep expertise in artificial intelligence, automation, and intelligent assets makes him the perfect fit to accelerate our internal transformation,” commented Accenture chief technology officer Paul Daugherty.

AI is also an increasingly important component of Accenture’s go-to-market strategy. 

Just as the consultancy is adopting AI internally, its corporate clients are looking at ways the technology can make their operations more efficient. As a result, more and more of those clients will be turning to Accenture for assistance with machine learning projects.

Accenture announced Prasad’s promotion alongside another executive move. The firm appointed Penelope Prett to lead its Workday business, which is responsible for helping large enterprises implement Workday’s HR software.

Pretty is no stranger to HR software. Before the promotion, she led Accenture’s internal rollout of Workday’s solution in a project that affected more than 700,000 employees.

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