Former Accenture and EY executive Frank O’Dea has established a specialist consultancy aimed at helping companies implement artificial intelligence correctly, with plans to expand the business to Ireland and further afield.
London-based Klarus, which currently employs 25 people directly and has access to a further 30 in a wider network of experts, is aiming to address the growing market frustration of deploying AI at speed without meaningful financial returns. Research quoted by the company, carried out by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), found up to 95 per cent of enterprise generative AI initiatives are failing to deliver.
Klarus combines an expert network and curated AI solutions to help companies implement solutions that can drive return on investment for businesses.
O’Dea, who led Accenture UK’s communications technology and media division and was previously chief innovation officer of EY Ireland, said AI had the potential to disrupt every sector, but it was still in its early days.
READ MORE
“There’s an awful lot of confusion, a lot of technology push and a lot of hype over AI. People think they need to be doing something, but they don’t know what it is. So people are experimenting a lot and they’re not really experimenting on necessarily the right things,” he said.
“I think that there’s a real gap there in terms of being able to help people to identify what are the things they should be using right now, or that they might use in the future - be a fast follower rather than a pioneer. I think a lot of the failures are at experiments that are set up in the wrong areas.”
O’Dea noted that many organisations lack in-house expertise or the resources to employ consultants to implement various projects.
Klarus is aiming to fill a gap in the market that will offer expertise in various industries and combine it with knowledge of the solutions that are available in the various industries, what stage they’re at, how they’re evolving, and which ones will deliver real benefits.
“We don’t push technology, and we don’t we pull technology into a business outcome,” he said. “We use AI in our business, and in every industry that we’re in, we have an expert network of skills that we can access from people who would have been in the industry, or might have been consultants to the industry.”
The company operates on an outcome-based fee structure. It has already worked with a number of enterprise and mid-market organisations, from family-owned to private equity-backed and listed companies across various industries.
Initially focused on the UK, Klarus is planning further expansion. It already supports a number of clients here, with plans to open an Irish office to support its growing client base.
“We’ve got great international ambitions, and Ireland is, first on the list,” O’Dea said. “We do serve clients here in Ireland from the UK, it’s relatively easy to do that. Our plan is to set up in Ireland properly with our team. There’s other markets that we’re also very interested in moving into.”
The company has been backed by a small number of investors, with initial funding coming through a round led by Crownway Investments to help it grow its expert network and proprietary consulting platform.
