Accenture Clustering Engine (2016)

Companies face a flood of marketing data but struggle to derive actionable insights. Analytics teams often rely on intuition with traditional tools like Excel, leading to uneven, non-differentiated segments. They are also overwhelmed by trillions of possible solutions, most of which fall short.

The Accenture Clustering Engine (ACE) offers a breakthrough: it uses AI and advanced visualisation to deliver precise, actionable customer segments in hours rather than months. By categorising data into Business Drivers, Profile Variables, and Clustering Variables, it focuses on relevant clusters to create effective segments that boost marketing impact. This platform’s adaptive search process quickly narrows down high-potential solutions, and its visualisation tools empower teams to refine and select optimal segments collaboratively.

Using an Agile and iterative product development strategy, early alpha releases provided inputs that refined the methodology. A prototype of the ACE was used to analyse Microsoft’s Bing customer survey data. The analysis helped Microsoft find strategic target segments within a competitor’s customer base that were primed for conversion.