Chris Gstalder, Office Managing Director, Tampa Bay, Accenture

In terms of potential for business growth, the Tampa Bay area is a best-kept secret. “Companies should be considering how to relocate to win in this market because there’s more to offer,” Chris Gstalder, Tampa Bay managing director for Accenture, told Invest:.

What factors make Tampa Bay an attractive location for Accenture? 

Maybe 10 years ago, we would have said climate was the main driver of growth, with the lack of income tax being a bonus. Now, however, we would say it’s the presence of high-quality tech talent and amazing new ideas, this is a friendly place where we can collaborate effectively. We’re also seeing traditional companies that are already here wanting to get into new areas, such as financial companies moving into fintech or hospitals leading medical innovation. We have several leading cybersecurity companies that are coming in and figuring out how to expand while leveraging the new technologies that are here. What we’re seeing from our Accenture research fits in perfectly with the growth that is happening in Tampa. We recently released our Technology Vision 2025, which focuses on what we think will be the major technology trends that every company should be watching. The last few years have clearly been about AI, but this year is particularly interesting for me because now we’re starting to talk about what’s next in AI.

Can you expand on what is next, according to Accenture’s research?

It’s autonomous AI. Up to this point, AI has been more of an accelerator, with some humans then looking at it, validating the right path, and tweaking it. We’re getting to the point now in what we’re calling the Binary Big Bang, which is where digital agents will truly be able to start doing things on their own. They’re either interacting with other digital agents or operating on behalf of companies to serve end customers. This has huge implications for how you differentiate your brand, how you secure it, and how you train your people to be able to use it. 

How is Accenture setting itself apart from other consulting firms? 

I would start with the power of Accenture. The company now has around 799,000 people. We have expert knowledge across almost every industry, alongside deep technology resources in areas like AI, security, and automation. We have also built robust partnerships with  industry-leading technology companies such as Meta, AWS, and Google, as well as companies that may not be household names now but could be the drivers of the AI revolution. One example is the partnership between Accenture, Meta, and NVIDIA to help drive AI adoption at scale while being specific to industries leveraging the strengths of all three companies. 

What sectors are you targeting for growth, or where do you see the greatest opportunity in the Tampa Bay area?

Tampa is a best-kept secret. We’re starting to see more companies launching or relocating here, but the region is still pushing for more. Companies should be considering how to relocate and take advantage of this market because there’s more to offer. We’re seeing huge growth and innovation. There are companies in Tampa that will figure out — or have already figured out — how to turn an industry on its head through innovation and the ideas that they have. It has been inspiring to learn more about how they are thinking and how they envision taking innovation to the next level. That is true even in the traditional sectors that have been established here for a while like healthcare and the financial sector, where you can see these companies starting to think through their next evolution in terms of AI technology. From there, you start to think about how to better protect organizations with the increased number of cyber threats that are happening every day which in turn makes cybersecurity a huge opportunity area. This will only grow as the next generation of technology emerges such as quantum computing. Ensuring that we’re ready for this rapid innovation will be a big task for all of us. There are exciting opportunities and a lot of room to grow here in Tampa.