Ex-Accenture trio launch AI consultancy Time Under Tension
Australia has welcomed new consultancy Time Under Tension, which is focused on tapping the potential of generative AI in the customer experience domain.
Jason Ross, Tim Fouhy and Tim O’Neill have joined forces to launch a new consultancy firm focused on supporting clients in elevating their customer experience through the use of generative AI. Based out of Melbourne and Sydney, Time Under Tension describes its methodology as sitting at the intersection of design, user experience and artificial intelligence.
Time Under Tension’s co-founders have a lengthy working relationship, with O’Neill and Fouhy having previously established Reactive together in 1997, before the company was acquired by Accenture in 2015.
The pair continued to run the digital agency under Accenture Interactive as managing directors – O’Neill for a further three years – before also later co-founding luxury car sales site Summon.
Ross meanwhile joined Reactive from the United Kingdom in 2011, serving as general manager of its Sydney office and adding an A/NZ ecommerce practice lead role post-acquisition. From 2018, he spent four years as a managing director and global account lead within Accenture’s Communications, Media and Technology team, before going on to head up the A/NZ arm of Capgemini Invest design subsidiary frog.
Officially launched in March, Time Under Tension takes its name from the concept of growing and developing physical muscles through training and a controlled and consistent amount of “time under tension”, applied as an analogy to training an AI model, which requires focus, energy and time. The end results of a well-trained muscle (or AI model) however, the firm says, are power, speed and agility.
The founders have dubbed their approach ‘Sprint Tension’, a two-sprint framework using proprietary methods and toolkits designed to accelerate AI-driven change centered around three key steps; ‘Inform’ – a mix of information and interactive presentations to help inspire; ‘Design’ – the co-creation phase to develop company-specific use-cases; and ‘Create’ – the coding of functioning generative AI prototypes.
“Generative AI is a technology wave that has the potential to revolutionise customer experience across a wide range of industries,” the firm states. “With its ability to create unique and personalised content, generative AI can enhance customer experience by tailoring messages and services to individual preferences. It can also streamline marketing processes such as image and content creation, providing incredible flexibility and efficiency gains.
Earlier this year, global strategy consulting firm Bain & Company inked an alliance with ChatGPT creator OpenAI.
