The four largest professional services firms are approaching AI on two fronts. This means both implementing new technologies internally and helping customers implement them as well.
In terms of how companies and employees are adapting to the future of AI, they are customer zero.
I've been covering the consulting industry for Business Insider all year long, interviewing executives, getting the scoop, and visiting the campuses and headquarters of consulting giants. Here are my four key takeaways on how the Big 4 will approach AI in 2025.
1. The year of AI agents
The Big Four have been investing heavily in automation and AI for years, but 2025 was the year those tools went mainstream.
Employees in audit, tax, and consulting departments now use chatbots and agent AI systems on a daily basis, and increasingly, clients have access to them as well.
Deloitte is deploying Zora AI, an agent platform built with Nvidia, to provide clients with “intelligent digital workers” who can complete tasks autonomously. The company also expanded the generative AI capabilities of its cloud-based audit and assurance platform, Omnia, and in October signed an agreement with Anthropic to deploy Claude AI to its 470,000 employees worldwide.
EY launched its own agent platform, EY.ai, giving 80,000 tax professionals access to 150 AI agents to perform tasks such as data collection, document review, and tax compliance. EY told Business Insider that it is investing more than $1 billion annually in AI platforms and products, with plans to develop or bring 1,000 AI agents into production in 2025 and scale to 100,000 by 2028.
PwC introduced its agent platform, Agent OS, in March and has since deployed 25,000 intelligent agents across its client operations. A PwC spokesperson told Business Insider that partnerships with companies like Salesforce, CrewAI and AWS were central to PWC's drive for AI-led growth in 2025.
In June, KPMG released KPMG Workbench, an agent AI platform developed with Microsoft. It connects 50 AI agents and chatbots, with nearly 1,000 more in development. In October, we launched KPMG Velocity for advisory work, adding Clara, an audit platform used by more than 95,000 auditors worldwide, and a digital gateway for tax.
Tools are not foolproof. In October, Deloitte agreed to issue a partial refund to the Australian government after errors were discovered in a report that was partially generated using AI.
2. Slowdown in entry-level recruitment
A big question across the industry is what AI will mean for human work. In the consulting industry, technology is already accelerating the shift in focus from people to value.
In August, Business Insider obtained a portion of an internal presentation showing that PwC US plans to cut graduate hiring by one-third over the next three years. A bullet point on the presentation slide said management's decision to delay associate-level hiring was partially related to “the impact of AI.”
The company said the cuts reflected “the rapid pace of technological innovation that is reshaping the way we work” and “historically low” employee turnover.
The disruption of AI is also affecting the upper echelons of the Big Four. Partners in the most senior positions within firms are increasingly leaving the Big Four for midsize organizations and startups. Several leaders Business Insider spoke to cited a faster pace, more opportunities for advancement, and the opportunity to be part of the next wave of AI innovation as reasons for leaving.
Business Insider reported in August that PwC plans to reduce its hiring of new graduates by one-third in the U.S. over the next three years. Jack Taylor/Getty Images
3. Rise of the technologist
I have one talent The group the Big 4 are looking for in the market is technologists. According to its latest annual report, EY has hired 61,000 new engineers since 2023. They currently make up about 15% of the total workforce.
PwC is “looking for hundreds of engineers,” its global chairman Mohamed Khande told the BBC in November. PwC told Business Insider that the company created the engineering career path to “enhance engineering excellence” across the company and expand opportunities for technical talent.
Upskilling is also a top priority for the big four.
In January, EY rolled out AI tools to employees to help them become aware of how their work will change with AI. The aim is to help them find ways to better utilize technology in their current jobs and adapt to the future.
Nearly 100,000 EY employees, roughly a quarter of the company's workforce, also earned a digital “AI badge” for completing one of the company's new AI learning programs.
But as Business Insider learned while taking KPMG's AI training for tax interns, some of the most effective uses of AI in professional services depend on strong prompting.
Tax interns receive AI training at KPMG's Lakehouse training facility in Florida. Polly Thompson
4. Work changes.
The work of consultants and accountants is changing. Direct advisory projects are being replaced by long-term partnerships in which consultants build, implement, and maintain tools for companies.
Matt Wood, global and U.S. chief technology and innovation officer at PwC, told Business Insider that by 2025, organizations will be adapting AI to existing workflows. But PwC's job in 2026 will be to “help clients transform their models” and design processes with AI in mind from the beginning, Wood said.
Raj Sharma, EY's global managing partner for growth and innovation, told Business Insider in January that the power of AI agents is forcing the company to rethink its commercial model. Sharma said AI agents could require a “software-as-a-service” approach, where clients pay based on results, rather than EY charging clients based on the time and resources they spend on a project.
Changes in services mean that consultants' day-to-day work is also evolving, and the work of junior employees is expected to be disrupted first.
At PwC, new hires will be filling the roles that managers do within three years. That's because new hires will be overseeing AI that performs routine, repetitive audit tasks, says Jen Kosar. PwC’s AI Assurance Leaderhe told Business Insider in August.
KPMG is also gearing up its junior consultants to advance their careers.
“We want young people to become managers of agents,” Niall Cleoberry, KPMG's global AI workforce leader, told Business Insider in a November interview. they will manage the team AI agent and play a larger role in strategic decisions, he said.
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