Top Line
Accounting giant PwC on Wednesday announced a major deal with OpenAI that will enable it to resell ChatGPT to other companies and become the tech company's largest user of its business software, part of the Big Four's AI-focused technology strategy as companies race to harness increasingly sophisticated generative artificial intelligence.
PwC has signed a deal with OpenAI to resell and use the company's enterprise software.
Key Facts
PwC, also known as PricewaterhouseCoopers, announced that its UK and US offices have signed a deal with OpenAI, becoming the tech company's first reseller of its business chatbot, ChatGPT Enterprise.
Last summer, Microsoft-backed OpenAI released a business edition of its popular chatbot ChatGPT as a tool to help large enterprises improve their operations, grow and get results faster.
Prior to the deal with PwC, companies wanting to use enterprise chatbots had to contact OpenAI directly.
The partnership makes PwC the largest user of OpenAI's business products, the Big 4 accounting firm claimed, noting that its UK and US employees will have access to “the most powerful version of ChatGPT.”
The move will reportedly see the tool rolled out to 100,000 PwC employees, three-quarters of whom are in the US, and the firm is developing custom AI tools to help employees review tax returns, develop software and generate reports.
PwC did not disclose the terms of its deal with OpenAI.
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Big numbers
$1 billion. This is the amount that PwC's US branch said in April last year that it planned to invest in AI over the next three years.
Main Background
Businesses have been leveraging artificial intelligence in some form for decades, but until recently, the systems were primarily focused on analysis and forecasting, as well as routine, manual tasks such as production lines. While not new, recent advances in generative AI – systems that can synthesize output such as text, video, and images from a variety of prompts – are expected to open up new areas in the workplace, streamlining tasks or even replacing some white-collar jobs previously believed to be safe from automation. OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT in 2022 has accelerated the adoption of generative AI, with companies from startups such as Anthropic to big tech giants such as Google, Meta, and Amazon rushing to deploy and improve their own models, and releasing advanced business versions to the public alongside more limited models. Many companies are rapidly adopting the technology, with PwC saying it is seeing a rapid rise in use cases that demonstrate the utility of generative AI, saying it has already identified more than 3,000 internal cases that are “driving end-to-end transformation within their own businesses,” adding that it is “showcasing endless potential uses for our clients.”
Forbes Rating
Altman has an estimated net worth of $1 billion. He doesn't own any shares in OpenAI, and built his fortune through a series of lucrative investments, including fintech darlings Stripe, Reddit, and fusion venture Helion. Altman is a prolific investor, and before co-founding OpenAI, he founded social mapping company Loopt and served as partner and president of the well-known startup accelerator Y Combinator.
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