Big 4 accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers is betting big on generative AI as a game-changing technology, with the company announcing at the end of April that it will invest $1 billion in the technology over the next three years. bottom.
The company demonstrated at its Technology Showcase in New York on May 9 that AI and other emerging technologies will play an important role in its business. This includes geospatial climate intelligence tools that help assess climate risk, and the company’s model edge product, the cloud. A base platform for risk management and an upcoming predictive analytics tool.
PwC also aims to leverage generative AI and other emerging technologies to innovate key areas such as auditing. PwC is investing an additional $1 billion in audit services, which it describes as a “substantial investment that will help achieve a transformation of how audit services are delivered and the technology that underpins that service delivery.” Chairman Wes Bricker said. PwC Trust Solutions Leader said in an interview:
A PwC spokesperson said in an email that the new global audit technology ecosystem will help the company “standardize, simplify, centralize and automate audit operations.” This ecosystem will be rolled out across PwC’s global network over the next few years.
Generative AI, the company’s main focus of development, will also play a role in its upcoming predictive analytics tool, which the company is piloting. The AI-powered tool will help PwC “support audit opinions in specific areas,” Bricker said.
AI and next-gen auditing
Companies are racing to keep up with AI. Along with PwC, the same Big Four Deloitte has also allocated $1.4 billion to its Project 120 initiative aimed at developing “critical technology and leadership skills” in its employees, the company said. in December.
Meanwhile, KPMG has announced a partnership with Ottawa, Canada-based technology provider MindBridge to bring its machine learning technology to its existing digital audit platform, KPMG Clara.
“Generative AI allows us to take existing technology and do it with better technology,” Bricker said of the technology’s potential. Technologies such as predictive analytics in auditing have been around for several years, but the breadth of data available through the incorporation of generative AI could transform the company’s auditing services, for example.
“Given an earnings record that incorporates market interest rates, we can take the publicly published market interest rate curve and compare it to the interest earnings recorded in financial contracts,” Bricker said. “The availability of market-based data is expanding, and we will leverage the power of that data within our audits.”
the human element
The Big 4 are working with companies like Oracle, Microsoft, and Google to take swift steps to stay ahead of the AI race, but most companies see AI as a tool rather than a replacement for human employees. We focus on technology.
For example, KPMG is bullish about the importance of the human touch in this area, with Sebastian Stockl, global head of audit innovation telling CFO Dive in a previous interview, that these processes have always been “human and He pointed out that it is done by “mechanical interaction”. “This is by no means a ‘leave the machine alone’ type of scenario.”
PwC is one of the companies working to ensure that its workforce is AI-ready, and the company said it aims to provide “human-driven, technology-enabled solutions.” But it can be difficult to upskill your workforce with rapidly evolving technology. Generative AI will create “new jobs that didn’t exist six months ago,” said Mohamed Kande, Co-Leader and Global Advisory, Consulting Solutions, USA. The leader pointed out during a Q&A at the company’s tech showcase last week.
Kande pointed to roles like prompt engineer, for example, but the job is so new that universities and programs don’t yet teach the skills needed for it.
“We need to hire some of our data engineers and data scientists, develop our own rapid engineers, and make sure we provide them with training … so that our technicians can become more specialized when it comes to generative AI. to do it,” he said. .
Bricker said employees can learn these new skills by starting with techniques they already know, adding: PwC For example, an auditor “knows how to use predictive analytics in the context of an audit.”
“We will not leave our employees behind on AI,” he said. “So we made a commitment to train all our employees on generative AI. That way, our employees start with the areas of knowledge they know, so they combine those two into greater competencies. They are adding to it.”
