The integration of AI into accounting is not just a technological advancement; this marks a paradigm shift in the way financial data is reviewed, audited and reported. The big four – Deloitte, EY, PwC and KPMG – have strong AI initiatives to improve their services and offer advanced solutions to clients. Sudhir Chowdhary takes a look at their AI game plan.
DELOITTE INDIA
Prashanth Kaddi, partner
AI brings many benefits
At Deloitte, there is a strong focus on AI to improve business outcomes and key operational areas. “We are driving enterprise-wide adoption of AI and GenAI across functions such as tax, insurance, human capital, cybersecurity and more,” says Prashanth Kaddi, partner at Deloitte India. “We have worked on a multitude of use cases across banking, e-commerce, FMCG, retail, automotive and government, as well as partnering with many alliances and technology companies to obtain hardware and software assistance to create these solutions,” he emphasizes.
For one of its banking clients, Deloitte developed a customer feedback support tool based on GenAI to help it in its journey to improve its services. In another use case involving automobiles industryDeloitte implemented a GenAI solution that transformed its approach to data management and accessibility, improving supply chain efficiency. The company also helped a global IT services leader automate and create personalized messages using a GenAI-powered template builder for customer queries to improve customer experience by automating customer queries. routine.
Deloitte has trained more than 120,000 professionals through the Deloitte AI Academy and is invest more than $2 billion in global learning and technology development initiatives to build skills in AI and other areas.
EY INDIA
Rakesh Kaul Punjabi, Partner and AI Enablement Lead
Innovate for human impact
A prolific user of technology, EY has integrated AI into many of its solutions. “AI has become synonymous with the EY brand in the minds of our clients, and today we are seen as a pioneer in the ability to achieve AI-driven transformation,” says Rakesh Kaul Punjabi, partner and Head of AI Enablement at EY India. The company believes that sectors such as banking and financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, technology, telecommunications and retail are seeing greater adoption of AI technologies. Its AI platform, EY.ai, connects the extensive business experience of EY teams in strategy, transformation, risk, assurance and tax with EY technology platforms and AI capabilities to help customers adopt AI with confidence while addressing its challenges. “Over the past several years, we have offered our clients hundreds of in-house developed AI products and solutions across a multitude of industries and sectors, led by EY Fabric, our core platform, AI Space and EY Generative AI Studio,” says Punjabi. . The company launched ‘AIVarsity’ to train over 40,000 Indian employees in AI, from beginners to experts. “Our GenAI EYQ platform, used by more than 200,000 employees each month, has processed 91 billion tokens and 33 million prompts since its launch,” he informs.
Personal watercraft India
Manpreet Singh Ahuja, Chief Digital Officer
Building Intelligence Within
PwC is developing a bold AI strategy that reshapes the way it operates, serves clients and empowers its people. She has developed more than 30 AI products and solutions across industries, addressing areas such as finance, tax, cybersecurity and customer experience. For example, PwC’s Intelligent Spend Management suite, with its nine proprietary AI agents, streamlines value chains for CFOs. Its AI-powered tax suite helps manage tax compliance, while customer service platforms and cybersecurity solutions improve both experience and security. “Key areas seeing high adoption of AI include financial transformation, legal, contract management and data analytics,” says Manpreet Singh Ahuja, TMT and CDO sector leader at PwC India. The company is also making significant investments in AI partnerships, including collaborations with tech giants. Its GenAI Experience Lab in Gurgaon offers guests a glimpse into the potential of AI through cutting-edge exhibitions. “With the widespread use of AI, finance functions can identify and manage potential risks related to contracts, unreconciled items and tax,” says Ahuja. “Gen AI solutions can help increase knowledge of accounting standards and best practices by being an intelligent discussion partner answering scenario questions on IndAs, IFRS, US GAAP, etc. The firm has more than 12,000 active users of the GenAI tool,” he adds.
KPMG INDIA
Amit Patnaik, partner
A problem-solving approach for the benefit of the customer
KPMG in India has been an early adopter of AI and GenAI across its service lines, leveraging these technologies to improve client services. “In our consulting services, we use AI to solve business challenges. Although AI is not a panacea, it can significantly improve operations in various areas such as sales, marketingmanufacturing, supply chain, finance and human resources,” says Amit Patnaik, partner at KPMG in India. “Our strategy is to identify problems across the value chain and develop customized AI solutions. This problem-focused approach has helped customers achieve benefits such as improved walk share and revenue, cost reductions and better margins, better safety and working conditions and better customer satisfaction,” he adds.
KPMG in India is seeing strong adoption of AI across its departments. According to Patnaik, AI and GenAI are revolutionizing accounting work by improving accuracy and reducing workload. “Significant investments have been made to strengthen our AI capabilities, and we are actively engaging with technology startups for their offerings in this area and specific solutions tailored to our needs and industry bodies for insights” , he informs. KPMG is also investing in creating platforms that democratize the use of AI for problem solving and platforms that accelerate the deployment and scaling of AI solutions. “Internally, our technology services teams focus on continuous upskilling and certifications, while the strategy and business teams learn how to solve business problems with AI and effectively communicate these solutions to customers,” adds Patnaik .