PwC US invests $1 billion to expand and scale AI capabilities

PwC US today announced plans to invest $1 billion over the next three years to expand and scale its artificial intelligence (AI) offerings and help clients harness the power of generative AI to reinvent their businesses. This investment builds on PwC’s long-standing commitment to AI to enhance its ability to deliver human-centric, technology-enabled solutions and build trust and drive sustained results in line with its global strategy, The New Equation.

The investment reflects PwC’s industry-leading partnership with Microsoft to create scalable offerings using OpenAI’s GPT-4/ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI services. This will enable PwC to transform the way it works while leveraging the power of generative AI. PwC will use this technology to help clients reinvent their businesses and achieve better outcomes by generating richer insights, improving productivity, and developing new products and services in a way that builds stronger trust with stakeholders.

"We are at a tipping point for business and society, where AI will massively revolutionize the way we work, live and interact," said Mohamed Kande, Vice Chairman, Co-Leader of US Advisory Solutions and Global Advisory Leader, PwC. "PwC has long been a pioneer in responsible AI, and this latest investment and collaboration with Microsoft will help our people and clients realize the productivity gains and new growth opportunities brought by generative AI in a responsible way and achieve the desired results."

PwC has begun deploying relevant capabilities in Azure OpenAI services for clients in various industries such as insurance, aviation, and healthcare. These solutions have successfully helped clients save time and costs while accelerating revenue growth.

“We are excited that PwC will leverage Azure OpenAI services to transform the way it works and deliver innovative client solutions that leverage the world’s most advanced AI models, backed by Azure’s trusted, enterprise-grade capabilities and AI-optimized infrastructure,” said Eric Boyd, corporate vice president of Microsoft AI Platform. “Our collaboration with PwC and OpenAI will be a game-changer, opening the door for enterprises to safely and securely experience generative AI applications.”

According to PwC’s recent Trust Survey, nearly all business leaders said their companies prioritize AI-related initiatives and systems in the short term, but only 35% of executives said their companies will focus on improving the governance of AI systems and processes, as well as monitoring and reporting on AI model performance. PwC drives governance and accountability through our Responsible AI Framework, helping clients build and deploy OpenAI’s generative AI technology across a variety of use cases, with a focus on governance, fairness, transparency and explainability, and protecting the confidentiality and security of data. This will not only unlock greater value and outcomes for PwC clients, but also work to build greater trust in AI platforms, underscoring PwC’s purpose to build trust in society and solve important problems.

At the same time, PwC will modernize its internal platforms to embed this new, secure, generative AI environment and build on its existing efforts to leverage AI to improve client productivity in tax, audit and advisory services. Meanwhile, as part of Project My+, PwC US will invest in AI tools and capabilities for its 65,000 employees to enable them to work faster and smarter, help them advance their careers, and advise clients on the benefits of AI and other transformative technologies.

This investment builds on PwC’s long-term commitment to AI. Just last month, PwC Global Tax & Legal Services (TLS) announced an agreement with Harvey, which is backed by the OpenAI Venture Fund and built on OpenAI and Chat GPT technology. PwC’s AI services help clients deploy AI in their applications in an explainable, secure and robust manner, and these AI capabilities have been ranked as industry-leading by Forrester, Gartner and IDC.