Dive Brief:
- EY spent $1.4 billion as part of its AI strategy over the past 18 months, and the investment push has yielded a new AI-powered platform called EY.ai, the company announced Wednesday.
- The investment covered costs related to embedding AI into proprietary technologies and acquiring tech to support cloud and automation, which provided the underlying foundation for EY.ai, according to the company.
- EY plans to roll out a large language model, called EY.ai EYQ, as an in-house chat interface starting this month. In its current pilot phase, 4,200 EY tech members are using the tool. EY did not respond to questions regarding the data training sets used for the model by publication time.
Dive Insight:
The largest global professional services firms are going all in on AI with hefty investments and ambitious plans to bolster their own capabilities and, in turn, support their clients.
PwC created a conversational generative AI tool built with OpenAI’s tech and fine-tuned it with relevant data last month. KPMG laid out plans in July to focus on AI and cloud with a $2 billion investment through an expanded partnership with Microsoft.
Boston Consulting Group announced Thursday it partnered with Anthropic to allow customers direct access to the AI company’s Claude 2 model. The consulting firm expects integrating the generative AI assistant into client engagements will improve productivity and innovation. Internal team members are expected to use the tool to optimize workflows, analyze data faster and improve insights.
McKinsey also rolled out its proprietary generative AI platform to 7,000 employees in August.
Just like many of the biggest brands, EY is not new to AI. The company began building on top of OpenAI’s underlying GPT engine several years ago. In February, Jeff Wong, EY global chief innovation officer, stressed the company’s enthusiasm and caution towards implementing the technology in workflows.
“EY.ai EYQ is a secure, in-house large language model and is in full compliance with the EY organization’s robust data privacy and client confidentiality policies,” a company spokesperson said via email Thursday. “EY prompts and completions are not retained or used by the model.”
EY’s broader AI initiatives include an e-learning course for all employees, called AI Now, to be released in November. The consulting company also expanded the number of formal AI learning credentials available to employees.
