Artificial intelligence

For companies, using AI to automate processes or generate content is useful, but it only scratches the surface of AI’s capabilities. AI makes it possible for companies and their people to create value in new ways, opening the door to entirely new business models.

CEOs understand AI’s potential. In PwC’s 2024 Global CEO Survey, 70% of CEOs say that AI will significantly change the way their company creates, delivers and captures value over the next three years (rising to 89% for CEOs whose companies have already adopted generative AI).

At PwC, we are harnessing our global expertise in AI to help clients across the world unlock AI-driven value creation. This year, we have helped companies leverage AI in a way that is explainable, secure, and robust to transform their businesses at scale and gain new competitive advantage. We help clients realise the full power of AI responsibly — mitigating risks, maintaining data security, and supporting the trustworthiness of AI outputs. We are leading the market with the AI led transformation of our core services, rolling out AI platforms across our network and developing thousands of use cases.

“Technology is a powerful force, advancing every day, but technology alone can't reinvent our business or change the way we work. Meeting that challenge also requires smart, creative people of integrity who dive in and embrace advancing technologies, learning to apply AI in responsible and innovative ways.”

Joe Atkinson
Global Chief AI Officer, PwC US

Highlights of our year

US$1.5bn global investment PwC network firms are collectively investing nearly US$1.5 billion to expand and scale our AI capabilities across our network, launch partnerships and roll out AI tools across our lines of service.

Innovation of the year PwC wins ‘2023 Digital Innovation of the Year’ for our work with AI at the International Accounting Forum & Awards. Our ‘Next generation AI services for the next generation auditor’ — including predictive analytics and AI-powered checks — were recognised for improving ‘major change in improving audit quality, efficiency or added value to clients.’

Partner of the year PwC wins Microsoft’s ‘Building with AI’ Partner of the Year in recognition of PwC’s global leadership on AI.

Alliances We are continuing to build strategic partnerships with Microsoft, Google, Amazon Web Services, OpenAI, Harvey, EightFold and other innovative tech leaders to help clients realise AI’s potential. For example, we announced a new strategic collaboration with Microsoft and Icertis to provide C-suites with a powerful, innovative AI-driven approach to contract management. The PwC network announced an expansion of its strategic alliance with Google Cloud to enhance how businesses operate with generative AI.

Global summits and events Our leaders and AI specialists joined global conversations on AI at Mobile World Congress, Davos, TED 2024, VivaTech, and Financial Times special events.

PwC is AI ‘Client Zero’ The PwC network has made itself 'Client Zero' for GenAI, identifying over 3,000 internal GenAI use cases and fully embedding GenAI into our own work to enable us to be best-placed to advise clients on their own AI needs. We are rolling out AI platforms across our network to enhance our consultancy, tax, legal, audit and assurance offerings. For example, we’ve equipped over 100,000 people in PwC firms across the network to make the most of Microsoft’s AI assistant Copilot for Microsoft 365 to help our people deliver more for clients.

AI platforms for Tax and Legal We rolled out AI platforms Harvey and Leah to our tax and legal practice. Harvey and Leah use natural language processing, machine learning and data analytics to generate recommendations — always overseen and reviewed by PwC people — to help us generate more value for clients.

AI and Next Generation Audit The PwC network is applying AI and investing over US$1 billion to revolutionise the audit process through our Next Generation Audit, using new technologies to further standardise, simplify, centralise, and automate our audit work. The Next Generation Audit platform will be piloted in 2025 with rollout starting in 2026.

ChatPwC We rolled out the AI platform ‘ChatPwC’ to over 200,000 PwC people in network firms across the world, enabling our people to use ChatGPT technology in a secure environment and always with human oversight.

First reseller of ChatGPT Enterprise We continue to be at the forefront of enterprise deployment of ChatGPT; for example, PwC this year became the first reseller of OpenAI's ChatGPT Enterprise and the largest corporate user of the product.

AI Factory The PwC network’s AI factory is staffed by data scientists, tech specialists, and industry specialists and continues to develop hundreds of AI use cases, enabled by our broad skills in areas from business process design to supply chain optimisation.

AI upskilling We're bringing AI to staff and partners in PwC firms around the world through our Network AI Academy, a globally accessible platform containing tailored upskilling to equip every person across the network with the skills to apply AI in innovative and responsible ways. To enable our people to have the confidence and knowledge to leverage AI in how they serve their clients we're rolling out initiatives such as hands-on sessions, prompt workshops, and hackathons to take them from awareness to adoption.

Responsible AI This year, we continued to support clients to deploy Responsible AI in order to mitigate the risks associated with this technology, maintain the confidentiality and security of their data, support the trustworthiness of AI outputs, and realise the full potential of AI while maintaining trust with their stakeholders. We helped clients incorporate trust by design in their AI systems so that the technology is used ethically, responsibly, and without hidden biases.

AI to build trust We continued to deploy AI to build trust in business and society with platforms like our AI-driven Risk Detect which enables clients to protect against fraud, corruption and compliance issues. We contributed to efforts to build frameworks for safe and trusted AI systems. For example, PwC US became a founding member of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s AI Safety Institute Consortium, the first-ever US consortium of its scale dedicated to AI safety.

See all

“AI can become an intrinsic, supportive part of everything we make and everything we do. AI can amplify human intuition, creativity, and insight with the precision, efficiency, and scalability of technology.”

Scott Likens
Global Chief AI Engineer Officer, PwC US

“It is easy to focus on AI’s efficiencies only. But AI’s other promise is helping people solve big meaningful problems. If a problem can be solved with data and intelligence, AI can open doors long thought to be nailed shut.”

Dan Priest
Chief AI Officer, PwC US

“AI is creating light speed advances in our people’s ability to problem solve. It’s completely rewriting the rules in terms of the value we can deliver for clients.”

Bivek Sharma
Chief AI Officer, PwC UK

PwC perspectives on AI

This year, PwC shared a range of insights on AI and how companies can make the most of it:

Your industry’s GenAI adoption play

PwC offers practical steps companies can take to use AI to catalyse reinvention.

The path to GenAI value

PwC identifies the increase in operating profit margin that AI can generate across industries, and explains how to get the flywheel moving toward business reinvention and lasting value creation.

AI improves worker productivity

PwC’s 2024 AI Jobs Barometer suggests that AI is already making workers more productive. Sectors that are especially exposed to AI are seeing 4.8 times greater labour productivity growth which can in turn lead to economic growth, higher wages, and enhanced living standards. PwC’s 2024 Global CEO Survey finds that 64% of global CEOs say that the next 12 months will see GenAI increase how much employees can accomplish. More than 80% of workers who use GenAI daily expect it to make their time at work more efficient in the next 12 months, according to PwC's 2024 Hopes and Fears survey.

“With GenAI, companies, communities, and citizens can accelerate value creation and capture opportunities. AI is a game changer for what people and organisations can achieve. The future truly is human-led and tech-powered.”

Vishy Narayanan
Asia Pacific Chief Digital and AI Officer and Generative AI Executive Leader, PwC Malaysia

“GenAI is set to transform the world, revolutionising businesses, value creation and collaboration. Every business operation, function, and process across all industries will feel its impact. We are indeed living in exciting times, as GenAI becomes a critical component of so much that companies do and shows the path to a truly human-led, tech-powered business.”

Damir Maras
Global Advisory Leader, PwC Germany

Workers expect AI to improve their work quality and creativity

More than 70% of employees who have used GenAI agree that the tools will create opportunities to learn new skills at work, be more creative and improve the quality of their work.

AI can create value and increase revenue for companies

70% of global CEOs say that GenAI will significantly change the way that their company creates, delivers and captures value in the next three years. 41% of CEOs say GenAI will boost revenues by at least 5% in the next 12 months, and 89% who have used GenAI believe it will improve the quality of their goods and services over the next 12 months. Investors agree. 61% of investors believe accelerated adoption of AI is very or critically important to generating value, according to PwC’s 2023 Global Investor Survey.

70%

of global CEOs say that GenAI will significantly change the way that their company creates, delivers and captures value in the next three years.

Source: PwC's 2024 Global CEO Survey

“AI has revolutionised the value our tax and legal teams bring to clients. By enhancing our ability to simulate complex tax scenarios and craft tailored strategies, AI empowers us to guide clients through uncertainty with unparalleled precision.”

Brad Silver
Global Tax & Legal Services Leader, PwC US

Next generation business leaders see the value of AI

PwC’s 2024 Global NextGen Survey of 900+ next-generation business leaders suggests that they are more optimistic about GenAI than the previous generation, and they understand the urgent need to deploy AI enterprise wide.

AI is transforming industries

40% of workers who have used GenAI in the past 12 months say it will fundamentally change their profession in under five years. 68% of global CEOs say that GenAI will increase competitive intensity in their industry.

AI is changing the skills workers need to succeed

Skills sought by employers are changing at a 25% higher rate in AI-exposed occupations. To stay relevant, workers in these jobs will need to build or demonstrate new skills. In fact, 69% of global CEOs anticipate that GenAI will require most of their workforce to develop new capabilities.

Six priorities for an ‘early days’ GenAI strategy

PwC identifies six priority actions to help companies generate maximum value from AI right from the start.

“Helping clients build trust in what matters depends on our ability to draw rigorous conclusions from data. AI is an indispensable partner that helps us draw robust conclusions at speed and scale. That’s why we are continuing to invest US$1 billion over five years to enhance the rigour and quality of our audits including investing in AI platforms.”

Wes Bricker
Global Assurance Leader, PwC US

In the coming year, we will continue to generate new insights on AI, including, for example, through our new collaboration with the World Economic Forum to explore how GenAI is increasing worker productivity.

Case studies

Sidd Bhattacharya
Partner, PwC US

Case study

Using GenAI to improve clinical trials for major pharma company

Clinical trials are an essential part of the drug development programme in the pharmaceutical industry. However, they are also notoriously inefficient, with progress slowed down by the time, effort and increasing costs of recruiting patients to participate in clinical trials, together with the high risks and cost of failure of each phase of the trial. It often takes 10-15 years and billions of dollars to bring a new treatment or therapy to market.

PwC US has been working with a top 20 global pharmaceutical company to improve the design of their clinical trials for major drugs which could potentially benefit millions of people around the world.

The PwC US team used data and analytics together with the power of GenAI to design a new clinical trial model, building an integrated technology platform which utilised the capabilities of PwC Alliance partners Amazon Web Services and Microsoft. These capabilities enable pharma companies to design clinical trials leveraging data and AI.

The optimised clinical trial design delivered big improvements in three key areas. It dramatically sped up the time taken to test the drug, cutting the length of the trial by 20-25%. It also considerably reduced the cost of the process, and it enhanced the quality of the trial findings by providing greater precision.

Indeed the improvements were so significant that they are estimated to have delivered a 60-70% boost in productivity compared to the old design. The optimised design also delivered a revenue boost in excess of $100 million to the pharmaceutical company because they were able to bring their new drug to market far more quickly than they would normally have been able to.

Most importantly, the optimised design has a wide potential application and can be used to conduct faster and more efficient clinical trials for all kinds of drugs across the pharmaceutical industry, helping to unlock the potential of drug discovery and ultimately benefitting patients everywhere.

“Clinical trials are an enormously important part of bringing much needed life-improving drugs to the market and ultimately to the patients who need them. PwC is delighted to have been able to play a role in improving the efficiency of this process by using GenAI and other tools to optimize the design of clinical trials.”

Sidd BhattacharyaPartner, PwC US

Sumedh Ghatage
Data Scientist,
PwC Middle East

Case study

Helping communities mitigate against flood risks with AI flood resilience tool

Floods are a severe global challenge that affect the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. An estimated 25% of the world's population is exposed to flood risks. In the past decade alone flooding has displaced approximately 24 million people and caused economic losses of approximately US$453 billion.^{1 2}

Realising the global need to address the devastating effects of flooding, a team from PwC Middle East created a solution using AI to create a Flood Resilience tool.

The Flood Resilience AI tool uses advanced technology such as geospatial AI to create dynamic simulations which show possible flooding scenarios. Real-time data such as the slope of an area, rainfall, speed and direction of a cyclone or hurricane and distance from the ocean are used to create the simulations which are then presented in a visual 3D environment, making it easier for people to understand the likely flow of the flood at the level of individual properties.

These immersive simulations can help government agencies, emergency services, first responders and homeowners, as well as other organisations such as insurance agencies, to create plans and strategies that may reduce the impact of floods in the event of a real-life emergency, for example by carrying out targeted emergency evacuations to safeguard communities.

¹ _{Nasa Earth Observatory}

² _Statista

“Flooding is a serious risk for vast numbers of communities around the world and can cause immense devastation. Our AI Flood Resilience Tool will provide a practical way for communities to simulate such conditions and put plans in place before a flood strikes in order to mitigate its impact.”

Sumedh GhatageData Scientist, PwC Middle East

Mokshita Vashisht
Manager, Digital Products and Transformation,
PwC India

Case study

Making GenAI cyber secure

Generative AI is without doubt a game changer for businesses, but using it comes with its own set of challenges, not least the hallucinations it can sometimes create when asked to perform a task.

A team at PwC India has created a tool to tackle these issues with Cyber Secure GenAI, a security product which has been specifically designed to address the unique challenges and vulnerabilities emerging in the world of Generative AI.

Cyber Secure GenAI is designed to enable enterprises to safeguard and implement guardrails in their Gen AI Large Language Model (LLM)-based applications.

The technology platform provides protection through six modular security membranes including input checks, PII (Personal Information Identifier) checks, datastore checks, generated output checks, connected app checks and hallucination checks. The input membrane, for example, serves as the first line of defence, safeguarding against unauthorised access attempts and malicious inputs. It checks for various threats such as prompt injections, unauthorized code execution, and sensitive data exposure. The output membrane meanwhile checks the legitimacy and accuracy of outgoing data and responses from LLM applications. The other membranes, namely PII, Data and connected apps, perform modular checks at the connected database, data pipeline and other connected applications (Customer Relationship Management (CRM)), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) etc) with the GenAI LLM application/s.

Crucially, Cyber Secure GenAI also features an industry-first hallucination checker, an advanced mechanism that detects false outputs and helps to establish a secure and reliable environment for AI applications. This increases the accuracy and credibility of application outputs, helping to prevent the spread of misinformation or distortions.

These six membranes provide a holistic security guardrail for LLM applications — modularly integrated as per the business need from simple to complex architectures. The solution builds trust in adopting newer and innovative technologies such as GenAI within the organisational landscape.

Cyber Secure GenAI will be embedded in all global PwC GenAI offerings to enhance PwC's global cybersecurity services.

“Cybersecurity threats posed by Gen AI loom large over global organisations, presenting a formidable challenge. We are delighted to have been able to create a solution with Cyber Secure GenAI that provides trust and security for both businesses and their customers.”

Mokshita VashishtManager, Digital Products and Transformation, PwC India

Frank Pinder
Managing Director,
Insurance Fraud Practice,
PwC US

Case study

Using AI to detect Insurance Fraud

Insurance fraud has risen sharply as businesses become more complex, incorporating large numbers of stakeholders and disparate data and technology. The scale of the problem is reflected in the fact that the global fraud detection solutions market is expected to increase from US$28 billion today to US$67 billion by 2028.¹

One of the key challenges in identifying insurance fraud is that it requires the review of large volumes of data. One of our existing products, Risk Detect, achieved this by using advanced analytics and machine learning to identify and flag high risk activity. So the Cybersecurity Risk & Regulatory Financial Crimes and Investigations & Fraud teams from PwC US and PwC UK collaborated to adapt Risk Detect for the insurance market.

Risk Detect brings together disparate data sources to help review transactions and documents at speed, delivering analytics, investigative tooling and reporting in a single package to enable clients to detect and respond to risk with more precision.

The collaboration between the two PwC teams included enhancing the analytics tool and building a platform to host a real time fraud detection engine. This engine can process large amounts of structured and unstructured data through complex analytics models, including machine learning and GenAI, in order to detect more — and more complex — fraud for our clients. The analytics models created were then reviewed for bias to confirm ethical use.

The model the PwC US and UK teams created can be used across the insurance industry. Its multi-tiered analytics and advanced AI are better able to detect fraud and reduce false positives while also providing transparency and detailed explanations of the fraud analytics.

¹ _{The FinTech Times}

“We bring more than 100 years of insurance fraud subject matter expertise to support the Risk Detect technology, giving clients supreme confidence in the current and future abilities of our offering. We are delighted to have been able to leverage our expertise to create a critical tool for our clients.”

Frank PinderManaging Director, Insurance Fraud Practice, PwC US

Jacques de Swart
Partner,
Data Analytics - Public Sector,
PwC Netherlands

Case study

Providing vital insights to help optimise resources for refugees

It is challenging to predict when the next wave of refugees is going to occur, making it difficult for authorities to prepare. We have seen this happen recently when Russia invaded Ukraine, forcing many Ukrainians to flee suddenly.

The urgency, unpredictability and high costs of a refugee influx crisis make it hard to manage. The public authorities responsible for helping refugees to integrate into local communities have to allocate limited resources quickly, while ensuring that the allocation decisions they make align with the interests of both the refugees and the local community. This is despite often lacking specialist guidance and insights.

As part of PwC’s Solvers Challenge, an annual global challenge that encourages collaboration on innovative solutions to complex problems, a PwC Netherlands team has developed a model which combines data, research, and expert knowledge with a powerful AI model to provide authorities with quantitative insights into potential interventions so that they can decide the best actions to take. The model does this by translating the local community's priorities into weights of key performance indicators (KPIs) and then relating these directly to possible interventions. The interventions proposed by the AI model in most cases outperform those proposed by human beings.

The possible interventions that this model assesses are a mix of investments in education, language and integration, sports, access to transport and employment. The model is based on the generic framework of PwC's Responsible Business Simulator, a modelling tool which helps users make strategic decisions based on facts rather than instincts; however, it is possible to adjust the settings and approach to address refugee crises in other countries.

The current version of the model was designed to support Dutch municipalities in accommodating Ukrainian refugees. It considers the following KPIs for both Ukrainians and local residents: feeling of safety, financial security, social cohesion, health and labour participation, and economic impact on the local area.

The goal of the model is to calculate and compare the impact of the given interventions, thereby allowing decision makers such as governments, municipalities and NGOs to make data-driven decisions in this complex area. This builds greater trust in these organisations and wider society.

“By their nature, refugee crises are highly unpredictable and therefore very challenging to address and manage. We are really pleased to be able to offer a solution that helps authorities use their resources in the most efficient and effective way to support refugees in their time of need, while taking into account the interests of the local community as well.”

Jacques de SwartPartner, Data Analytics - Public Sector, PwC Netherlands