PwC US makes $1 billion investment to expand and scale AI capabilities

Industry-leading relationship with Microsoft to position the firm and its clients to harness generative AI to build trust and drive sustained outcomes

Investments underscore firm’s approach to drive human-led, tech-powered solutions 

Wednesday, April 26, 2023 — Today PwC US announced plans to invest $1B over the next three years to expand and scale its artificial intelligence (AI) offerings and help clients reimagine their businesses through the power of generative AI. The investment builds on PwC's long-standing commitment to AI, strengthening its ability to deliver human-led and tech-powered solutions and to build trust and drive sustained outcomes in line with its global strategy, The New Equation.

This investment features an industry-leading relationship with Microsoft, creating scalable offerings using OpenAI’s GPT-4/ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service. This will enable PwC to transform the way they work while harnessing the power of generative AI. PwC will leverage this technology to help support clients in reinventing their businesses and delivering better outcomes by generating richer insights, driving more productivity and developing new products and services in a way that builds greater trust with their stakeholders.

“We are at a tipping point in business and society where AI will revolutionize how we work, live and interact at scale,” says Mohamed Kande, Vice Chair, US Consulting Solutions Co-Leader 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 augmented productivity and new growth opportunities associated with generative AI, doing so in a responsible way while driving the right results.”

PwC has already started implementing capabilities within Azure OpenAI Service for clients in various industries including insurance, aviation, and healthcare, among others. These solutions have successfully enabled clients to save time and costs while helping accelerate revenue.

“We are excited that PwC will utilize Azure OpenAI Service to transform the way they work, and to deliver innovative customer solutions that take advantage of 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, AI Platform, Microsoft. “Our collaboration with PwC and OpenAI will be a game-changer that opens the floodgates for businesses to experience generative AI applications in a safe and secure manner.”

According to PwC’s recent Trust Survey, nearly all business leaders say their company is prioritizing AI-related initiatives and systems in the near term, but only 35% of executives say their company will focus on improving the governance of AI systems, processes, monitoring and reporting on AI model performance. PwC drives governance and accountability through our Responsible AI framework to help clients build and deploy OpenAI’s generative AI technology across a variety of use cases with a focus on governance, fairness, transparency and explainability, as well as protecting the confidentiality and security of data. Not only will this unlock greater value and outcomes for PwC clients, but it seeks to build greater trust in AI platforms, underscoring PwC’s purpose–to build trust in society and solve important problems.

In parallel, PwC will modernize its internal platforms to embed this new, secure generative AI environment, building on its existing foundation of using AI to deliver productivity gains across tax, audit and consulting services to clients. At the same time, as part of My+, PwC US will invest in upskilling its 65,000 people on AI tools and capabilities in order to work faster and smarter, help grow their careers, and advise clients on the benefits of AI as well as other transformative technology.

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

For more information on PwC’s capabilities in generative AI, visit our website here.