According to recent reports, Deloitte has successfully implemented an AI-powered chatbot called PairD to aid its employees in carrying out routine tasks efficiently. This move reflects the increasing trend among prominent accounting firms, collectively known as the Big Four, to embrace automation as a means of enhancing productivity.
Spanning across Europe and the Middle East, PairD has been made available to 75,000 Deloitte staff members since October 2023. Deloitte, which boasts a global workforce of over 450,000 individuals, reported a staggering $65 billion in revenue for the last financial year ending in June 2023.
The PairD AI chatbot equips staff members with various functionalities, including creating PowerPoint presentations, writing emails, and coding. Unlike some competitors who adopt external technology solutions, Deloitte has built PairD in-house through its AI Academy, an AI training program primarily geared towards clients.
There have been some challenges since the rollout of PairD, as reported by the Financial Times, which highlighted that the chatbot may sometimes provide inaccurate information. Consequently, Deloitte employees have been instructed to manually verify the accuracy and completeness of the chatbot’s outputs before utilizing them for work purposes.
Costi Perricos, generative AI leader at Deloitte, has emphasized that the integration of PairD aligns with the firm’s long-term investment plans in AI. Perricos stated that Deloitte continues to explore the potential of this technology for the benefit of the organization, clients, and society as a whole.
The other members of the Big Four, namely EY, KPMG, and PwC, are also actively incorporating AI technologies into their operations. EY, for example, has harnessed AI to detect instances of fraud within its auditing business, successfully spotting two cases of suspicious activity among ten companies. Similarly, KPMG has implemented AI systems to empower staff members, allowing junior employees to take on more sophisticated tasks, previously reserved for more experienced colleagues.
It is noteworthy that Deloitte’s adoption of AI coincided with the company’s announcement of 800 redundancies in the UK, as part of its cost-cutting strategy. Despite these challenges, Deloitte’s embrace of AI indicates a forward-thinking approach to operational efficiency and its commitment to leveraging technology advancements for the benefit of its employees and clients.
The source of the article is from the blog motopaddock.nl