Last week, ICMIF Supporting Member EY announced the launch of EY.ai, a unifying platform that brings together human capabilities and artificial intelligence (AI) to help clients transform their businesses through confident and responsible adoption of AI. EY.ai leverages leading-edge EY technology platforms and AI capabilities, with deep experience in strategy, transactions, transformation, risk, assurance and tax, all augmented by a robust AI ecosystem.

EY investments of USD 1.4 billion have provided the foundation for the EY.ai platform. These investments have supported the embedding of AI into proprietary EY technologies like EY Fabric, used by 60,000 EY clients and more than 1.5 million unique client users, as well as helping secure a series of EY technology acquisitions with supporting cloud and automation technologies.

Carmine Di Sibio, EY Global Chairman and CEO, says: “AI’s moment is now. Every business is considering how it will be integrated into operations and its impact on the future. However, the adoption of AI is more than a technology challenge. That’s why EY teams help clients identify how to capture the transformative power of AI from every seat at the boardroom table and across the enterprise. It’s about unlocking new economic value responsibly to realise the vast potential of this technological evolution.”

Placing people at the centre of AI

EY is helping to realise the potential of EY people with AI knowledge and skills. Following an initial pilot with 4,200 EY technology-focused team members, the global organisation will be releasing a secure, large language model called EY.ai EYQ. In addition, EY will roll out bespoke AI learning and development for EY people.

The EY comprehensive learning program elevates and expands the AI skills of EY people, including the responsible use of AI. It builds on the extensive AI, data and analytics learning badge curriculum and credentials introduced in 2018, with over 100,000 credentials awarded to date, as well as the EY Tech MBA launched in 2020.

Convening an AI ecosystem

EY.ai brings together an AI ecosystem encompassing a range of business, technological and academic capabilities in AI. This includes leading-edge alliances with some of the world’s most innovative organisations, including Dell Technologies, IBM, Microsoft, SAP, ServiceNow, Thomson Reuters and UiPath – as well as other emerging leaders that are defining the future of AI.

Building on the existing strategic alliance, Microsoft has provided the EY organisation early access to Azure OpenAI capabilities, such as GPT-3 and GPT-4. With support from Microsoft and leveraging Azure OpenAI Services, EY teams are building and deploying advanced Generative AI solutions to enhance EY service offerings.

The EY-Dell Technologies alliance invests jointly in AI-focused capabilities, including Dell Generative AI Solutions, a set of Dell products and services simplifying the adoption of full-stack generative AI with LLMs, meeting organisations wherever they are in their generative AI journey; clients can prototype and deploy use cases on a validated architecture of purpose-built hardware, software, and embedded security optimised for generative AI.

With Thomson Reuters, EY is expanding and will serve as a transformative force by combining content and insights across tax, law, global trade, and environmental, social and governance (ESG) services, and accelerating the co-development of new, AI-driven solutions and services.

Andy Baldwin, EY Global Managing Partner – Client Service, says: “Empowered by a significant number of data and AI professionals, EY.ai is poised to unlock the full spectrum of knowledge and insights that EY teams can provide to companies aiming to revolutionise their operations with AI. Importantly, this is a collaborative endeavor. The EY alliance ecosystem plays a pivotal role in linking clients with the most advanced technology, infrastructure and proficiency available today. As EY.ai merges the capabilities of EY ecosystem collaborators with AI-enhanced teams, the aspiration is to deliver an unparalleled level of excellence in client service.”

Anchored by AI-powered solutions and services

EY.ai will be underpinned by the EY.ai Confidence Index which leverages industry-leading practices for risk, governance and data management to deliver comprehensive AI evaluation and monitoring. The Index will be complemented by the EY.ai Maturity Model which systematically reviews where an enterprise stands compared to market and industry peers, and the EY.ai Value Accelerator, which helps to prioritise initiatives and solutions for the greatest strategic impact and growth.

EY.ai will also put AI capabilities into the hands of EY teams and 1.5m users globally by embedding generative AI and leading-edge development tools into EY Fabric, the organisation’s award-winning global technology backbone that powers 80% of the US$50b EY business. This will help client serving teams to respond faster to global business transformation priorities.

EY.ai also follows numerous AI solutions and services, including:

• EY Intelligent Payroll Chatbot, piloted in March with Microsoft, answers complex employee payroll questions, personalises the employee experience and expects to help reduce the burden on employers by more than 50%.
• The recent release of 20 new Assurance technology capabilities across the EY organisation includes globally scaled AI. This AI enabled capability – leveraging publicly available and EY generated data – is directly integrated with the EY Assurance technology platform to support EY Assurance professionals in assessing risk. EY Assurance is also introducing new AI enabled capabilities in predictive analytics; content search and summarisation; and document intelligence, including financial statement tie-out procedures.

Nicola Morini-Biansino, EY Global Chief Technology Officer, says: “EY.ai reflects the culmination of work and knowledge that the EY organisation has been building for a decade. The AI capabilities that EY teams have built and work with clients to date further validates that AI is transformative. I am highly confident that a human-centered approach to transformation using AI will empower EY people, enhance the quality of client work and ultimately change our working world for the better.”

AI credentials and research

EY and the University of Southern California’s School of Advanced Computing are in active discussions regarding a joint-research opportunity. This follows a US$1b Frontier of Computing initiative launched by the university, with a focus on advancing AI technology guided by ethics and responsibility.

A creative campaign to capture how our diverse skills will be augmented through AI

The launch of EY.ai will be supported by a new integrated marketing program built around the creative theme of ‘The Face of the Future’. Spearheading the campaign is advertising that features EY people augmented and empowered by AI – to highlight multiple EY services that will increasingly be AI empowered. Anchored in EY’s purpose of Building a Better Working World, the overall campaign will bring to life how the EY.ai platform can help clients and society at large build confidence, help create exponential value and make a positive human impact. Media is scheduled to go live across all channels in October.

Visit ey.ai for more information.