PwC Australia invests further $11.5 million in AI, launching AI Centre of Excellence

Monday, 12 August 2024

PwC is bolstering its AI capabilities by investing $11.5 million over 12 months, launching an AI Centre of Excellence to help Australian businesses navigate the complexity of AI at-scale and compete on the global stage.

The investment will support the creation of over 30 jobs and accelerate AI adoption and strategy for PwC Australia’s staff and clients, adding to the 320 data, advanced analytics and AI specialists already working at the firm. 

The new roles will span AI business analysis, software engineering, machine learning, data science, transformation, upskilling, change management, AI model validation and risk management. 

PwC Australia CEO, Kevin Burrowes, said the AI Centre of Excellence represents the next phase of the firm’s commitment to AI transformation and trust. 

“This major investment will build on our momentum and bring together the full suite of AI skills. It will ensure we’re providing the transformation, technology and trust capabilities that businesses require to respond to AI change as a set of integrated, end-to-end offerings, to help our clients solve key business challenges,” Mr Burrowes said. 

The opportunity for Australian businesses

PwC’s CEO Survey indicated that while 60 percent of Australian CEOs believed that GenAI will significantly change the way their company delivers value in the next three years, fewer than one-quarter had started to adopt it.

PwC Australia’s Artificial Intelligence Leader Tom Pagram said it's important that businesses are incorporating AI transformation into their business strategy:

“Australia has a tremendous opportunity to apply AI to lift its productivity growth rate but our CEO Survey shows a sizable gap between AI adoption and AI ambitions across most businesses. We are deeply focussed on understanding AI adoption challenges and we have a suite of strategy, technology, workforce, legal, data and risk offerings to help Australian businesses overcome those challenges”.

“Australia has strong AI talent and there are many areas where Australian businesses are well-positioned to lead globally - including AI in agriculture, mining and resources, AI for sustainability and research-industry partnerships in areas such as Responsible AI”, he said. 

Transforming PwC

The creation of the AI Centre of Excellence follows PwC’s global $1b investment in Generative AI with Microsoft, including the launch of PwC’s AI assistant, ChatPwC, that supports staff to accelerate their work on research, data analysis and drafting. 

It also builds on the announcement that PwC is the first and largest firm globally to sign a deal with OpenAI for ChatGPT Enterprise - more than 100,000 licences globally.

“We’re walking the walk and will continue to lean into using AI to run our firm, embedding AI into the core of our operating model. Australia is a key centre for AI talent and delivery within PwC’s global network,” Mr Pagram said.  

“We see ourselves as ‘Client Zero’, and we are testing new solutions with our own business and taking our best learnings to clients.”

For more information, visit PwC’s Artificial Intelligence website.