You can build business value with AI

A Canadian energy sector company had begun exploring AI through several promising pilots – e.g., chatbots, image recognition, voice-to-text, and translation tools. These initiatives were led by a central analytics team and showed early potential. However, like many organizations in the early stages of AI adoption, they faced challenges in consistently evaluating outcomes, aligning efforts across business units, and ensuring scalability and long-term sustainability.

As a regulated organization with a strong focus on cost discipline, the company was also looking to build on its momentum in a way that balanced innovation with accountability.

KPMG was engaged to help the company build a strong foundation for responsible, scalable AI. The engagement focused on two key areas:

Governance assessment
In response to growing interest from leadership and the Audit Committee, KPMG conducted a comprehensive review of the company’s AI governance. The team:

• Identified opportunities to strengthen oversight and accountability.
• Delivered a tailored risk and control matrix to guide responsible AI development.
• Recommended ways to embed governance into existing legal, IT, procurement, privacy, security, compliance, risk and HR processes.

AI strategy and roadmap

KPMG worked closely with business units in Network Operations and Customer Experience to:

• Identify and prioritize AI use cases with measurable business impact.
• Assess organizational readiness across people, processes, and technology.
• Develop a practical roadmap and AI playbook to guide implementation and future assessments, designed to be effective within the company’s budgetary parameters.

The engagement delivered tangible results that helped the organization build momentum around AI, including:

• Stronger governance: The company now has a clear framework to guide AI initiatives, with defined roles and cross-functional collaboration.
• Executive buy-in: The CEO and Audit Committee became active champions of AI, recognizing its potential to improve operations and service delivery.
• Actionable roadmap: A prioritized list of AI use cases and a practical playbook are now in place to support future use cases projects.
• Sustainable momentum: The company is positioned to scale AI with confidence—balancing innovation with regulatory and financial stewardship.
• Recognition of progress: Leadership acknowledged the value of what had already been achieved and viewed the engagement as a strategic investment in future innovation.

This collaboration demonstrates how a tailored approach to AI innovation and governance can build executive confidence and long-term value in a highly regulated, cost-conscious environment.

Discover how we’re making a difference for Canadian organizations