KPMG Canada expanding investments and capabilities in generative artificial intelligence

KPMG in Canada is bolstering its investments and capabilities in generative artificial intelligence with proprietary tools, training and solutions to enhance the work of the firm’s 10,000 professionals and deliver more innovative and impactful solutions to Canadian organizations.

“Canada is facing a significant productivity challenge and we believe generative AI has enormous potential to help Canadian organizations raise their productivity. We’re fully committed to helping businesses understand and use generative AI to its fullest potential, because we’ve seen first-hand how the technology can help re-define how our own people work,” says Stephanie Terrill, KPMG in Canada’s AI Executive Leader and Business Unit Leader of the firm’s Management Consulting practice.

“At KPMG in Canada we’ve been experimenting, piloting and implementing AI across the firm for some time. And in some ways, we consider ourselves ‘client zero,’ which means we’re testing and piloting new generative AI solutions and sharing that expertise with clients by helping them implement their own AI solutions to solve a variety of business problems. It’s an exciting time to be innovating internally and with clients,” she adds.

The firm’s recent investments and initiatives in generative AI include:

• Upskilling firm leadership and partners with a robust generative AI executive training program designed to boost productivity, spur innovation and deliver deeper insights to Canadian businesses. The training focused on navigating the disruptive impact of generative AI to the firm and its clients, demonstrated KPMG’s Trusted AI framework, explored use cases, and emphasized KPMG’s human-centric approach to generative AI.
• Transforming the workforce with education, training and knowledge-sharing sessions for all employees, including KPMG’s 24 hours of AI, immersive AI learning marathons where KPMG in Canada professionals participate in a full day of continuous AI education with colleagues from around the world; mandatory risk management training to foster responsible use of generative AI; and self-guided learning modules where KPMG professionals can elevate their AI knowledge and skills at their own pace.
• Building, developing and evolving Kleo, the firm’s generative AI knowledge management platform and chatbot available to KPMG in Canada professionals to improve their daily work experience. Kleo includes function-specific bots tailored to areas such as human resources, marketing, and information technology teams, and is built in KPMG’s private Microsoft Azure cloud environment leveraging OpenAI’s GPT-4 model – providing privacy, security and control over sensitive company data. Kleo helps with tasks such as research, data analysis and synthesizing answers to complex questions. Kleo is adaptable for client use within a client’s own private cloud infrastructure. Since its launch in December 2023, Kleo has helped increase productivity and quality, according to an internal KPMG survey of the firm’s users, and nearly three quarters of KPMG professionals surveyed use Kleo regularly. Kleo was developed in accordance with KPMG’s Trusted AI Framework.
• Deploying Copilot for Microsoft for 365 through a suite of services and application frameworks that help organizations quickly implement and scale Copilot, an AI-powered companion integrated into Microsoft 365 applications that streamlines workflows and improves efficiency. Copilot helps users boost productivity by accelerating content creation, managing emails, documents, chats, meetings and contacts, and automating and reducing routine tasks. Copilot for M365 has been deployed to professionals across KPMG in Canada for internal use, and the firm is an early access partner for Copilot for M365 in Canada - part of an expanded alliance between the firms announced last summer.
• Expanding KPMG in Canada’s executive training centre. Co-developed with Microsoft Canada, the Operational Risk Skills Development Centre offers training and upskilling on generative AI and cybersecurity for CEOs, board directors and owners of small and medium-sized businesses. The training helps business leaders understand the potential and impact of generative AI on their organization, identify use cases, implement generative AI solutions and risk mitigation strategies, and redefine business models. The centre recently added Copilot for Microsoft for 365 training to its curriculum to help organizations fully leverage the benefits of Copilot.
• Developing a proprietary generative AI-powered platform that manages and streamlines complex document reviews using customizable prompt libraries. The tool – piloted by KPMG Law professionals – assists with expediting due diligence, contract management, risk assessments, compliance and other tasks for legal and financial services sectors. The platform is a custom solution for clients deployed in their Microsoft Azure OpenAI cloud environments, ensuring client data remains safe and secure.

“The transformative power of generative AI promises to change organizations, business models, and, in many cases, even entire industries. It also offers an unprecedented opportunity for Canada to reshape its economy for the better, but only if it’s adopted rapidly and responsibly, underpinned by trust and driven by human ingenuity and expertise. By leveraging our multi-disciplinary team of AI advisors and technologists and upskilling all our professionals, we‘re helping organizations harness the power of AI while safeguarding their data,” says Walter Pela, AI Client and Market Development Lead.

“We expect the use of generative AI to grow exponentially over the next few years. To accelerate adoption of generative AI, it’s crucial for organizations to understand how to structure their data, maximize their use of AI technologies, and establish and implement guardrails to manage the risks.”

KPMG was recently ranked #1 in quality rankings for AI Advice and Implementation by Source Consulting. The firm has also been recognized as a leader in IDC MarketScape’s Canadian AI Services 2022 Vendor Assessment and a leader in AI services in IDC’s MarketScape Worldwide Artificial Intelligence Services Vendor Assessment 2023.