How Edinburgh's AI expertise is powering up KPMG staff

“Technology's going to give us totally new ways of solving some old problems.”

David Rowlands is the global head of artificial intelligence (AI) at KPMG, and says there are now very few conversations at the professional services giant where the technology doesn’t get a mention.

“I think all individuals and organisations are split between the excitement about the opportunity, and then anxiety over some of the challenges and risks. And that's no different from any technology that [humanity has] ever had… so the question is, how do you face into that, how do you step forward towards that?”

Rowlands has held his current role since December 2023, having joined KPMG about 15 years ago, and is behind the group’s inaugural Global AI Summit that recently took place in Edinburgh, where he is based.

Rowlands says there are now very few conversations at KPMG where AI doesn’t get a mention. Picture: contributed.

The four-day event united experts in the technology from KPMG’s 270,000-strong global workforce, as well as from external organisations. It also showcased the city and Scotland’s pioneering AI capabilities, including a visit to AI pioneer the University of Edinburgh’s supercomputer – the fastest computer in the UK – at its Easter Bush Campus. And it comes amid Scotland’s AI Strategy aiming for the nation to become a leader in the development and use of trustworthy, ethical, and inclusive AI.

“I think it's been interesting for people to realise just how much innovation is happening in Scotland, and in Edinburgh in particular,” says AI boss Rowlands. And he says KPMG was the first of the Big Four accountancy giants (also comprising Deloitte, PwC, and EY) to go to market with its trusted AI framework, which outlines capabilities “that organisations need to master if they're going to be trusted in their use of AI, and it's a really important topic if you want to go from experimentation to actual scaled implementation”.

He also states: “The world's changing, and that will affect individuals, it will affect corporations, it will affect regions, and it will affect countries. And having a strategy at each of those levels around AI is a good idea, it's definitely a good idea.”

Both Rowlands and KPMG stress the global giant’s emphasis on scaling AI at a bold and fast pace, but also within safe, ethical, and responsible parameters given its inherent conflicts and challenges – with some hurdles recently highlighted by a Scottish employment lawyer – and used as efficiently as possible given that it is an energy-hungry resource.

Generative AI, for example, which includes ChatGPT that can produce text from input, has rapidly become mainstream. The University of Edinburgh and financial services giant Abrdn earlier this month announced a tie-up out of their partnership Centre for Investing Innovation looking to harness generative AI to support the firm’s investment research process.

And a KPMG survey published in April of this year found that nearly a third of bosses in the financial services sector in Scotland reported using generative AI at least once a day at work, mainly for brainstorming and research. When asked about future uses of the technology, the demographic highlighted customer data analytics and financial planning. Katie Clinton of the firm said: “Despite some of the knowledge barriers, leaders must continue to get to grips with generative AI as a lever to long-term productivity, growth, and competitiveness.”

KPMG then in May published the results of a survey of 2,000 UK “desk-based working adults”, finding that 61 per cent said they wanted specific training on how to use generative AI, while the technology had a high-profile role in its full-year results published in January of this year. While KPMG UK saw pre-tax profit for the 12 months to September 2023 fall to £364 million, following a 17 per cent jump in staff costs, the use of generative AI from its tax and legal business delivered an 8 per cent increase in net sales.

It also pointed out at the time that it had expanded its cloud and AI alliance with Microsoft to give staff early access to Microsoft 365 Copilot, Semantic Kernel, and Azure OpenAI Service, for its clients across audit, tax and advisory, for example.

And Rowlands says KPMG has been encouraging its staff to get to grips with and experiment with the technology, guardrails permitting, with the likes of a “24 hours of AI” initiative including hands-on workshops and prompt crafting sessions. “We're excited to see how that will explode,” he says, looking ahead to the group enjoying the combination of both human and technological capability rapidly expanding.

As for outcomes of the “memorable and inspiring” summit, which it is hoped will take place again on a regular basis, he says: “It was great to [bring people together in] Scotland to start thinking that through. Technology's going to give us totally new ways of solving some old problems.”

This includes being able to be quicker, improve quality, boost the employee experience, and “co-create with our clients in new environments”.

He adds: “We're working through the way we sell, we're working through the services that we already offer and renewing those, there are some new ones. Then, we're looking through our delivery model.” It is also using the technology itself, needing to bear in mind factors such as risk and legal, and its learning experiences, for example. “The full breadth of the transformation of the organisation is really interesting.”

The Scottish AI Alliance notes that the tech’s roots date back decades – and beyond. That said, it still has some way to go in certain aspects, according to Rowlands. “When I write emails to my wife, she knows when it’s AI generated – it hasn't quite got that entirely accurate voice of me yet.”