Unlocking the Power of AI: EY's Journey of Innovation

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Ey's Innovation Journey: Embracing Innovation for the Future
3. Artificial Intelligence: Transforming Services and Reducing Risk
4. Ey's Vision and Strategy for Leveraging AI
5. Examples of AI Implementation at Ey
6. Guiding Principles for Ey's AI Work
7. The Challenges and Importance of Scaling AI
8. Data Integration and Governance for AI Success
9. Building Trust in AI: Embedding Trust by Design
10. The Future of Ey and AI

Ey's Innovation Journey: Embracing AI for the Future

From its beginnings as a 170-year-old organization, Ey has embarked on a journey of innovation to Shape the future of the professional services industry. As the Global Chief Innovation Officer of Ey, my daily questions revolve around the innovations that can generate the most value for our organization, clients, and society as a whole. I constantly ponder over where disruptions to our business might arise and who our competitors of tomorrow will be.

Ey's innovation ambition Stems from the recognition that in today's rapidly changing world, innovation is not just a competitive advantage but a capability that enables agility, resilience, and flexibility in the face of disruptions from any direction. One technology that holds immense potential for creating value for businesses and society is artificial intelligence (AI). AI harnesses human creativity, ingenuity, and problem-solving abilities to drive significant benefits.

At Ey, we have embraced AI to transform how we deliver services to our clients. By leveraging AI, we achieve higher accuracy, improved productivity, and reduced risk across all sectors and geographies. This transformation empowers our clients to better serve their customers, effectively manage risk, and enhance their overall business resilience.

Artificial Intelligence: Transforming Services and Reducing Risk

AI serves as a powerful tool for Ey to augment our professionals' capabilities, making them more productive, effective, and fulfilled. Rather than solely focusing on automation, Ey's approach centers on augmentation. We recognize that AI can simplify routine tasks and enable our people to concentrate on the most critical aspects of their work.

One area where AI has made a significant impact is in document processing. At Ey, we analyze a vast number of business documents, ranging from employment agreements to invoices and regulations, across different languages and industries. These documents often contain complex information required for accounting or legal determinations. AI assists us in simplifying these determinations and allows our professionals to extract Relevant information efficiently, enabling them to make better decisions faster.

By embedding AI into our processes and workflows, we boost the productivity and expertise of our professionals. They gain access to AI-powered tools that assist in diverse areas, such as marketing compliance and the transition back to physical offices. This integration enables our professionals to generate valuable insights, deliver enhanced services, and drive greater value for our clients.

Ey's Vision and Strategy for Leveraging AI

Ey's Global AI Leader, Nigel, sheds light on our vision and strategy for leveraging AI to its full potential. With over 300,000 professionals worldwide possessing deep expertise in various domains, including accounting, law, tax, and supply chain, Ey recognizes the value in augmenting their capabilities through AI.

Nigel emphasizes that our vision at Ey is to view AI as augmented intelligence, empowering our professionals with increased speed, intelligence, and superpowers. This vision not only serves as a motivating force but also aligns efforts across our organization, fostering collaboration and solidarity.

To achieve this vision, Ey is steadfast in embedding AI into every aspect of our operations. We acknowledge that this process will require time and effort, but progress is already underway. In the previous year alone, we developed and implemented more than 20 new AI Tools, addressing a wide range of challenges, from marketing compliance to post-pandemic return-to-work strategies.

What sets our approach apart is that, as AI augments our professionals, it also learns from them. Through this symbiotic relationship, our AI systems become smarter and more autonomous over time. This enables our professionals to focus on delivering valuable insights and higher-order tasks, as mundane work is gradually delegated to AI.

Examples of AI Implementation at Ey

AI implementation at Ey has produced remarkable results in various domains, such as document reading and transaction data analysis. Nigel shares two compelling examples of how AI is revolutionizing these areas.

Reading documents is a critical yet labor-intensive task at Ey. We process a myriad of document types, including complex ones like K1 tax forms. By leveraging AI to augment our professionals, we have dramatically reduced review time by up to 80% while simultaneously improving accuracy by up to 95%. The cost of extracting information from documents has also seen a significant reduction of 70% to 80%.

Transaction data analysis is another area where AI has demonstrated its prowess. Ey analyzes billions of transactions annually, and AI ensures improved data quality, anomaly detection, and transaction classification. By augmenting our professionals' capabilities, AI allows us to process millions of transactions with greater efficiency and accuracy, minimizing manual efforts. This approach facilitates continuous learning, with AI taking on more complex tasks over time while still benefiting from human oversight and expertise.

Guiding Principles for Ey's AI Work

Ey's AI journey is guided by core principles that enable us to navigate the complexities and ethical considerations associated with AI. Nigel highlights the importance of having a clear ambition and mandate when using AI in a 170-year-old organization like Ey. This Clarity ensures that our efforts are aligned and directed towards true transformation rather than merely addressing a few use cases.

Trust and responsible development are paramount in Ey's AI work. Building AI solutions that Align with Ey's values and society's expectations is crucial. Diversity, both in talent and perspectives, plays a vital role in designing, developing, and deploying AI. Ey actively recruits and retains diverse talent to foster innovation and ensure fair representation in AI development.

Collaboration emerges as a key factor in successful AI implementation. Nigel underscores the need to collaborate with multiple stakeholders, including business, technology, risk management, and other organizational units. AI implementation shares many challenges with digital transformation but demands even more collaboration to ensure a seamless integration of AI capabilities into existing processes.

The Challenges and Importance of Scaling AI

Scaling AI initiatives is a significant challenge that demands careful consideration and dedicated efforts. Ey has recognized this challenge during its AI journey, particularly in creating solutions that work at enterprise Scale. Nigel explains the need for a diverse ecosystem of skills and expertise, ranging from data integration engineers to software developers and project managers.

Beyond technical skills, scaling AI requires experienced managers who can navigate the complexities and unique challenges of AI implementation. However, finding such experienced managers can be challenging due to the current market maturity of AI.

Operational infrastructure is equally essential for successful AI scaling. Collaboration and coordination among global teams are necessary to solve the unique challenges that arise during scaling AI solutions. Ey's experience with document intelligent solutions serves as an example of the complexity involved in worldwide deployment, including training, testing, integration, and governance.

Data Integration and Governance for AI Success

Data is the fuel that powers AI, and getting data integration right is crucial for maximizing AI benefits. Nigel emphasizes that successful AI implementations require not only enterprise data but also data from external sources and derived data created through predictions and data science processes. This comprehensive approach to data integration presents a significant challenge but is essential for creating differentiation through AI-powered operations.

Modern data integration approaches, such as employing a data Fabric that unifies data and allows real-time insights, can enhance speed to market and enable quick adaptation to changing requirements. Robust data governance ensures data quality and consistency across the organization, while privacy and ethical considerations remain at the forefront.

Addressing bias is a critical aspect of data governance and ethical AI usage. Nigel stresses the importance of hiring a diverse team to mitigate bias while upholding privacy and transparency in using data for AI applications. Building trust through responsible data usage is crucial for encouraging data sharing and preserving the competitive advantage gained through AI.

Building Trust in AI: Embedding Trust by Design

Trust is a fundamental aspect of AI adoption, as AI systems may fail in unpredictable ways. Nigel highlights the probabilistic nature of AI, which distinguishes it from rule-based computer systems. This inherent uncertainty poses challenges to gaining trust from users and organizations.

Ey recognizes the pivotal role of embedding trust in AI solutions from the Outset. By asking smarter questions about the potential unintended consequences, societal impacts, and possible biases, Ey aims to mitigate risks and build trust in AI. Embracing diversity ensures governance practices align with AI's unique learning processes and enables organizations to develop fair, resilient, transparent, and high-performing AI solutions.

Ey's Trust AI framework has been developed to help organizations adapt existing governance and control frameworks to address the specific risks associated with AI technologies. By incorporating transparency, diversity, and ethics, this framework assists organizations in building trust, understanding AI complexities, and right-sizing governance practices as they scale their AI programs.

Industries like Healthcare can significantly benefit from fostering trust in AI. Ey's framework addresses ethical and social challenges that healthcare providers face when implementing AI solutions. By managing personal and sensitive data ethically and transparently, providers can gain trust from patients and deliver improved health outcomes and experiences.

The Future of Ey and AI

Ey firmly believes that getting AI right is the future, not only for the organization but also for society as a whole. Nigel asserts that AI is not merely a futuristic concept but a transforming force in the Present. As Ey continues its innovation journey and embraces AI wholeheartedly, the potential for positive change is immense.

By building trust, helping clients seize AI opportunities, and effectively managing risks, Ey aims to realize the enormous benefits AI can bring to society. The adoption of responsible AI practices serves as the catalyst for creating personalized experiences, advancing healthcare, and achieving wider societal and economic growth.

As Ey marches forward in its AI journey, innovation and disruption will remain at the core of its strategy. By constantly challenging the boundaries of AI and staying ahead of the curve, Ey is determined to shape the future with innovation, agility, and resilience.

Highlights

• Ey's innovation journey focuses on embracing AI to create value for its organization, clients, and society.
• AI at Ey is about augmentation, making professionals more productive and effective.
• Ey uses AI to enhance document processing, reducing review time and improving accuracy.
• Transaction data analysis at Ey has become more efficient with AI, enabling quality improvement and anomaly detection.
• Ey's AI journey is guided by principles such as clear ambition, trust, and diverse participation.
• Scaling AI requires a diverse ecosystem of skills, experienced managers, and robust operational infrastructure.
• Data integration and governance are essential for AI success, ensuring data quality and addressing ethical considerations.
• Building trust in AI by design is crucial, involving diversity, transparency, and responsible data usage.
• Ey's Trust AI framework helps organizations adapt governance practices and address AI-specific risks.
• Ey aims to transform society through responsible AI adoption, delivering personalized experiences and societal benefits.

FAQ

Q: How does AI impact Ey's services? AI augments Ey's professionals, making them more productive and effective in tasks such as document processing and transaction data analysis. It enables faster and informed decision-making, leading to enhanced service delivery for clients.

Q: What are the challenges of scaling AI at Ey? Scaling AI at Ey requires a diverse ecosystem of skills, including experienced managers and various technical roles. Additionally, operational infrastructure and collaboration among global teams are crucial for seamless scaling of AI solutions.

Q: How does Ey address data integration and governance for AI success? Ey recognizes the significance of data integration and governance for AI success. It employs modern approaches, such as data fabrics, to enable real-time insights. Robust data governance ensures data quality and consistency, while ethical considerations are addressed through transparency and privacy.

Q: How does Ey build trust in AI? Ey embeds trust in AI by design, asking smarter questions and ensuring diverse perspectives are included in AI development. Ey's Trust AI framework helps organizations adapt existing governance practices and addresses the specific risks associated with AI technologies.

Q: What is the vision of Ey for leveraging AI? Ey's vision for AI is to view it as augmented intelligence, empowering professionals with increased speed, intelligence, and superpowers. This vision motivates employees and aligns efforts across the organization, facilitating true transformation.

资源:

• Website: Ey
• Framework: Ey's Trust AI Framework