EY’s transformative journey with AI is redefining how its people work and deliver value to clients. With a multi-billion-dollar investment in AI and a strategic partnership with Microsoft, EY is leading the charge in responsible, innovative AI adoption to empower teams, enhance productivity and address global challenges.
The global EY organisation, a leader in professional services, has been on a transformative AI journey for more than seven years. With a US$1.4 billion investment in AI to date and deep strategic relationships with companies such as Microsoft, EY has embedded AI into every facet of its operations to revolutionise how its people work and deliver value to clients.
“One of the most important lessons we’ve learned along the way is that going solo can be incredibly challenging,” says Katherine Boiciuc, EY Chief Technology and Innovation Officer for Oceania, a region that takes in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.
“Partnering with others is a much smarter way to drive meaningful progress with AI. It allows for faster adoption and innovation by learning from best practices and avoiding the mistakes made by other organisations on similar paths.”
This approach has seen AI integrated into EY’s extensive “alliance stack” of tools and platforms powered by Microsoft and other companies such as Adobe, Nvidia, SAP and ServiceNow.
“Many of our transformation projects incorporate AI, and even when AI isn’t the primary focus, we often offer it as an option for clients to consider,” Boiciuc adds. “For example, in a cloud transformation project, clients can choose AI-powered cloud engineers to handle the coding, in addition to or instead of human engineers.”
Internally, EY is focused on three major AI initiatives. One is the EY.ai ecosystem, anchored by an ”AI factory” model. It gives employees access to EY-specific methodologies, working practices and secure environments, known as ‘labs’, for experimentation.
“These labs enable us to help clients safely innovate with AI using their data,“ says Boiciuc. “Together, we can ideate and explore the various options and decisions they need to make on their AI journey.”
EY’s second major initiative is the rollout of an everyday AI toolkit for employees – Microsoft 365 Copilot. Around 5,000 team members across Oceania, including more than 1,400 in New Zealand, already have access to the generative AI tool to enhance their productivity.
Lastly, EY has modernised its customer relationship management (CRM) system by deploying Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Copilot for Sales. This enables employees to leverage the latest CRM tools and AI capabilities to deliver a more unified approach to client relationships. This includes enhanced collaboration, streamlined processes, and faster access to targeted and meaningful insights.
Streamlining, enhancing and excelling with EYQ
EY has created several proprietary AI technologies for its people and clients. In October 2023, the company launched EY.ai EYQ, one of the largest private, secure large language generative AI ecosystems globally. EYQ is hosted on Microsoft Azure and leverages OpenAI’s GPT-4 via Azure OpenAI Service. It was also designed with robust security measures and centralised policies for risk management and technology use.
EYQ has been evolving since it launched last year, integrating capabilities such as versatile conversational assistants built on EY knowledge, integrated prompt management and the incubation of experimental AI projects. In the coming months, the generative AI ecosystem will release agents to assist EY employees in completing a variety of tasks, a capability for unified conversations across multiple conversational assistants and collaborative workspaces that allow multiple users to collaborate with EYQ simultaneously in a single conversation. It will also equip citizen developers with more tools to develop conversational assistants and agents.
“EYQ was one of the main reasons I joined EY,” says Boiciuc. “It’s a one-stop shop for our team members to streamline repeatable tasks, enhance their AI skills and access useful prompts.
“The capabilities of EYQ are extensive. It can handle tasks such as generating reports, drafting client communications, conducting research, analysing data trends and writing code. If a task needs doing, we’ve likely figured out how to do it with EYQ.”
According to Boiciuc, one of the most exciting things about EYQ is how it complements Microsoft 365 Copilot. “Copilot provides a creative, inventive workspace, while EYQ focuses on production and execution. Together, they create a seamless and highly productive ecosystem for our team.”
With more than 167,000 monthly users globally and over 750 monthly users in New Zealand, EYQ is transforming how employees work. It’s widely used to create proposals, handle HR queries, provide payroll advice and produce content tailored to EY’s brand guidelines.
EYQ also empowers employees to work in languages other than their native tongue, breaking down barriers and opening opportunities for collaboration across jurisdictions. “This capability has been incredibly liberating, not only expanding the types of projects teams can work on but also quickly globalising our capabilities,” says Boiciuc.
The benefits of EYQ are evident. For instance, more than half of EY’s users in New Zealand are engaging with the generative AI ecosystem monthly. Moreover, a recent internal survey found that 22 per cent of EY’s Oceania employees use AI approximately once a day, and 27 per cent use it more than once a day.
AI with integrity
As an auditor by trade, governance is ingrained in EY’s traditional service offerings. Adding AI governance practices has been a natural extension of its well-established governance frameworks.
Boiciuc believes EY’s maturity in governance and risk management gives it a distinct advantage, allowing the company to integrate AI oversight seamlessly instead of building a separate governance framework from scratch.
EY teams adhere to nine core Responsible AI principles in developing and using AI: accountability, data protection, reliability, security, transparency, explainability, fairness, compliance and sustainability.
Regardless of role, every EY employee must also complete foundational AI training, with opportunities to further upskill through the global EY Badges program. The program offers external certifications for future-focused skills such as AI from Microsoft and other training providers. Over 4,800 EY Oceania team members, including more than 1,500 in New Zealand, have been awarded badges.
“Each badge requires up to 45 hours of training – 15 hours focused on theoretical learning and 30 hours on applied, hands-on experience,” says Boiciuc. “This commitment has led to a significant uplift in AI competency across our workforce over the past 12 months.”
EY’s commitment to responsible AI adoption extends beyond formal training. Initiatives like Thrive Time empower employees to maximise the time unlocked by AI tools. “Thrive Time shifts the focus from traditional timesheets to intentional decision-making,” Boiciuc explains. Employees can use their newfound capacity to upskill, volunteer or enhance their work/life balance.
The results speak for themselves. A recent internal survey revealed that 71 per cent of EY Oceania employees believe AI positively impacts their day-to-day roles and the firm as a whole. “Building confidence and fostering a positive culture around AI adoption has been critical to our success,” Boiciuc says.
EY’s agentic AI vision
Agentic AI is transforming industries by replicating processes previously performed end-to-end by humans, and integrating machine learning, conversational AI and generative AI into seamless user experiences. At EY, the approach is seamlessly integrated into daily operations through the following tools, which are treated as collaborators:
- Assisted Requirements Traceability intelligence Engine (ARTiE)
- Business Architecture Requirements and Transformation intelligence Engine (BARTiE)
- Solution Architecture Design intelligence Engine (SADiE).
“Our teams naturally interact with these tools,” says Boiciuc. “It’s common to hear phrases like ‘Let’s ask ARTiE’ or ‘See what BARTiE thinks’ in our regular stand-up meetings. This approach humanises AI and fosters a collaborative dynamic that ensures AI is a natural extension of our workforce.”
Boiciuc believes agentic AI represents a fork in the road for organisations, which must decide whether to use this technology purely for productivity gains or to reimagine processes for growth and enriched customer experiences.
“It would be a missed opportunity for any design choice to focus solely on replacing humans without rethinking the experience or maintaining appropriate human oversight,” she says. “Successful adoption of agentic AI should balance automation with inclusivity, ensuring AI complements – rather than replaces – human contributions.”
Partnering for the future
Looking ahead, EY is committed to advancing its AI capabilities in partnership with Microsoft. “With Microsoft’s recent announcement of over 80 new products and features, there’s a significant opportunity to support clients in upskilling their teams and adopting these tools to create meaningful value,” Boiciuc says.
Rik Irons-Mclean, Chief Technology Officer, Enterprise Commercial at Microsoft Australia and New Zealand, underscores the strength of the partnership.
“EY excels at translating AI technology into tangible use cases with measurable outcomes and a clear return on investment,” he says. “Together, we’re moving beyond the proof-of-concept stage to deliver real value for clients. That’s what makes this partnership so exciting.”
Irons-Mclean notes that both organisations are also focused on addressing broader societal challenges, from sustainability to workforce transformation.
“By combining Microsoft’s leading-edge technology with EY’s expertise, we can contribute meaningfully to global priorities like the energy transition and skills development,” he says.