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Business Insider
a day ago
- Business
- Business Insider
A Big Four consulting giant tries to make accounting less boring with AI
Accounting has a reputation for being technical, tedious, and high-pressure. A Big Four firm is trying to change that with AI. EY, one of the world's largest accounting and consulting players, wants to use this technology not to replace accountants but to make their work more interesting and fulfilling. EY is investing $1 billion to increase early-career compensation and work with colleges to encourage students to pursue CPA careers. Some of this money will go toward smarter tools that the firm hopes will also attract more young workers into the profession while retaining existing talent. "Under no circumstances are we ever thinking that we will get rid of our human workforce and do this just through AI agents or other things like that," Raj Sharma, a global managing partner at EY, told me in a recent interview. This problem is more about a lack of human employees. In a world where modern businesses operate across dozens of jurisdictions with complex and ever-changing regulations, audits have become a logistical and mental minefield. That complexity has driven some away from the field, contributing to a nationwide accountant shortage. About 65,000 students in the US completed bachelor's or master's degrees in accounting in the 2021-22 school year, 18% fewer than a decade earlier. About 30,000 people took the CPA exam in 2022, down roughly 40% from 2010. Meanwhile, three-quarters of CPAs in the US were thought to be at or near retirement in 2019, according to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. "Even though AI can do a lot of things, think of our business around assurance, audit, and the certifications that are required. We are significantly short of people coming up with accounting degrees," Sharma said. "We are still hiring big classes of accountants from colleges, and we are training them into AI." EY is embedding this AI assistance across tax, risk, and finance workflows via its Agentic Platform, developed and launched with Nvidia earlier this year. This has already created about 200 specialized AI agents that support 80,000 EY employees to help with tasks such as data collection, document analysis, and tax compliance — automating dull tasks and amplifying more engaging ones. More interesting, less daunting, audits Sharma cited AI-powered audits as an example of what's possible. Audits are a staple of accounting work that traditionally involved sampling a small subset of transactions to look for errors or fraud. This is painstaking work, and pretty daunting when you're checking the books of huge, complex multinational corporations. "It's just overwhelming for our accountants," he told me. "That's one big reason why people don't want to go into accounting because it's so technical, so deep. And the risks are so high of getting it wrong." He explained how AI can make these situations more manageable. For example, an audit that used to take five hours for a particular process might now take two and a half hours with EY employees supported by AI agents. "In the past, we would maybe sample 100 transactions. Now, with AI, you could sample 10,000 transactions," Sharma said. EY's accountants would get more involved in situations where this new technology flagged maybe 25 potentially questionable transactions out of that 10,000 total. They'd dig deeper into those specific situations, which could be more interesting and useful work. "The accuracy of the audit becomes a lot better. Our ability to catch fraud is a lot better in that particular area," Sharma said. "So AI is a welcome relief for these people that are out there, that they have another tool to be able to help and do more." "Our people are a lot happier in that particular area," he added. "We are making AI agents available for our people to work with, but not with the intent that we will replace the accountants that are out there." Make accounting human again EY is training its employees to work hand-in-hand with these AI tools. It sees a future where the job is less about memorizing arcane rules and more about having human accountants apply their insights in the right places, such as "high-end work around due diligence" in EY's tax practice, Sharma said. EY generated just over $50 billion in revenue last year and has roughly 400,000 employees. Sharma said the firm hopes to become a $100 billion company with 500,000 people and 200,000 AI agents. However, he added that EY is not impervious to what may happen in the world and the broader economy. Accounting may never be the most glamorous profession, though EY is trying to make it less grueling. With AI taking on some of the complexity and monotony, the firm is opening the door to a new kind of accounting career, where professionals do more thinking, less grinding, and might find greater purpose in their work. That, in the long run, might be exactly what saves the profession.
Business Wire
13-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Dialpad Announces a Vision of Pre-Emptive Customer Service With Agentic Ai and Enterprise Platform Enhancements
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dialpad, Inc., the leading Ai-powered communications intelligence platform, today announced its strategic vision for agentic Ai, alongside significant platform enhancements that deliver immediate business value through real-time intelligence capabilities. Paving the Way for an Agentic Ai Future Dialpad's Agentic Ai platform will enable businesses to deliver what Gartner calls "pre-emptive customer service" – anticipating and addressing customer needs before they become issues. This means that the platform will facilitate autonomous systems that proactively manage customer interactions, adapt in real time, complete complex tasks with minimal oversight, and ensure seamless handoffs between Ai and customer support agents. 'Dialpad's journey has always been about more than just communications,' said Craig Walker, Founder and CEO of Dialpad. 'Our platform's unique ability to coach agents in real time is just the beginning, and we will always keep pushing the boundaries further. We're laser-focused on revolutionizing customer interactions, with systems that adapt in real time and complete complex tasks. This is about transforming customer experience and empowering businesses to serve their customers in an entirely new way.' Dialpad is uniquely positioned to lead the market in agentic Ai and deliver the next generation of customer experience that redefines how businesses connect with their customers. Dialpad remains uniquely positioned as the contact center platform that can coach live agents in real time during each call using native Ai features built into its core platform, and will soon augment those solutions with fully agentic Ai. Today, Dialpad customers will now be able to give their teams: Ai Live Coach: Proactive, in-the-moment guidance for live agents during each and every conversation, including real-time information gathering from the company's entire knowledge base. More customer data to support customer calls through additional and expanded integrations with Salesforce, Hubspot, Freshdesk, Microsoft Teams, and many more. An Ai CSAT score after the call along with insights and tips on how to improve the customer experience for next time. Automatic syncing with Salesforce and other CRMs: Call summaries, action items, full transcripts, and call dispositions synced with your CRM within minutes of the conversation. "With Dialpad's AI, we saw an immediate impact," says Raymond Dunne, Vice President of Operations at Foley. "At Foley, regulatory compliance is mission-critical for our customer. We've created an extensive Ai Live Coach library that serves as real-time guides, ensuring our agents always provide accurate compliance information. This saves our supervisors hours each week." With the release of our Agentic Platform, customers will be able to create practical, fully autonomous, applications such as: Order Tracking: Ai Agents will automatically authenticate customers, access order systems, and provide real-time shipping updates with delivery estimates and tracking options. Appointment Management: Customers can reschedule appointments through Ai Agents that identify them, show available time slots, and update scheduling systems automatically. Recruitment Screening: Ai Agents will conduct initial candidate interviews, collect qualifications, store information in HR systems, and schedule promising applicants for human interviews. The platform will also include an agent management toolkit, designed to improve efficiency and accelerate time-to-value for agentic implementations by up to 75% compared to typical execution timelines. Dialpad's agentic platform will be available in fall 2025. Eligible customers and partners can request early access through their account representative. Enterprise-Ready Platform Delivering Measurable Results Across Global Organizations Dialpad's current platform already delivers significant, measurable business impact through its real-time Ai capabilities. A Forrester Total Economic Impact report highlights how Dialpad customers experience 20% reduction in average handle time, 50% decrease in post-call work for agents, 75% reduction in manual tasks for managers, and 10% drop in annual agent turnover. Dialpad has also enhanced its Microsoft Teams integration, offering unparalleled contact center capabilities that make it the contact center of choice for Microsoft-centric enterprises. Key enhancements include simplified setup through self-serve direct routing, two-way presence syncing for accurate status reflection, and an enhanced embedded experience within Teams. This seamless integration enables organizations to operate Dialpad's advanced Ai-powered features directly within Microsoft Teams while maintaining full visibility, control, and an exceptional customer experience. As a testament to the Microsoft ecosystem integration, Dialpad is working towards the Certified Contact Center Solution for Microsoft Teams this fall. The platform further supports global enterprises with expanded Ai language support for eight languages, advanced security controls, compliance tools for data governance, and strategic integrations for workflow automation. For a comprehensive overview of all technical updates, visit the Dialpad blog. A Bold New Look Alongside these functional enhancements, Dialpad unveiled a brand refresh featuring a modernized logo, updated color palette, and redesigned app interface. The app refresh isn't merely aesthetic—it incorporates substantial ease of use enhancements that directly address feedback from our customers. This new visual identity reflects Dialpad's approach to delivering seamless and approachable Ai solutions for modern businesses. See Dialpad's bold new look for yourself and explore the full brand transformation at the Dialpad blog. About Dialpad Dialpad is the leading Ai-powered communications intelligence platform creating human-first, Ai-enhanced solutions that will drive the next wave of how businesses communicate with and serve their customers. Enterprise customers such as Randstad, RE/MAX, Nasdaq, Express Scripts, T-Mobile, Johns Hopkins, Motorola Solutions, Tractor Supply, and Netflix use Dialpad and its Ai capabilities to deliver amazing customer experiences. Supported by notable investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, GV, ICONIQ Capital, and OMERS, Dialpad is a dynamic force in Ai technology with a rapidly expanding presence. Visit to learn more.
Business Insider
06-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
EY CEO says AI won't decrease its 400,000-person workforce — but it might help it double in size
If artificial intelligence advances mean the average employee can do twice the amount of work they do today, then EY CEO Janet Truncale could see the consulting giant grow without cutting her head count. Speaking Monday at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles, Truncale said, "We're not going to decrease the size of our workforce" because AI increases productivity, and employees perform at a higher level earlier in their careers. Her 400,000-person firm works with the biggest companies in the world, but the data-heavy work required of auditors and accountants has led many to predict that firms like EY can do the same amount of work with fewer people, thanks to AI. Truncale believes AI "is going to transform the work our people are doing," but not make humans obsolete or eliminate thousands of jobs. "There's always going to be a human component," she said. "You have to invest in all of the soft skills," she added. Naturally, the firm is talking with companies in various sectors about AI tools they can incorporate into their firms. EY is able to connect with these executive teams because the firm is "client zero" and tests many tools on its own workforce and "disrupting ourselves" before recommending them to clients, Truncale said. There's a healthy respect for these tools given teams across the firm are constantly tinkering with them — of both the tools' abilities and faults. Data, Truncale said, and data security need to be top of mind for executives who want to harness AI. "You've got to be really careful with this technology," she said. While generative AI has disrupted professional services, many in the industry have echoed Truncale and said they do not think it can replace humans entirely but instead serve as a supplement to their work. EY and the other Big Four firms have invested heavily in AI for years and recently in agentic AI, which involves several AI "agents" operating independently and making decisions without the direct assistance or input of humans. In March, EY launched its Agentic Platform in March, providing 80,000 of its tax employees with 150 tax agents that can help them with data collection, document analysis and review, and income and indirect tax compliance. Other firms and consultants have also said they view AI as a way to free up staff from monotonous tasks and give them additional time to spend on more advanced or complicated work. AI has been a boon to consulting firms' business as clients look for guidance on how to incorporate the technology.
