KPMG will spend $100 million on its enterprise services in the artificial intelligence area over the next four years.
The mentioned intention is part of a partnership in the machine intelligence sector between the specified professional services giant and Google Cloud. The corresponding statement was made by Steve Chase, vice chair of artificial intelligence and innovation for KPMG, during a conversation with media representatives. According to him, part of the $100 million amount will be used to cover payments to Google. At the same time, he noted that most of this amount is intended to finance in-home projects that use the technologies of the mentioned giant of the Internet search area. In this case, it means projects related to the development of virtual agents powered by artificial intelligence and the training of KPMG employees to become proficient in the technology.
It is worth noting that Wall Street currently expects that there will be signs of a return of massive financial injections into the AI industry. These signals are expected from the global technology space. According to objective parameters, artificial intelligence is the most advanced technological system at the current stage of the material development of human civilization. It should be clarified that in this case, the definition of material development is generalized to a certain extent. Regarding the artificial intelligence industry, the corresponding formulation implies the technological evolution of mankind in the virtual dimension of the reality of its existence. AI has already demonstrated its impressive abilities as a working tool that increases productivity and optimizes many processes and as a digital thinking system capable of processing huge amounts of information, including within the framework of an analytical approach to data perception, and generating original content. Also, in the long-term, a kind of futurological perspective, artificial intelligence can potentially become an autonomous form of consciousness capable of independent evolution and surpass the human mind in terms of cognitive abilities. Against the background of the relevant prospects, it is obvious that investing in AI can bring large-scale results, including in a financial sense. At the same time, it is not yet known exactly when this will happen. The artificial intelligence segment in the global technology sector has not yet generated a financial result that would exceed the volume of investment injections into the AI industry. At the same time, investors initially expected that the economic effect would be obtained faster compared to the prospects that are observed against the background of the current tendencies. In this case, tendencies are meant in the context of the dynamic of the financial aspect of the existence of the artificial intelligence industry.
Also, for investors, a kind of difficulty is that the limits of the technological evolution of AI are still unknown for certain. The probability that artificial intelligence as a system of thinking and, including, cognition of the surrounding reality in a global philosophical sense will surpass the capabilities of the human mind is a futurological forecast but does not belong to the category of guaranteed scenarios or indisputable axioms of the logic of the development of civilization. Currently, there is not and in fact, cannot be an unambiguous and reliable answer to the question of what form of existence AI will have at the peak stage of its evolution. The corresponding uncertainty can be a deterrent for many investors. At the same time, the potential of AI is obvious. No less obvious is the fact that financial injections into the artificial intelligence industry are likely to exceed all preliminary optimistic expectations. In a certain sense, AI is a kind of platform for a new era in the technological development of mankind.
Currently, companies providing professional services are among the first businesses to benefit from the use of artificial intelligence. Nowadays, many firms are turning to accounting and consulting firms for guidance on implementing AI.
Steve Chase is in the camp that it is moving from proof of concept and experimentation to scaling. According to him, the professional services sector is undergoing the largest transformation it will likely ever go through.
Steve Chase also drew attention to a poll of business leaders conducted by KPMG. In this case, it was recorded that 50% of companies plan to spend $100 million to finance projects in the artificial intelligence area in the next 12 months. Also, 20% of firms intend to invest at least $ 250 million in the corresponding projects.
Steve Chase stated that over the past two years, the number of bookings for KPMG’s Google Cloud-related services has increased tenfold. Against this background, the company began to look for other cloud service providers. Last year, the firm announced a five-year $2 billion commitment to expanding artificial intelligence and cloud services via Microsoft.
It is worth noting that the results of special industry research indicate that 78% of US chief financial officers plan to increase their investments in generative machine intelligence. In this case, generative artificial intelligence is a tool for solving tasks of medium complexity, including financial reporting, forecasting, and data visualization. Also, 60% of chief financial officers said that their companies are already using generative AI to solve the mentioned tasks. It is worth noting that in this case there is a significant change in the practice of leveraging artificial intelligence. At the beginning of the current year, companies relied on AI as part of more routine activities such as entering basic data and processing invoices.
In the United States, in March, the share of firms using artificial intelligence in their operations for medium-impact functions was fixed at 35%. In June, the corresponding figure was 45%. This dynamic of growth indicates that companies are moving beyond basic apps and are beginning to integrate artificial intelligence more strategically into their activities. The large-scale implementation of AI also signals firms’ confidence in the potential of this technology, the capabilities of which are associated not only with simple task automation.
As we have reported earlier, Mistral AI Partners With Google Cloud to Enhance Vertex AI Offering.
