PwC reorganises for AI era

PwC is redesigning its consulting business so clients get more uniform cross-border work as artificial intelligence changes how advisory firms deliver services. (ft.com) The plan under discussion would standardise consulting services across PwC’s country partnerships and expand the use of shared delivery teams in lower-cost hubs including India, according to reports published on April 14 and April 15. (cityam.com) (businesspost.ie) PwC’s United Kingdom arm moved the same day to merge its consulting and risk businesses, cutting its service lines from five to four as part of what Bloomberg described as a push for a more globally integrated model. (bloomberg.com) (cityam.com) PwC’s structure makes that harder than it sounds. The firm operates as a network of separate national partnerships, and City A.M. said executives see that setup as a disadvantage against more tightly integrated rivals when multinational clients want the same service in multiple countries. (pwc.com) (cityam.com) Artificial intelligence is pressing the issue because consulting firms are trying to turn advice into repeatable software and managed services. PwC says its “agent OS” is a platform that connects multiple artificial intelligence agents, people and enterprise systems into governed workflows. (pwc.com) On its product page, PwC says 88 per cent of executives plan to increase artificial intelligence budgets in the next 12 months because of agentic artificial intelligence, and says its platform can deploy multi-agent models in 30 days or less if a client’s technology stack is ready. (pwc.com) PwC has been spending at that scale for a while. In its 2024 Global Annual Review, the firm said it invested nearly $1.5 billion in artificial intelligence globally, had more than 370,000 staff in 149 countries, and increased annual revenue to $55.4 billion. (pwc.com) The consulting market is not expanding evenly enough to let every local partnership keep doing its own thing. City A.M. reported that PwC United Kingdom’s consulting revenue fell 3 per cent in its latest results, and its risk division also declined 3 per cent. (cityam.com) PwC has also been trying to show that its internal technology can become a client product. Foundry’s CIO 100 awards named 100 winners for 2024, and PwC has separately said its agent operating system won a CIO 100 award. (foundryco.com) (pwc.com) Marco Amitrano, PwC United Kingdom’s senior partner, told the Financial Times the reorganisation was “about global alignment” with colleagues in the United States and the global firm. The harder part will be making one model work across local regulation, tax rules and partnership politics that still differ from country to country. (cityam.com)