EY rolls out fresh suite of generative AI tools across Australia
Big Four professional services firm Ernst & Young has introduced more than two dozen new AI-tools across its Australian audit and assurance division as part of a $1 billion global roll-out.
Described at the time as eighteen months in the making and built on the back of a $1.4 billion investment, Ernst & Young launched its unified internal artificial intelligence platform EY.ai together with its LLM EYQ towards the end of 2023.
Last week, the Big Four firm announced the latest phase in its four-year investment focused on audit transformation with the launch of EYQ Assurance Knowledge, a generative AI tool which searches and summarises accounting and auditing content.
“EY is bringing AI right to the heart of the audit, accelerating its transformation,” stated Hamburg-based global digital assurance leader Marc Jeschonneck. “This equips our 140,000 assurance professionals with technology capabilities to shape the future with confidence, supporting our ambition to become the world’s most trusted AI-powered assurance provider.”
Now, in a discussion with the Australian, EY Oceania’s digital assurance leader Christina Larkin has revealed the local firm is already rolling out thirty EYQ AI tools across its Australian audit and assurance practice, in what is hoped will help stem the commonly high attrition and burn-out rates among industry professionals while also saving significant time and costs.
“I see the reactions from auditors who say this is game-changing,” Larkin told the publication of the new tools. “It takes away the administrative parts of the job and is making it far more focused on risk, allowing the auditor to get back to what they should be focused on doing.”
The firm said that by integrating EYQ Assurance Knowledge directly into the workflow of its assurance technology platform, responses could be generated based on the profile and context of audit engagements, including as to geography, industry and complexity, while helping to manage changes between different iterations of a company's financial statements.”
AI tools
In addition to the EYQ Assurance Knowledge search and summary function, the suite of genAI tools being globally deployed to boost audit quality and address risk also includes EY Intelligent Checklists, which can recommend responses to questions in disclosure checklists and support its auditors with accounting standards and regulatory requirements.
“This is a significant milestone and one of the most exciting developments for our clients and our professionals,” Larkin said of the global release. “But this is just the beginning. As we start to deploy generative and agentic AI technologies at scale, we are building on the strong foundations established by integrated and transformative technology.”
Prior to ASIC putting a stop to the public release of its annual inspection report cards on the country’s biggest audit providers in 2023, EY had proven the one bright spot amid declining standards and poor results among its industry rivals, both achieving the least number of negative findings by some margin and also continuously improving.
