The News: On September 13, EY announced the launch of EY.ai, a unified AI platform designed to help EY clients incorporate AI into their businesses. Here are the key details:
- EY reports it has invested $1.4 billion to create the EY.ai platform. The investments include embedding AI into proprietary EY technologies such as EY Fabric.
- After a pilot, EY will release a new large language model (LLM) called EY.aiEYQ. Though not specifically stated as the fuel for the LLM, EY said Microsoft “has provided the EY organization early access to Azure OpenAI capabilities, such as GPT-3 and GPT-4. With support from Microsoft and by leveraging Azure OpenAI services, EY teams are building and deploying advanced generative AI solutions to enhance EY service offerings.”
- Other key AI partners include Dell Technologies, which will provide Dell Generative AI Solutions to simplify the adoption of full-stack generative AI with LLMs. According to the release, “clients can prototype and deploy use cases on a validated architecture of purpose-built hardware, software, and embedded security optimized for generative AI.”
Read the full Press Release about the launch of EY.ai on the EY website.
The News: On September 14, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) announced a strategic collaboration with Anthropic in which BCG consultants and clients will have direct access to Anthropic’s LLM Claude 2. According to the press release, Claude will be leveraged in client engagements to:
- Synthesize long-form documents and research, including supporting market research and customer insight synthesis.
- Accelerate complex transformations involving writing, such as drafting test scripts and specifications in enterprise resource planning (ERP) transformations.
- Deliver zero-training productivity use cases, such as supporting human resources (HR) with job specification descriptions, finance with report generation, and IT with product strategy and requirements analysis.
BCG will facilitate pilots for enterprises interested in deploying models such as Claude.
Read the full BCG-Anthropic partnership announcement on the BCG website.
EY and BCG Announce Major AI Initiatives
Analyst Take: AI represents a considerable challenge for businesses of all sizes in large part because there are so many use cases where AI can be leveraged. As such, more companies are thinking holistically about AI, and less about point-to-point solutions. Sound familiar? Yes, it does, thank you, digital transformation.
Because AI can touch so many areas of a business, from IT, operations, and product management to marketing, HR, finance, etc., more companies are turning to the larger consulting firms to help them develop comprehensive approaches to their AI investments – whether that is developing an entire AI stack or outsourcing all or most AI to point-to-point solutions providers.
The consulting firms have fully embraced the challenge over the past few years, gaining knowledge and building expertise. However, as generative AI has exploded into the market over the past year, they have really ramped up their own investments into AI. The EY and BCG announcements are only the latest strategic moves.
Advantage: Third-Party View, Customized Approach
The AI market ecosystem is vibrant, new, and confusing. I expect enterprises to increasingly turn to consulting firms to sort out things and help enterprises develop their AI roadmaps. There are several advantages to doing so:
- Expertise. Consulting firms offer not only expertise in the wide range of AI options for enterprises to consider but also significant experience in transforming organizations.
- Third-party advice. As much as they would like to say it does not happen, most organizations struggle with siloed and many times parochial views of how to adopt broader technology innovation or change. Consulting firms can bring an independent, third-party view to AI decisions, which in theory, eliminates corporate politics. Specific to AI, this component is a critical advantage because generative AI introduces newer tools and approaches and, importantly, mostly unproven AI use cases.
- Custom-tailoring. In this early stage of generative AI, enterprises tend to see AI as a shiny object – this AI idea or that AI idea will apply to our specific instance. Consulting firms are building the AI experience to guide their customers away from such thinking. As consulting firm experience continues to grow, they are able to build much more industry-specific or use case-specific roadmaps.
Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.
Other insights from The Futurum Group:
Facing the Unknowns of Generative AI, Key Industry Players Collaborate, Incubate, and Back Startups
Accenture’s $3 Billion AI Investment: Get Used to It
OpenAI ChatGPT Enterprise: A Tall Order
Author Information
Mark comes to The Futurum Group from Omdia’s Artificial Intelligence practice, where his focus was on natural language and AI use cases.
Previously, Mark worked as a consultant and analyst providing custom and syndicated qualitative market analysis with an emphasis on mobile technology and identifying trends and opportunities for companies like Syniverse and ABI Research. He has been cited by international media outlets including CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, and CNET. Based in Tampa, Florida, Mark is a veteran market research analyst with 25 years of experience interpreting technology business and holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Florida.
