The Big Four accounting and consulting firm is interested in becoming a leader in the emerging AI agent space.
Global consulting firms have been using AI to boost internal capabilities while also enhancing the services they provide to enterprise clients.
In early October, KPMG competitor Deloitte announced an alliance with Pramata, a provider of AI-enabled contract management and data analytics services, in a bid to bolster its offerings in that area, for example.
Last week, KPMG said it had made a minority investment in Ema, a Mountain View, California-based startup whose platform allows users to build AI agents. The financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Chandrasekaran said such agent technology has the potential to be “the next wave” of AI, but KPMG is still “heavily” testing it.
“We don’t want it to be fully autonomous and doing things which we have no control over,” he said. “So we’re putting in all the necessary guardrails.”
The Ema stake “is part of KPMG’s overall strategy to lead in the emerging AI agent space, where action-oriented assistants will work seamlessly alongside and augment human teams,” according to a Thursday press release.
KPMG invests in early-stage startups through its investment arm, KPMG Ventures.
Sourced from DFO Dive