Microsoft announces five-year AI and cloud agreement with accounting firm KPMG

In the past several months since Microsoft has promoted its generative AI services, one of the things the company has said is that such products and services will be made to help employees get rid of tedious tasks in order to concentrate on more important work. Today, Microsoft made an agreement with one of the biggest accounting firms in the world, KPMG, to help it streamline tasks for its employees.

In a press release, Microsoft announced a new five-year agreement with KPMG. Microsoft stated:

The Microsoft cloud and Azure OpenAI Service capabilities will empower the KPMG global workforce of 265,000 to unleash their creativity, provide faster analysis and spend more time on strategic advice. This will enable them to help clients, including more than 2,500 KPMG & Microsoft joint clients, keep pace with the rapidly evolving AI landscape and solve their greatest business challenges while positioning them for success in the future world of work.

KPMG is one of the companies that got early access to Microsoft 365 Copilot and Azure OpenAI Service. The firm will continue to test these services with some of its business groups.

Microsoft's AI services will link up with KPMG smart audit platform KPMG Clara. This will allow KPMG auditors to focus their work on "higher-risk areas of the audit, sector-specific risks and challenges". Similar Microsoft AI products will also help in KPMG's tax and financial advisory groups.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is quoted as saying:

We have a real opportunity to apply this next generation of AI to help transform every industry, including professional services. Our expanded partnership with KPMG will bring together AI innovation across the Microsoft Cloud with KPMG’s tax, audit and advisory expertise to empower its employees and unlock insights for its customers.

While specific financial terms of this new partnership were not announced, the press release says these new Microsoft services will "help to unlock potential incremental growth opportunity for KPMG of over US$12 billion."