PwC graduate roles under threat from AI, accountancy firm boss says

The expansion of synthetic intelligence (AI) might ultimately result in fewer entry-level graduates being employed, the boss of accountancy large PwC has advised the BBC.

Nevertheless, international chairman Mohamed Kande mentioned AI was not behind latest job cuts on the agency, including that the corporate really wanted to rent a whole lot of latest AI engineers however was struggling to seek out them.

However some observers say the know-how itself threatens 1000’s of junior jobs throughout the skilled companies trade.

Talking on the sidelines of a enterprise summit in Singapore, Mr Kande additionally mentioned large adjustments within the international economic system, resembling US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, had been good for the agency’s consulting enterprise.

He additionally addressed the corporate’s suspension in China final yr over its work on the collapsed property large Evergrande, promising that the identical errors “wouldn’t occur once more”.

Headquartered in London, PwC is without doubt one of the Huge 4 accountancy corporations. It offers a spread of companies, resembling monetary auditing, consulting and tax recommendation for enterprise shoppers all over the world.

In line with Mr Kande, advising them on how you can combine AI into their operations will probably be on the coronary heart of the agency’s future enterprise technique, even because the quickly advancing know-how impacts its personal hiring plans.

Companies who would have beforehand employed PwC consultants to sift by means of knowledge and paperwork might now use AI fashions as an alternative, turning weeks of pricey work into mere minutes.

Yearly, the corporate hires 1000’s of latest graduates in entry-level positions – together with 1,300 within the UK and three,200 within the US final yr – nevertheless it lately dropped long-term plans to proceed rising its headcount.

In 2021, PwC mentioned it wished to rent 100,000 folks over the course of 5 years – however Mr Kande mentioned this is able to not be potential.

“After we made the plans to rent that many individuals, the world seemed very, very totally different,” he mentioned.

“Now we now have synthetic intelligence. We wish to rent, however I do not know if it is going to be the identical stage of folks that we rent – it will likely be a special set of individuals.”

Final yr, PwC minimize greater than 5,600 roles throughout its worldwide operation.

The boss of the corporate’s UK enterprise has beforehand spoken about lowering graduate recruitment, admitting that AI was “actually reshaping roles”.

At a world stage, nevertheless, Mr Kande insisted that the AI increase was an “thrilling time” for creating new jobs.

“We’re in search of a whole lot and a whole lot of engineers at the moment to assist us drive our AI agenda, however we simply can not discover them,” he mentioned.

Companies all over the world could also be going through challenges adapting to AI, however within the meantime PwC seems to have benefited from the broader uncertainty within the international economic system, largely fuelled by President Trump’s in depth use of tariffs.

“We’re receiving loads of calls from many corporations all over the world asking how you can navigate the present setting,” mentioned Mr Kande.

“It has been good for us. We have to stay related to our shoppers and we now have to be in these discussions, which we’re.”

Nevertheless, the corporate took an enormous reputational blow final yr, when Chinese authorities suspended PwC for six months over its work on the collapsed property large Evergrande.

The agency went bust after amassing money owed of greater than $300bn (£230bn) and has been on the centre of a ruinous housing disaster that continues to wreck lives and livelihoods in China.

The nation’s Securities Regulatory Fee discovered that PwC, because the auditor, had “lined up and even condoned” monetary fraud at Evergrande.

Mr Kande, whose tenure as international chairman started after Evergrande went bankrupt, mentioned PwC not confronted any restrictions in China.

“Let me let you know – we modified lots of our folks, applied new high quality administration programs and launched new governance programs,” he mentioned.

“My focus has been to verify nothing like this ever occurs once more.”