EY to train over 500 consultants on Microsoft AI in Singapore

As part of its global AI collaboration with Microsoft, EY has announced it will provide over 500 consulting professionals in Singapore with learning & development opportunities to hone their AI capabilities.

The global partnership between the Big Four firm and technology giant is focused on bringing Microsoft’s AI suite – including Co-Pilot and Azure OpenAI – to clients across industries. Microsoft provides the technology and solutions, EY serves as consulting and implementation partner.

The focus of the collaboration is on driving value in four functional areas, namely finance, procurement, customer experience and human resources.

“This collaboration combines EY’s deep business and industry knowledge with AI, and cloud solutions powered by Microsoft technologies to benefit organizations with data- and insights-driven enterprise decision-making,” said Liew Nam Soon, Asean Regional Managing Partner at EY.

According to estimates from the two companies, the potential of AI is significant. “By unlocking the high-value intersections between data, AI and the functional domains of finance, procurement, customer experience and human resources, organizations can enhance end-to-end enterprise efficiency by up to 50%, improve agility and enhance innovation.”

The partnership is seeing EY train its consultants on AI and Microsoft technologies across all corners of the globe. In Singapore, around 500 consultants will be trained in the coming months.

Gaurav Modi, Asean and Singapore Consulting Leader at EY, commented: “Prioritizing AI, and increasingly GenAI, across front- to back-office functions ensures seamless integration, elevating customer experiences while optimizing internal processes. This creates a coherent data-driven ecosystem where enhanced service delivery aligns with efficient operations, helping to drive overall business performance, productivity, innovation and a competitive edge.”

According to the latest CEO Outlook Pulse from EY, CEOs globally recognize the potential of AI but most were facing significant challenges in operationalizing related strategies. While about two-thirds of CEOs see the need to act quickly, a similar number also reported being held back by uncertainty around this space, which makes it challenging to act quickly.

“Many organizations hesitate to embed AI in business operations due to several reasons including skill gaps, uncertain returns on investments, technology integration challenges and limited understanding of AI capabilities and benefits,” Modi said.

“We hope to help organizations bridge this gap between AI intentions and actions – and accelerate their transformation journeys. Organizations can look to use cases in leading enterprises who have already embarked on organization-wide AI and data transformation and gain confidence in implementing their own.”

The AI alliance deepens a long-standing collaboration between Microsoft and EY, which goes back over two decades. EY is one of Microsoft’s leading consulting partners worldwide, and in Singapore, the consulting firm recently bagged three Microsoft Partner awards.