Reimagining work, rebuilding value: KPMG leads the AI era with Microsoft-powered agents

KPMG has been a global leader in professional services, across audit, tax and advisory, for more than a century. As generative AI began to disrupt knowledge work, KPMG didn’t hesitate. It chose to lead from the front, embedding AI at the core of its business strategy. It brought what it learned from its own experience working with Microsoft products to its clients, helping organizations drive business strategy and achieve value faster. 

“AI is the most transformative force we’ve seen in business,” says Steve Chase, Global Head of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation at KPMG. “We’ve mobilized the entire organization—every team, every function—to rethink how we operate, so we can better serve our customers.” 

AI in the flow of work

KPMG’s AI journey began with an internal shift. Working with Microsoft, the organization integrated Microsoft 365 Copilot directly into the tools employees already use daily—Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel—turning productivity platforms into intelligent workspaces.

KPMG Principal, Head of Ecosystems Todd Lohr reflects, “Microsoft 365 Copilot isn’t just accelerating work, it’s changing how we think and enabling our 280,000 professionals to scale their expertise like never before.”

Charmaine Zets, Managing Director Global AI at KPMG, adds, “We’re here to deliver value. We’re building capability. And Microsoft 365 Copilot lets us scale that with confidence, purpose and with people leading the way.”

Easy access to AI tools helped eliminate friction, accelerated adoption and gave KPMG’s people the freedom to learn, explore and apply AI in real time, on their own terms.  

“We put AI in the hands of our professionals, looking at it not only from a client zero standpoint, but for our clients and organizations that we're working with on their AI journey. This is the power of our 360 relationship, and it is very much embedded in everything that we do,” said Cherie Gartner, Global Lead Partner for Microsoft at KPMG.

Personal productivity agents: built by employees, for employees 

KPMG didn’t stop at AI access; it pushed for AI proficiency. Through Microsoft Copilot Studio and Azure AI Foundry, the organization enabled employees to build their own agents and micro-use cases, accelerating grassroots innovation at scale. 

KPMG chose Copilot Studio to empower business users and low-code developers to make agents rapidly, while Azure AI Foundry was chosen for its wide range of models, enabling the development of more complex solutions.

“We’ve deployed tens of thousands of personas—micro-use cases created by our people,” enthuses Steve Chase. “They allow us to experiment at scale, then industrialize what works.” 

One internal agent, for example, helps new hires find the templates and historical context they need, reducing follow-up calls by 20% and increasing time-to-productivity. Another, built by Steve himself, compares new strategy decks to existing AI playbooks, becoming a strategic assistant for the entire team.

Agents at every level of transformation: driving value at scale 

KPMG’s agent strategy spans the full spectrum, driving change at the departmental, functional and enterprise-wide levels. Each solution is built on Copilot Studio, Azure AI Foundry, Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Search and Azure AI Document Intelligence, and is designed to deliver measurable business impact.

“The KPMG Gen AI strategy is really based on two elements. Number one, trust, making sure that we're creating an environment in which our clients and their customers can trust AI and second, value creation. That has been the two pillars of what we've been trying to accomplish,” said Carl Carande, Global Head of Advisory, KPMG International.

1. Department-level agents  

In audit, KPMG Clara enables teams to detect risk faster, surface sharper insights and raise audit quality. In tax, the Digital Gateway provides real-time regulatory analysis, helping organizations navigate evolving requirements with confidence. In advisory, KPMG Velocity is reimagining internal processes, transforming onboarding, performance reviews and finance operations for greater efficiency. These agents are built on a robust Microsoft AI stack, consisting of Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Search, Azure AI Document Intelligence, Azure Content Understanding and Azure Cosmos DB.

2. Enterprise-grade agents  

One of KPMG’s enterprise-grade ESG agents automates the entire policy lifecycle, from identifying obligations and drafting controls to assessing effectiveness and improving documentation.

The impact: 

• Improved control and risk descriptions 

• 18-month reduction in compliance timelines 

• Reduced ongoing compliance effort 

3. Firmwide platforms 

KPMG has also co-developed Digital Finance, a modern finance solution that empowers customers with a more agile, cost-effective, and intelligent way to manage financial operations, powered by data and AI agents.

“Customers want to move faster and go further,” says Matteo Colombo, Principal and Global Data, Cloud, AI Leader at KPMG. “To do that, we must reimagine industries, rewire processes and redefine performance. That’s what enterprise AI makes possible.” 

Co-innovation at the core

For KPMG, Microsoft is more than a co-innovation partner, it’s the foundation for secure, scalable transformation. 

“Microsoft is at the core of our journey with AI,” says Cherie Gartner. “It’s the heart and the engine of everything we do. Their early advancement with OpenAI made them the cool kid on the block, and it shows. Their strategic vision, combined with our multidisciplinary expertise, is helping us embed AI into the very DNA of how we work and reshape the definition of what’s possible.” 

The Microsoft AI stack, including Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, and Azure AI Foundry, enabled KPMG to move fast, experiment broadly, and scale responsibly, without compromising governance or trust.

“We’re not just using Microsoft technologies. We’re co-investing, co-building and bringing the solutions to market,” says Todd Lohr. “We really have taken a strategy to lead from the front. Everything that we're doing is really investing ahead of where our clients are going to be so that we can understand, learn from that, especially in a market that's moving so quickly, and bring that knowledge to our clients as part of our offerings.”

That synergy builds immediate trust with customers. 

Shaping the agentic future 

KPMG sees what’s next, and its intelligent agents, built securely and at scale. 

“We’re creating an intelligent frontier—a governed, scalable way of working, where agents operate autonomously in the background,” says Cherie Gartner. “That’s the future. And we’re heading toward it with Microsoft.” 

This evolution is being powered by KPMG Workbench, a global platform co-developed with Microsoft to orchestrate secure, multi-agent experiences across 95 member organizations. 

And this is just the beginning. In the coming years, KPMG envisions agent swarms. performing parallel tasks, learning from each other and driving business in ways never seen before. 

“In the next three years, it’ll be all about agents,” adds Steve Chase. “Swarms of them. Running tasks, comparing outputs, learning. That’s going to fundamentally change how people work, and we’re preparing for that now.” 

With a workforce of 280,000 professionals equipped with AI, the organization is transforming how work gets done, how value is delivered, and what the future can be. For KPMG, AI is not a tool. It’s a mindset. A muscle. A platform for transformation.

“Every professional, every customer, every experience—we want AI to enhance all of it,” says Carl Carande. “Understand it. Use it. Bring it into the room. Because when we do that, the sky’s the limit.” 

Discover more about KPMG on LinkedIn, X/Twitter, and YouTube.