EY collaborates with Microsoft to invest in scaling and accelerating AI adoption in organizations in Singapore

SINGAPORE, 7 AUGUST 2024. Professional services organization, Ernst & Young Advisory Pte. Ltd. (EY), announced an expanded agreement with Microsoft to strengthen collaboration and help organizations accelerate the embedding of artificial intelligence (AI), including generative AI (GenAI), into enterprise functions. This collaboration combines the EY organization’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.

By unlocking the high-value intersections between data, AI and the functional domains of finance, procurement, customer experience and human resources (HR), organizations can enhance end-to-end enterprise efficiency, improve agility and innovate to secure growth.

As part of the alliance relationship, EY will be investing to upskill and hone the AI capabilities of its 500 Consulting professionals in Singapore, as well as an expected annual pool of 100 new joiners.

Liew Nam Soon, EY Asean Regional Managing Partner, also Singapore and Brunei Country Managing Partner, says:

“We are underscoring our commitment to support the national agenda on AI skilling and scaling. One of our priorities is to continually develop a pipeline of AI talent that not only benefits our clients and our profession but also contributes to a more globally competitive talent pool for the industry, ready for a highly digital future economy.”

EY was also recently named as Microsoft’s Country Partner of the Year; Partner of the Year for Business Transformation, AI Innovation; and Partner of the Year for Security. Liew adds:

“EY winning three Microsoft awards in Singapore this year bears testimony of the solid alliance we have with Microsoft in serving the complex transformation needs of organizations. We are committed to work even more closely with Microsoft to design and deliver transformative AI solutions that will substantially uplift our local business operations, nurture the digital capabilities of the workforce, and help advance Singapore’s position as an open and trusted global AI hub, in addition to being a reputed gateway to the region.”

Lee Hui Li, Managing Director, Microsoft Singapore, says:

“Microsoft is pleased to collaborate with EY to transform organizations across Singapore with the power of Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service. EY is making strides in the era of AI, and their commitment to work together to upskill their workforce for the rapid advances driven by digitalization further demonstrates their leadership. By redefining workflows and building intelligent ecosystems with EY clients, we aim to drive innovation, productivity, and sustainable growth, helping businesses remain competitive and future ready.”

Reinventing four areas of core business operations

The use of AI is rapidly disrupting traditional siloed operations, weaving them into intelligent ecosystems powered by automation, data-driven insights and personalization.

The EY-Microsoft collaboration will focus on driving value for organizations by embedding AI into four functional areas, namely finance, procurement, customer experience and human resources (HR). Please see Annex A for details.

Gaurav Modi, EY Asean and Singapore Consulting Leader, says:

“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 to deliver sustainable value and organizational growth.”

According to the EY CEO Outlook Pulse survey released in December 2023, in which 1,200 global CEOs (40 from Singapore) were surveyed, 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.

Modi adds: “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. 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.”

One such example is Keppel Ltd. Mannjot Singh Mann, Group Chief Digital Officer, Keppel Ltd, says:

“As a leading global asset manager and operator, Keppel has set ambitious targets to grow funds under management to SGD 200 billion and achieve a return on equity of 15% by 2030. Key enablers in achieving these goals are our enterprise-wide AI and data transformation efforts where we have pioneered a proprietary AI platform, which twins an AI engine that digests and enhances our understanding of market opportunities, our portfolio companies and our asset operations to identify high conviction deals, with a second AI engine that evaluates target companies, provide insights and efficiencies across our infrastructure, real estate and connectivity segments. On this journey that now spans machine learning for predictive maintenance, advanced analytics and GenAI, Keppel is building our own capabilities and also working with partners such as EY and Microsoft, leveraging Microsoft’s platforms, and EY’s knowledge built on EY.ai.”

Mercedes Benz Singapore embodies another use case. Gaurav Suman, General Manager – IT Sales, Mercedes Benz Singapore, says:

“At Mercedes Benz Singapore, we (regional Center of Competence for IT Sales team) have integrated AI in our software development life cycle (SDLC) for apps designed to transform retail sales. Due to fast scalability, our IT Sales team faced critical operational bottlenecks. These included inaccuracies in code documentation, code testing and software release management. EY’s knowledge built on EY.ai, together with Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI, harnessed AI to transform and improve the accuracy of two core processes: code documentation and unit test case generation. This led to auto-completion and accuracy of 80% rate in low-complexity code documentation. The success of this integration steered our team to design a scalable AI framework across the SDLC. The EY-Microsoft collaboration emphasizes the transformative potential AI holds in revamping traditional business procedures. We have plans to embed AI in five more core processes in the SDLC.”

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Notes to editors

About EY

EY exists to build a better working world, helping create long-term value for clients, people and society and build trust in the capital markets.

Enabled by data and technology, diverse EY teams in over 150 countries provide trust through assurance and help clients grow, transform and operate.

Working across assurance, consulting, law, strategy, tax and transactions, EY teams ask better questions to find new answers for the complex issues facing our world today.

EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. Information about how EY collects and uses personal data and a description of the rights individuals have under data protection legislation are available via ey.com/privacy. EY member firms do not practice law where prohibited by local laws. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com.

This news release has been issued by EYGM Limited, a member of the global EY organization that also does not provide any services to clients.

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Annex A: How AI solutions can impact four core enterprise functions

The EY-Microsoft collaboration expects to help organizations drive value through AI in finance, procurement, customer experience and human resources (HR). The following are potential examples:

1. Finance: Allows Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and other end users to dynamically interrogate financial data, customize reports and get real-time answers in seconds. AI radically reduces the effort needed to collate and analyze financial information such as actual vs budget/forecast analysis, cash flow planning and revenue projection – potentially cutting down time spent on period-end reporting.
   
2. Procurement: Optimizes end-to-end procurement processes through advanced forecasting and scenario planning, intelligent sourcing and optimal supplier selection, and continuous opportunity assessment and savings realization in the contract lifecycle. This allows procurement leaders to focus on value engineering, risk mitigation and business partnerships. Organizations can also utilize the power of GenAI to develop market intelligence, shape negotiation strategies and inspire sustainable innovation across the supplier base.
3. Customer experience: Unifies customer touchpoints so that brand interactions remain consistent for customers. By leveraging data on customer purchase history and preferences, brands can further personalize these touchpoints. By outlining customers’ purchase journey and intervening at moments that matter, brands can be surgical about designing tactics to increase conversion rates.
   
4. HR: Augments the way organizations attract, develop and retain talent – from automating routine tasks throughout the employee lifecycle such as candidate screening to personalizing employee learning experiences and implementing proactive retention strategies. This shift leads to a data-driven workforce where AI elevates productivity and employee well-being. Three out of five HR leaders utilize AI to improve efficiency and one in two use AI to focus on enriching employee experience. AI is reshaping work, learning and HR roles.