EY, Microsoft launch AI push with USD $1 billion plan

EY and Microsoft have expanded their alliance with a new joint AI initiative and a planned investment of more than USD $1 billion over five years, aimed at helping organisations roll out AI across their operations.

The programme will combine Microsoft's Forward Deployed Engineers with EY industry and consulting teams in integrated groups organised by sector. These teams will work with clients on AI deployments in core business functions, initially focusing on finance, tax, risk, human resources and supply chain.

The initiative reflects a broader push by both groups to move clients beyond pilot projects and into wider operational use of AI tools. The work will span EY's Tax, Assurance, Consulting and EY-Parthenon businesses, with initial industry targets including financial services, industrials and energy, consumer and retail, government and health care.

Under the arrangement, the companies will use shared governance and aligned commercial models, bringing together Microsoft engineering staff and EY business advisers in a single operating structure.

Client zero

EY is also using its own internal technology roll-out as part of the model it plans to present to customers. The firm described itself as "Client Zero", meaning it is testing working methods and products internally before taking them to market.

That internal use has centred in part on Microsoft Copilot. EY said it first deployed the tool to 150,000 users and recorded a 15% rise in productivity, with that time redirected to client work and learning.

The firm is now extending Copilot through Microsoft 365 E7: The Frontier Suite to more than 400,000 employees globally. According to EY, the wider deployment is embedding AI tools across the business.

EY also outlined several examples of internal AI use tied to Microsoft products. In finance operations, work with Microsoft Power Platform and Copilot Studio cut lead times by 95% and reduced operational costs by more than 37%, according to the firm.

In assurance, EY has added a multi-agent framework integrated with Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Foundry and Microsoft Fabric into EY Canvas. It said the system covered workflows used by 130,000 assurance professionals across 160,000 audit engagements.

In tax, EY said it adopted Microsoft Azure AI Document Intelligence on its Global Tax Platform to extract data from documents automatically, reducing manual work by as much as 90%.

Push for scale

The announcement comes as large professional services firms and technology companies seek to turn early generative AI trials into broader business contracts. Many organisations have experimented with AI assistants and automation tools over the past two years, but have struggled to move from isolated use cases to group-wide implementation.

For EY and Microsoft, the alliance offers a way to combine advisory work with software and engineering support in a single sales effort. The focus on specific business functions and regulated sectors suggests they are targeting areas where clients face pressure to cut manual work, improve reporting and manage compliance while adopting new technology.

Janet Truncale, Global Chair and Chief Executive Officer, EY, said: "Together with Microsoft, EY is supporting clients to unlock value through rapid deployment of AI at scale. With access to a single, integrated team, clients will have at their disposal both Microsoft's market-leading engineering depth, alongside EY teams' deep industry knowledge and change management capabilities. By combining people and innovation in this next phase of the Alliance, clients will be empowered to realize the transformative power of agentic AI within the enterprise."

Microsoft's commercial division framed the initiative as a response to a shift in how companies are approaching AI spending, saying customers increasingly want measurable results from large-scale deployment rather than experimentation.

Judson Althoff, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft's Commercial Business, said: "AI is quickly moving from experimentation to a core driver of business performance, and the companies pulling ahead are those scaling AI Transformation. Our initiative combines Microsoft's trusted AI platform and engineering teams with EY's industry capabilities and experience as 'Client Zero'-applying these technologies across their own organization-to help customers move beyond pilots to enterprise execution, enhancing decision-making and delivering measurable impact."