PwC US and PwC UK have signed an agreement with OpenAI, making PwC the first reseller and largest user of ChatGPT Enterprise.
PwC plans to deploy ChatGPT Enterprise on a large scale internally to about 75,000 employees in the US and 26,000 in the UK, and to help clients adopt AI technology. This is in addition to OpenAI's confirmed 600,000 licenses sold at the beginning of April 2024.
The consultancy believes that generative AI systems have reached a tipping point where they will transform the workplace and everyday life. PwC employees in the US and UK will have access to the most capable version of ChatGPT. This includes the GPT-4 language model, as well as speech and image processing capabilities.
The consultancy says it has identified more than 3,000 internal use cases for generative AI that can transform its own business and deliver value to clients in industries such as financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, and hospitality.
For example, PwC says it uses Custom GPTs to review tax returns, create project proposals, develop software, and generate dashboards and reports. The company promises clients faster results with greater productivity, consistency, and efficiency.
According to PwC, 950 of the top 1,000 consulting clients in the US are already using or discussing the use of generative AI. The latter is hardly surprising, as it seems almost impossible not to discuss generative AI in business these days. In any case, PwC expects the technology to be in demand across all industries.
Microsoft and OpenAI split B2B GenAI market
The deal puts OpenAI further on Microsoft's turf: The Windows company is trying to sell its Microsoft 365 Copilot, a ChatGPT-based business solution that adds AI capabilities to all Office apps and comes in variations such as for security or coding. Microsoft 365 Copilot and ChatGPT Enterprise are likely to compete even more in the future.
However, Microsoft is the largest investor in OpenAI and therefore still benefits from deals the AI company makes that bypass Microsoft, especially if the models are run in the Azure cloud.