PwC chair says AI may reshape graduate hiring as firm shifts strategy

PwC expects artificial intelligence to play a growing role in how the firm structures its workforce, prompting a rethink of future graduate recruitment, according to global chairman Mohamed Kande. 

At a business summit in Singapore Kande told the BBC that AI was changing how clients used the firm’s services, with tasks that once required teams of junior consultants now handled by models that can analyse documents and data far faster. 

However, he stressed that the technology was not behind recent job cuts and said the firm needed to hire hundreds of AI engineers, but was struggling to recruit them.

PwC, headquartered in London, is one of the Big Four accountancy firms and hires thousands of graduates each year, including 1,300 in the UK and 3,200 in the US last year. 

But the BBC has learnt that the firm has now stepped back from long-term plans to keep increasing its headcount. In 2021, the company announced a five-year ambition to hire 100,000 people, a target Kande said was no longer realistic.

“When we made the plans to hire that many people, the world looked very, very different,” he told the outlet. Now we have artificial intelligence. We want to hire, but I don’t know if it’s going to be the same level of people that we hire, it will be a different set of people.”

Kande said that helping clients integrate AI into their operations would sit at the centre of the firm’s strategy, even as the technology shapes its own hiring plans.

Last year, PwC cut more than 5,600 roles worldwide. The head of its UK business has previously said graduate recruitment was likely to fall, noting that AI was “certainly reshaping roles”. 

Kande, however, described the rapid growth of the technology as “an exciting time” for new jobs within the firm.

“We are looking for hundreds and hundreds of engineers today to help us drive our AI agenda, but we just cannot find them,” he said.

According to the BBC, Kande also talked about how trade uncertainty, including sweeping tariffs introduced by US president Donald Trump, had supported the firm’s consulting work as clients sought advice on navigating global disruption.

“We are receiving a lot of calls from many companies around the world asking how to navigate the current environment,” he said. “It’s been good for us.”

PwC’s recent performance has also been shaped by its suspension in China last year over its auditing of the collapsed property giant Evergrande. 

The company was barred for six months after regulators found it had “covered up and even condoned” financial fraud at the developer, which owed more than $300bn (£230bn) when it failed.

Kande, who became global chairman after Evergrande’s collapse, said the firm no longer faced any restrictions in China.

He told the BBC: “Let me tell you, we changed many of our people, implemented new quality management systems and introduced new governance systems. My focus has been to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.”