KPMG agrees three-year deal with Aiimi to support workplace AI rollout

KPMG has signed a three-year agreement with British artificial intelligence company Aiimi to develop a Workplace AI platform designed to manage sensitive information and draw insights from the firm’s data estate.

The move extends an earlier pilot of the system and comes after the Financial Reporting Council’s latest annual review identified KPMG as a market leader in audit quality. The firm is continuing to invest in tools to support its data governance and accelerate the adoption of new AI technologies.

Aiimi provides software and consultancy to help organisations locate, govern and extract value from operational data. The company’s platform is used by clients including PwC UK, the Financial Conduct Authority, several FTSE 100 companies and the UK Government.

The new phase of work will involve Aiimi’s consultants and Workplace AI platform combining, classifying and refining KPMG’s data assets. The process is intended to help teams secure sensitive information and give consultants access to relevant insights, supporting the firm’s wider service delivery and its response to regulatory demands.

KPMG said the platform would also help build the data foundations needed to introduce future AI systems safely and effectively.

Steve Salvin, chief executive and founder of Aiimi, said: “KPMG is one of the largest professional services firms in the world with data and AI ambitions to match. Our job is to help the Big Four firm realise these ambitions.

“The complex regulatory landscape and data estate KPMG operates within is where Aiimi thrives – something the pilot proved when it put our Workplace AI platform through its paces. Now, our team is looking forward to working alongside KPMG and putting the platform to work. The opportunities this challenge offers is what makes it exciting.”

Chris Allen, KPMG UK’s chief data officer, said: “The rise of AI technologies means Information Management and Data Governance have never been more critical. To have trust in AI outputs you must first have trust in your underlying data.The Aiimi platform gives us that trust. It helps us better understand what data we have across the estate. If data has limited value and there’s no regulatory requirement to retain it; we delete it.

“If it’s something we want to keep then Aiimi helps us to intelligently classify that data, tag it in-situ and make it available to downstream AI applications in a way which respects retention rules, access controls, and the contractual obligations we have to our clients and audited entities.”