The Big Four professional services firms—Deloitte, EY, PwC, and KPMG—are undergoing a massive AI transformation that is fundamentally reshaping their workforce, hiring practices, and service delivery models. In 2025, these consulting giants moved beyond experimentation to mainstream deployment of agentic AI systems across their operations.
Deloitte launched Zora AI with Nvidia, offering clients “intelligent digital workers” that autonomously complete tasks, and partnered with Anthropic to deploy Claude AI to its 470,000 employees worldwide. EY rolled out EY.ai, granting 80,000 tax staff access to 150 AI agents, with plans to scale from 1,000 agents in development to 100,000 by 2028. The firm is investing over $1 billion annually in AI platforms. PwC introduced agent OS in March, deploying 25,000 intelligent agents across client operations through partnerships with Salesforce, CrewAI, and AWS. KPMG launched KPMG Workbench with Microsoft, connecting 50 AI agents with nearly 1,000 more in development.
The AI revolution is dramatically impacting employment at these firms. PwC US plans to cut graduate hiring by a third over the next three years, with leadership citing “the impact of AI” as a key factor. This represents a fundamental shift from manpower-focused to value-focused consulting. However, the firms are aggressively recruiting technologists—EY has added 61,000 technologists since 2023, now comprising 15% of its workforce. PwC is seeking “hundreds and hundreds of engineers,” creating new engineering career paths.
The nature of consulting work itself is evolving. Junior consultants are being trained to become “managers of agents,” overseeing AI teams rather than performing routine tasks. PwC predicts new hires will perform manager-level roles within three years due to AI automation. The business model is also shifting from hourly billing to “service-as-a-software” approaches based on outcomes rather than time spent. Nearly 100,000 EY employees have earned AI badges through training programs, reflecting the urgent upskilling imperative across the industry.
Key Quotes
We want juniors to become managers of agents
Niale Cleobury, KPMG’s global AI workforce lead, explained the firm’s vision for junior consultants in November. This reflects the fundamental shift in entry-level roles from performing routine tasks to orchestrating AI systems and contributing to strategic decisions.
The rapid pace of technological change is reshaping how we work
PwC leadership used this language to explain their decision to cut graduate hiring by a third over three years, explicitly linking the reductions to AI’s impact. This represents one of the first major admissions from a consulting giant that AI is directly reducing demand for entry-level human workers.
In 2026, the work PwC will do is about helping clients flip that model, and designing processes with AI in mind from the outset
Matt Wood, PwC’s global and US Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, described the next phase of AI transformation. Rather than retrofitting AI into existing workflows, 2026 will focus on fundamentally redesigning business processes around AI capabilities.
AI agents may call for a ‘service-as-a-software’ approach where clients pay based on outcome
Raj Sharma, EY’s global managing partner for growth and innovation, explained how AI agents are forcing a complete rethinking of the traditional hourly billing model that has defined professional services for over a century.
Our Take
The Big Four’s AI transformation reveals an uncomfortable truth about the AI revolution: it’s happening faster than most anticipated, and the impact on employment is immediate, not theoretical. The one-third reduction in graduate hiring at PwC is particularly significant—these aren’t manufacturing jobs or routine clerical positions, but highly educated professionals from top universities. What makes this especially noteworthy is the dual nature of the disruption: entry-level positions are being eliminated while demand for senior technologists skyrockets. This creates a broken career ladder problem—how do you develop future senior consultants if you’re not hiring juniors? The Big Four’s bet appears to be that AI literacy and technical skills can be acquired faster than traditional consulting expertise, fundamentally challenging decades of professional development models. The scale is staggering: over 100,000 AI agents deployed in a single year across just four firms signals we’re past the experimentation phase into full-scale transformation of professional services.
Why This Matters
This transformation at the Big Four represents a bellwether moment for white-collar work across all industries. As “client zero” for AI adoption, these firms are demonstrating how artificial intelligence will reshape professional services, knowledge work, and corporate employment structures globally. The simultaneous deployment of over 100,000 AI agents while cutting entry-level hiring by a third reveals the immediate displacement effect AI is having on traditional career ladders.
The shift from hourly billing to outcome-based pricing signals a fundamental disruption to century-old professional services business models. This has implications for how all B2B services will be valued and delivered in the AI era. The aggressive hiring of technologists while reducing traditional consultants shows that technical skills are becoming the new premium in professional services. For the millions of workers in consulting, accounting, legal, and other knowledge-intensive fields, this serves as a clear signal: adapt to managing AI systems or risk obsolescence. The Big Four’s experience will likely be replicated across Fortune 500 companies in 2026 and beyond.
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Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/how-ai-changed-big-four-workflow-hiring-jobs-2025-12