Have you ever paused to consider what your professional responsibilities might entail a year from now, or contemplated how your position could evolve within three or even five years? This very question has become central to the strategy of EY — Ernst & Young — one of the world’s preeminent accounting and consulting powerhouses belonging to the exclusive circle of the so‑called Big Four firms. The company is leveraging the capabilities of artificial intelligence to give its global workforce the tools to reflect on and anticipate these pivotal changes. Rather than leaving its employees to navigate the uncertain terrain of technological disruption on their own, EY has developed an innovative program designed to serve as both guide and collaborator in this process.
Known as AI Now 2.0, the initiative functions as a dynamic “thought partner” — an intelligent conversational system intended to help employees envision how their current roles may shift as AI increasingly weaves itself into the fabric of their daily work. Simon Brown, EY’s global leader of learning and development, explained in an interview with Business Insider that this program enables staff to think more strategically about their future. By acting as a personalized mentor rather than merely an automated tool, AI Now 2.0 allows individuals to explore how automation, data analysis, and machine learning may reshape both the nature and scope of their contributions within the firm.
The process itself is both introspective and analytical. Employees begin by answering a carefully structured series of questions about their existing responsibilities, the repetitive and creative dimensions of their daily tasks, and the deliverables that define success in their current roles. Once the questionnaire is complete, participants upload their responses into EYQ — the company’s internal platform modeled after systems such as ChatGPT, yet customized specifically for EY’s learning ecosystem. Drawing on advanced language‑based models and proprietary data, EYQ then generates an in‑depth analysis outlining how the individual’s professional landscape might evolve due to the influence of AI technologies. Beyond forecasting potential transformations, the system recommends the knowledge, technical expertise, and behavioral competencies that will likely become essential for success in the forthcoming era.
Brown emphasized that the objective of the tool is not to offer deterministic predictions about the accounting or consulting professions five years into the future — a level of accuracy that no algorithm can guarantee. “It is extraordinarily difficult to predict with absolute certainty where many roles will eventually land,” he explained. “We are therefore not depending on AI to dictate the future, but rather to help people actively prepare for it.” This distinction — between using AI as an oracle and using it as a developmental mirror — lies at the heart of EY’s approach. The company’s intent is to spark reflection, not to replace human imagination or career planning with machine forecasts.
According to Brown, the larger aim is to empower employees to recognize how they can integrate artificial intelligence into their present workstreams more effectively, while maintaining a grounded sense of what lies ahead for their professional growth within EY. By engaging with AI in this deliberate and self‑directed way, staff members can envision how their current strengths align with the competencies of the future, and identify the upskilling paths that will sustain their success as the organization evolves.
EY officially launched AI Now 2.0 in January of this year. Although the program is voluntary, participation has already reached impressive levels: approximately half of EY’s 406,000 employees across the globe have chosen to interact with the platform. Furthermore, all incoming hires encounter the program as a foundational element of their onboarding experience, ensuring that new talent begins their tenure with a forward‑looking, technology‑literate mindset. Developing an organization‑wide learning system capable of simultaneously delivering standardized content at scale and offering personalized relevance to each participant was central to the project. Brown described this dual design as crucial because it exemplifies, tangibly and contextually, how artificial intelligence can be beneficial in everyday professional life. “The platform brings AI’s potential to life in ways that feel immediately relevant to each person,” he said.
This initiative aligns with a broader corporate reality: across virtually every industry, AI is steadily assuming responsibility for many of the routine or predictable tasks once handled by human employees. This shift is reshaping which skills employers value most, and it is making workforce transformation a strategic imperative for human‑resources leaders worldwide. The need to upskill and reskill employees in AI‑augmented environments has become particularly pressing in professional services firms, where consultants serve as trusted advisors to the world’s leading corporations. EY’s executives acknowledge that they must not only advise clients on digital transformation, but also embody that transformation themselves by cultivating teams fluent in artificial intelligence.
As Imgard Naudin ten Cate, EY’s global head of talent acquisition, told Business Insider, the pace of change is relentless: “We all know that roughly 40 percent of the capabilities we possess today will need to be replaced or redefined within five years.” She stressed that beyond acquiring new technical proficiencies, employees must develop an adaptable mindset — an openness to continuous learning that allows them to transition fluidly between evolving skill sets. “We are going to see both the emergence of new abilities and the erosion of others,” she observed. “The capacity to manage that transition effectively will be absolutely crucial.”
Other members of the Big Four are approaching this challenge through their own initiatives. PwC, for instance, has designed a multifaceted learning platform aimed at strengthening employees’ understanding of risk management and leadership in an AI‑driven business environment. Its program blends interactive online content with face‑to‑face courses, collaborative hackathons, and even game show‑style competitions that make learning engaging and experiential. KPMG, meanwhile, has focused its attention on creating an advanced AI system capable of deconstructing every job role into discrete tasks. By examining AI use cases and potential efficiency gains, the tool generates detailed insights — within mere minutes — about the evolving skill differentials across the organization. As Niale Cleobury, KPMG’s global AI workforce lead, explained, “We can input any role from across the company, and, almost instantaneously, receive data‑driven analysis of the capabilities that will matter most in the future.”
Together, these initiatives signal a profound transformation in how global professional services firms are reimagining both their people strategies and the architecture of work itself. Within this new reality, artificial intelligence is not merely a source of disruption or automation — it is also becoming an indispensable partner in human growth, a catalyst for reinvention, and a mirror reflecting the evolving intersection between technology and human potential.
Sourse: https://www.businessinsider.com/ey-staff-using-ai-to-upskill-for-the-future-2025-11
