PwC names new chief AI officer

Big Four firm PwC named Dan Priest as its new chief AI officer for the U.S. firm.

Priest has been with PwC US since 2012. Most recently, he was the firm's cloud and digital market leader. As chief AI officer, he will lead the U.S. firm and its clients in what PwC called "navigating the complexities and opportunities of AI and harnessing its power to enable strategic transformation."

"Last year was about exploring generative AI's potential and ability to shape and disrupt how business is done," said Priest. "Going forward, we are focused on unlocking the transformative power of AI to help our clients achieve advantage in an increasingly competitive market."

More specifically, he will be responsible for helping clients reinvent their business and workforce structure using AI, guiding PwC's GenAI upskilling programs within the firm, driving PwC's responsible AI agenda both internally and with clients, and working with key alliances and major tech vendors to bring their solutions to the firm and clients. He will also oversee AI strategy to integrate it with all PwC delivers, makes and does as a firm. This includes helping teams deliver new AI-powered services and solutions to clients, fostering strategic alliances and advancing the firm's AI talent development.

While PwC has been working in the AI space for over a decade, and has had AI leadership roles in the past (such as global AI leader), Priest will be the firm's very first formal CAIO.

The move comes as PwC, like many firms, is making a big bet on AI, saying that artificial intelligence will start to fundamentally change how business gets done, impacting how companies grow revenue, conduct everyday operations, engage customers and employees, build new business models, and more.

To this end, the firm made a $1 billion investment in the technology to be spent on projects such as technology infrastructure built on OpenAI within Microsoft's Azure environment. PwC, Microsoft and the contract management technology company Icertis all separately announced they're partnering on an AI-driven approach to contract management.

Most recently, PwC deepened its relationship with OpenAI by agreeing to become the first reseller of EnterpriseGPT and the largest user of its products. PwC professionals, under the agreement, will be able to access the most powerful version of ChatGPT, which includes enterprise-grade security and privacy, as well as the latest tools, including OpenAI's recently announced ChatGPT-4o model, which sports new capabilities focused on voice and image. For clients, PwC professionals will be using OpenAI's models to help clients use generative AI for thei business solutions. The firm will also provide a playbook for companies looking to scale their AI infrastructure, apps and services. This agreement will enable PwC US to share experiences and learnings with clients across industries as it makes strides in its upskilling program, My AI.