Microsoft and EY Plan to Invest Over $1 Billion to Scale AI in Enterprises

According to a Bloomberg report, Microsoft and EY are deepening their strategic cooperation in AI, with both parties planning to invest over $1 billion to help enterprise clients transition artificial intelligence projects from the pilot phase to large-scale deployment. Initially, the collaboration will focus on core business processes such as finance, tax, human resources, and supply chain. EY's Global Vice Chair of Consulting, Errol Gardner, pointed out in an interview that companies can only "truly get a return on investment" when AI projects move from pilots to large-scale deployment. Despite significant investment in the AI sector by companies and tech firms in recent years, a study by MIT in 2025 showed that 95% of corporate AI projects have not achieved expected returns. The essence of the collaboration between Microsoft and EY is to bridge the gap between "tools and business outcomes" in enterprise AI. Microsoft provides AI products, technology platforms, and engineering capabilities, dispatching engineers to work alongside EY consultants to advance intelligent agent projects; EY, on the other hand, leverages deep industry insights and organizational change experience to truly integrate AI technology into specific business processes for clients. The two sides have chosen finance, tax, human resources, and supply chain as entry points, with these areas typically having high standardization, large data density, and clear business rules, making it easier to directly link AI applications to efficiency improvements, cost optimization, and operational improvements. This partnership model has quickly expanded in the consulting industry. In April of this year, Google launched a $750 million fund to support consulting firms such as McKinsey and Deloitte in delivering AI solutions to clients; this month, KPMG and Anthropic also announced a collaboration to provide KPMG employees with access to the Claude model and integrate it into some internal tools.