How will technology change the nature of work conducted in technology consulting and more broadly across EY?

There are two aspects to how it will affect our work: 1) the nature of our client work and what we advise on, and 2) how we actually go about completing this work.

The former aspect is all about ensuring our clients are keeping up to date with technology as it evolves (whether by introducing bitcoin handling, implementing robotic process automation and virtual assistants, or another way). In order to do this however, we as a firm need to keep on top of these innovations to ensure we have the required expertise.

The latter is important for all areas of the firm - not just consulting! We can utilise these technological innovations to streamline our procedures, saving time and ensuring our clients' needs are met faster and more efficiently. Additionally, it allows us to lead by example - if we implement robotics (for example), we can then use that knowledge to advise our clients from a place of practical experience rather than pure theory.

I hope that answers your question!

How would technology change the nature of work within Assurance?

Again the answer has two fronts - on one side, our clients are using increasingly sophisticated technology to conduct financially significant business, and therefore, our audit strategy needs to evolve to take these into account. For example, how does one audit a robotic system? What kinds of considerations do you need to take when looking at artificial intelligence?

In terms of the work we conduct, our procedures are becoming increasingly automated, using robotic process automation to complete tests, and advanced analytics to determine sample sizes and discover anomalies.

Hope this helps!

How would technology change the nature of work conducted in consulting specifically?

The most important way technology is changing our work is in the very nature of our engagements. More and more our clients are looking for ways to automate and methods of bringing their business into the digital age. As such, we are continuously looking for new methods and technologies to bring to the table. More than before, we'll have to keep up to date on emerging technologies and how they work, in order to keep up with our clients and the competition.

In terms of how we conduct our work, more and more of our processes are being automated and streamlined. Reports and metrics that usually took a number of man hours to produce can be automated through robotics or other workflow tooling, and as such more of a consultant's time is now freed up for problem solving and client management.

Hope this helps!