乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 and Microsoft enter landmark agreement

LONDON and REDMOND, Wash. 鈥� July 11, 2023 鈥� 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 and Microsoft have announced a significant expansion of their global relationship that will reshape professional services across a number of business-critical areas including workforce modernization, safe and secure development, and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions for clients, industries and society more broadly.

The industry-leading collaboration between the two global organizations includes a 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 multibillion dollar commitment in Microsoft cloud and AI services over the next 5 years that will help to unlock potential incremental growth opportunity for 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 of over US$12 billion. The expanded alliance will enhance 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 client engagements and supercharge the employee experience in a way that is responsible, trustworthy and safe.

The Microsoft cloud and Azure OpenAI Service capabilities will empower the 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 global workforce of 265,000 to unleash their creativity, provide faster analysis and spend more time on strategic advice. This will enable them to help clients, including more than 2,500 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 and Microsoft joint clients, keep pace with the rapidly evolving AI landscape and solve their greatest business challenges while positioning them for success in the future world of work.

As an early access partner for Microsoft 365 Copilot and Azure OpenAI Service, 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 professionals will pilot the technologies with select business groups across the global organization, bringing together the increased capabilities of these tools with their experience, insights and sector expertise to enhance client engagements and accelerate digital solution development.

Our renewed and strengthened relationship with Microsoft is an exciting moment for our people and our clients. It will help harness the power of our multidisciplinary model by ensuring that our people always have the right expertise, skills, and tools to overcome challenges and provide the very best advice to clients. It will also help make 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 a more agile and resilient business that continues to be an interesting and exciting place to work. This expansion of our global alliance builds on the combined power of two world-class organizations that share a common set of core values, working together to responsibly use cutting-edge cloud and AI technologies. 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 is embracing the future, and we believe that AI is key to unlocking sustainable growth in a way that will build a better future for our people, our clients and society.

Bill Thomas

Global Chairman & CEO 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 International

We have a real opportunity to apply this next generation of AI to help transform every industry, including professional services. Our expanded partnership with 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 will bring together AI innovation across the Microsoft Cloud with 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网's tax, audit and advisory expertise to empower its employees and unlock insights for its customers.

Satya Nadella

Chairman and CEO Microsoft

The collaboration, which spans more than a decade, underpinned by this major expansion will benefit 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 firms鈥� core business areas in the following ways:

Audit

By infusing data analytics, AI and Azure Cognitive Services into the audit process, through the 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 smart audit platform 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 Clara, 85,000 audit professionals who collectively work on hundreds of thousands of audits a year will be empowered to focus more closely on higher-risk areas of the audit, sector-specific risks and challenges 鈥� to the benefit of both stakeholders and capital markets. This integration also opens up new market opportunities for 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 professionals and their clients. For example, with the integration of Microsoft Fabric, 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 teams will have the ability to directly point to client data instead of having to ingest it, which is a key component to helping enable 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 professionals to perform audits on a more real time basis.

Tax

Integrating Azure OpenAI Service and Microsoft Fabric into 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 Digital Gateway, a 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 single platform solution, will give clients access to the full suite of 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 Tax & Legal technologies, and allow them to gain more integrated and transparent access to their data and take a more holistic management approach to their tax functions. This was demonstrated most recently through a co-developed AI solution using the Azure OpenAI Service that helps to analyze environmental, social and governance (ESG) data, establish data patterns and draft ESG tax transparency reports, all at increased speed and scale. Additionally, 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 firms will operate a generative-AI powered 鈥渧irtual assistant鈥� to create new client service models to help tax professionals become more efficient. It will also help with revenue-generating opportunities such as product experience enhancements and knowledge management for complex tax laws.

Advisory

Developing an AI-enabled application development and knowledge platform on Microsoft Azure will expedite the creation of specialized solutions for clients, helping to enhance their competitive advantage and profitability while putting ethics and security at the very core of the offerings. The benefits and ongoing success of this continued collaboration already include a joint engagement with Coca-Cola EuroPacific Partners (CCEP) of which Peter Brickley, Chief Information Officer at CCEP said, 鈥溊钟悖↙eyu）体育官网 and Microsoft are working together with Coca-Cola EuroPacific Partners on innovative use cases which pioneer improvements to back-office efficiency using generative AI on the Azure platform. By using this new technology, we will prepare our organization for the future, improve our employee experience and support our growth ambitions globally.鈥�

Making an Impact

乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 professionals will work together with Microsoft to help support businesses with their ESG agendas. Building on the success of the 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网聽Circularity Tracker and ,聽both of which have Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability and Microsoft Azure at their core, joint teams will continue to help clients to unify their data sources, leverage the required inputs to help make real-time value-add decisions, and help them to deliver on their sustainability commitments.

In addition, to enhance the commercial prospects of the agreement, 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 and Microsoft will continue to explore and participate in joint opportunities where they can work together to drive social and community impact worldwide. These currently include the UNESCO聽聽and the 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 10x30 strategy to help economically empower 10 million underprivileged youths by 2030 鈥� through education, employment and entrepreneurship opportunities. The companies will also continue to work together to enhance the reliability of carbon accounting through the聽聽to which both 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 and Microsoft were founding signatories.

For media queries, please contact:

Kathryn Wright
Head of Global External Communications, 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 International聽
T: +44 (0)7880 784296
贰:听kathryn.wright@kpmg.co.uk

Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft
T: +1 (425) 638-7777
E: rapidresponse@we-worldwide.com

About 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 International

乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 is a global organization of independent professional services firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services. 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 is the brand under which the member firms of 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 International Limited (鈥溊钟悖↙eyu）体育官网 International鈥�) operate and provide professional services. 鈥溊钟悖↙eyu）体育官网鈥� is used to refer to individual member firms within the 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 organization or to one or more member firms collectively.

乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 firms operate in 143 countries and territories with more than 265,000 partners and employees working in member firms around the world. Each 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such. Each 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 member firm is responsible for its own obligations and liabilities.

乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 International Limited is a private English company limited by guarantee. 乐鱼（Leyu）体育官网 International Limited and its related entities do not provide services to clients.

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About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq 鈥淢SFT鈥� @Microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

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