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(Reuters) - PricewaterhouseCoopers said Wednesday that it will give 4,000 of its legal professionals access to an artificial intelligence platform, becoming the latest firm to introduce generative AI technology for legal work. Other companies, law firms and professional services firms have also started to experiment with generative AI technology. Global law firm Allen & Overy last month became the first major legal business to publicly partner with Harvey. Other legal technology companies are rushing to incorporate generative AI capabilities into products. Casetext, a legal research company, said Tuesday its recently-released AI legal assistant product is also built on OpenAI's latest model, GPT-4.

☆ 4,000 legal professionals at one of the world's largest accounting firms are getting a chatbot to speed up their work
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Accounting firm PwC is giving 4,000 of its lawyers access to an AI chatbot to help speed up work. The chatbots are being provided by AI startup Harvey which has a 12-month partnership with PwC. PwC said the chatbots will be used to help in areas like due diligence and contract analysis. The firm said AI won't be used to provide clients with legal advice, nor will it replace or substitute lawyers and professional legal services. PwC also plans to use Harvey to develop and train its own proprietary models to make products for the firm's use and for its Legal Business Solutions clients.

☆ PwC hit with $8.9 million penalty for 'serious breaches' on Babcock audits
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Iain Withers | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, March 8 (Reuters) - Britain's auditing watchdog has imposed a 7.5 million pound ($8.9 million) penalty on PwC for "serious breaches" found in audits of engineer Babcock International (BAB.L), the regulator said on Wednesday. The fine was discounted by 25% to 5.6 million pounds due to early resolution, the regulator said. The FRC said breaches identified on PwC's audits of Babcock included repeated failures to challenge management and obtain sufficient appropriate evidence. Two PwC partners - Nicholas Campbell Lambert and Heather Ancient - were also fined 200,000 pounds and 65,000 respectively, discounted to 150,000 pounds and 48,750 pounds respectively. The FRC's investigation into PwC's statutory audits of the Babcock group financial statements for 2019 and 2020 is ongoing.

☆ These are 5 of the world's best countries for working parents — and the U.S. isn’t on the list
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Working parents need all of the help they can get. Iceland, for example, is one of the best countries in the world for working parents, according to a new report from Bloomberg, which looks at how nations' policies affect the quality and affordability of child care for working parents. These problems exist everywhere to some degree, but some countries appear more committed than others to providing working parents with enough resources to lighten that heavy load. Canada, for example, committed in 2021 to spending $22 billion over five years to bring down early education and child care costs. Similarly, Iceland's policies benefiting working parents are one reason why the country has the highest female labor force participation rate among the countries tracked by the OECD, according to Bloomberg.

☆ House, Senate to renew fight pitting child tax credit vs. corporate cash
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Eric Rosenbaum | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

The fate of that corporate tax policy, supported by many Democrats, had been linked to the Democratic Party's desire for a deal on the child tax credit . But House and Senate members are getting ready to reintroduce legislation on the R&D tax credit. Indexing the child tax credit to inflation would also be a matter of tax policy that both parties might agree on as a way to enshrine future increases in law. But there's still the divide on the corporate tax priorities and child tax credit, and at a basic level, getting a bipartisan tax bill through the House and Senate and to the White House is always challenging. Many companies were surprised that the R&D tax credit did not get extended in the late year legislative package because it had so much bipartisan support.

☆ PwC isn't panicked about this 'economic pessimism' — in fact, one exec thinks it's an opportunity
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( Tim Paradis | Josée Rose | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

"No management team gets paid to languish," Bricker told Insider. For some top execs, the need to look further ahead is an existential one: Nearly 40% of surveyed CEOs told PwC that they didn't think their organization would be economically viable in a decade without transforming. That's because efforts around diversity could help a company's workforce perform better, and sustainability investments can help companies boost revenue and shave costs. "The strategies that I see business leaders really starting to focus on is not viewing sustainability as a luxury good, but as an essential element of business," Bricker said. The idea of sparing workers where possible aligns with what CEOs told PwC in the survey, which gathered responses from some 4,440 business heads in October and November.

☆ Costs could rise even more in 2023—and thousands of CEOs blame climate change
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Natasha Piñon | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Their reason: climate change. Such incidents have led environmental experts and economists to establish a link between climate change and inflation. Climate change isn't considered a primary driver of today's inflation, but economists say the connection will deepen as the planet continues to warm — making the link more noticeable and acute. At the corporate level, only CEOs who feel directly exposed to climate change are likely to take steps to address it, PwC's survey found. Many company-driven climate efforts aren't even particularly successful, the report noted.

☆ Nearly 2,000 CEOs think their companies won't be able to make money in 10 years, survey says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-04 | by ( Natasha Piñon | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

That's almost 40% of the total number of CEOs surveyed across 105 countries for PwC's annual global CEO survey. More than half of the CEOs surveyed cited shifts in consumer demand, regulatory changes and labor shortages as challenges to their profitability over the next 10 years. And despite the concerns, most of the company leaders surveyed — 60% — aren't planning any layoffs, at least over the next 12 months. However, the report's prescription for worried CEOs may not bode particularly well for some workers. The surveyed CEOs said they want to make such bold decisions but aren't currently prioritizing them.

☆ Businesses, not governments, will need to lead the transition to clean energy, executives say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Josée Rose | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The transition to clean energy isn't a choice, executives told Insider. Sign up for our newsletter to get the latest on the culture & business of sustainability — delivered weekly to your inbox. Motsinger said the move to sustainable business practices, infrastructure, supply chains, and products couldn't wait for the government to mandate such moves. Fitzgerald added that it's key to develop trust among all sides so that businesses could roll out new technology. Once we have safe, reliable, and affordable options in those areas, Fitzgerald said attention might turn to areas considered harder to decarbonize — processes like steelmaking, cement production, and construction.

☆ How the market is rating the risk of debt ceiling default and a divided, dysfunctional Congress
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Eric Rosenbaum | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +13 min

That would be the worst-case outcome, of course, but even the best case will probably see the sort of brinksmanship that occurred in the 2011 debt ceiling crisis." From the Senate, Mitch McConnell recently said it's an issue for Biden and the House GOP to work out. Kevin Brady , the former top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, dismissed talk of debt default as "fear mongering." Narrowness of GOP House majority does matterJPMorgan also referred to the path for a political agreement as being "narrow." In 2013, the Federal Reserve ran a simulation of a debt default by the U.S. government.

☆ A CEO's apology is a make-or-break moment. Here's how to do it right.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Josée Rose | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

When a CEO or company messes up and trust is broken, the apology must be done right. Trust is the everyday currency of business, PwC's Wes Bricker says. CEOs must be aware that the way they apologize is just as important as the words "I'm sorry." In recent years, a corporation's or CEO's apology has taken on greater significance because customers and employees are often quick to demand that leaders take ownership and show transparency around their actions. Sucher said CEOs were receptive to a framework on how to apologize because "everyone messes up at times."

☆ Trust is the currency that CEOs need to be using to build their businesses, PwC exec says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Josée Rose | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Leaders can't expect to inspire transformation and change without trust, a PwC exec says. CEOs and leaders should be using trust daily to build teams and business strategies, as well as to connect with clients, Bricker said. In PwC's survey, 87% of business executives said they thought consumers had a high level of trust in their business, but only 30% of consumers said they did. Leaders can't expect to inspire transformation and change without it. "Trust comes first, and it's what gives us all as business leaders the right to solve important problems," he said.

☆ Leading through change is one of the hardest challenges for CEOs — and one they must get right, PwC US Chair Tim Ryan says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Josée Rose | Tim Paradis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

PwC's US chair, Tim Ryan, said leading through change was the toughest challenge for CEOs. Ryan said the "war for talent isn't going away" and urged leaders to focus on the future. "What every company is trying to do is to get their people to do things differently," Ryan told Insider. Did all the things work the way they're supposed to?" Several companies have brought back CEOs to lead through turmoil because there's a "desperate need to reframe management," Ryan said.

☆ What the pro-business tax agenda is chasing in a changing Congress
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Cheryl Winokur Munk | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Main Street could find itself stuck in gridlock next year in terms of advancing pro-business tax objectives. For House Republicans, legislative priorities are likely to include extending business-friendly provisions of The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, passed by the Trump Administration in 2017. Even so, a divided Congress means that major pro-business legislative changes will be difficult to enact. Rather, tax and policy professionals expect House Republicans to focus on a number of positioning moves next year — ones that will establish their pro-business agenda ahead of the 2024 presidential election. "There are a host of provisions in the tax code that businesses would like to see changed or revised," said Rochelle Hodes, a principal in Crowe's Washington National Tax office.

☆ Why business alliances are a triple-win for your company, partner, and customers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Sponsor Post | Created Viu Hub With Insider Studios | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Strategic partnerships are one way organizations can expand their offering to drive significant customer satisfaction and engagement. Some well-known examples of successful strategic partnerships include Starbucks and Target. Businesses are looking at strategic partnerships for growth now more than ever. Partnering with another business means you'll be able to reach their clients as well, making strategic partnerships an incredibly effective marketing strategy for both sides. The ability to support the transactional experience, enabling strategic partners to provide their customers with additional value while staying focused on their core business.

☆ Private equity is starting to bet big on the cloud. Here's why firms like Blackstone are making the move.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Like other Wall Street firms upended by the technology, PE firms' motivation to make the move is tied to harnessing the copious amounts of data they manage. GFT works with more than 20 private-equity firms for digital transformation, including a handful of tier-one PE companies, he said. Some PE firms have tried to leverage their scale for pricing discounts among cloud providers, Mahenthiran said. Major cloud providers, like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, have been hungry for more Wall Street market share. That hasn't stopped PE firms from trying to hire out data-science and cloud teams to help front-office researchers find new opportunities and oversee internal cloud infrastructure, Vyas said.

☆ Private equity is opening up to the public cloud, setting up a new battleground for AWS, Microsoft, and Google to win over Wall Street
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Like other Wall Street firms upended by the technology, PE firms' motivation to make the move is tied to harnessing the copious amounts of data they manage. GFT works with more than 20 private-equity firms for digital transformation, including a handful of tier-one PE companies, he said. Some PE firms have tried to leverage their scale for pricing discounts among cloud providers, Mahenthiran said. Major cloud providers, like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, have been hungry for more Wall Street market share. But the wait-and-see approach has put PE companies far behind their Wall Street peers.

☆ High rates and inflation are here to stay, says PwC's real estate practice leader. Here's what it means for major metro areas, and why cities will need to be completely reimagined in the next great ho
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Lisa Kailai Han | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

High inflation and interest rates are here to stay in 2023, said PwC's Byron Carlock. To the dismay of real estate investors everywhere, Byron Carlock says that higher interest rates are here to stay for 2023. And while housing input prices and the costs of raw materials have begun to moderate, he doesn't believe that these can completely offset the ongoing increase in interest rates. But there's also a few obstacles in the way of reimagining entire cities, Carlock. "Cities are going to have to step up their game with respect to zoning and entitlement processes," he added.

[1/2] People buy food at stalls promoting China's digital yuan, or e-CNY, during the 2022 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing, China September 1, 2022. REUTERS/Tingshu WangHONG KONG/SHANGHAI, Oct 27 (Reuters) - China's digital yuan took the centre stage in the world's largest cross-border central bank digital currency (CBDC) trial to date, a report showed, pointing to how Beijing is speeding up yuan globalization efforts amid rising geopolitical tensions. China's digital currency, or e-CNY, was the most issued, and actively transacted token in the $22 million pilot that used CBDCs to settle cross-border trades, a Bank of International Settlement (BIS) report showed. The PBOC's participation in m-Bridge represents its ambition to eventually promote global, wholesale use of the e-CNY. But China's yuan internationalisation, digital or not, faces challenges amid a slowing economy ravaged by COVID flare-ups, and a property debt crisis.

☆ 'Top Gun: Maverick' studio Skydance just scored a $400 million funding led by KKR. Meet 16 private equity players betting big on Hollywood now.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Elaine Low | Claire Atkinson | Madeline Berg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Private equity firms are investing more deeply in film and TV content companies, even amid a possible recession. Private equity accounted for 42% of deals over the last year vs. 24% in 2018, according to PwC. KKR just led a $400 million funding round for Skydance, giving the "Top Gun: Maverick" studio a $4 billion valuation. And earlier in July, Swedish firm EQT invested in UTA, which makes the private equity player the largest outside shareholder of the talent agency. And KKR is continuing to make big bets: It just led a $400 million funding round in "Top Gun: Maverick" studio Skydance that sent the production company's valuation north of $4 billion.

☆ How SkyBridge founder Anthony Scaramucci is navigating the world between traditional and digital assets — plus his favorite coins and hedge funds for the tough market environment
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-21 | by ( Laila Maidan | Alyson Velati | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

A survey conducted by the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), showed that about one-third of traditional hedge funds are investing in digital assets. Approximately one-third of the panel discussions revolved around digital assets, according to SkyBridge Capital's Anthony Scaramucci. And while some funds may still be grappling with the question of how much exposure they should allocate to digital assets, Scaramucci is pedaling forward. Long term, he believes in the appreciation of digital assets, and he's willing to pay the price of absorbing the volatility in the meantime. The pivot to digital assetsSkyBridge has pivoted heavily into crypto and blockchain technology from its traditional hedge fund of funds business.

☆ PwC believes hybrid work is doable: 'One size doesn't fit all'
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-17 | by ( Josée Rose | Tim Paradis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Accounting and consulting firm PwC supports employees who request a hybrid-work model. Bricker said "one size doesn't fit all," and PwC is big enough to think differently. "It doesn't work for an apprenticeship program. It doesn't work for spontaneous stuff." AdvertisementAdvertisement"One size doesn't fit all, one size probably doesn't even fit many," he said, and while the company would prefer that staff goes to the office two or three days a week, "that doesn't work for everyone."

Persons: Wes Bricker, Bricker, Jamie Dimon, Dimon, Malcolm Gladwell, Gladwell Organizations: Service, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Yahoo Finance, JPMorgan Locations: Wall, Silicon, Canadian

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