What challenges did EY face before AI implementation?

Traditional audit and tax processes were highly manual and labor-intensive. Excessive staff hours required for reviewing documents and repetitive tasks. Limited time available for employees to focus on higher-value client advisory. Need to maintain quality and accuracy while scaling operations. Desire to uphold ethical standards during automation initiatives.

What was the impact of the AI solution?

Saved an estimated 2 million human hours annually. Enabled auditors to spend more time on client advisory and value-adding activities. Accelerated digital transformation initiatives at enterprise scale.

Source

MicrosoftExpandedProductionEvidence: Medium65/100

EY automates audit and tax processes to free 2 million hours annually

Use case typeIntelligent document processingUpdated Jun 13, 2026

Ernst & Young (EY), a leading global professional services firm, sought to modernize traditional audit and tax operations that were intensive, manual, and time-consuming. By implementing Microsoft Azure AI, Azure Cognitive Services, and a suite of automation technologies, EY automated over 250 business processes globally. The AI solutions enabled auditors to concentrate more on advisory roles and deliver increased value to their clients. The partnership between EY and Microsoft was anchored in a commitment to ethics in AI, people empowerment, and delivering measurable value to clients. The transformation resulted in greater operational efficiency, improved service quality and accuracy, and allowed the firm to maintain a human-centered approach while increasing digital capabilities. This initiative not only created internal benefits, saving approximately 2 million human hours annually, but also positioned EY to deliver enhanced, AI-fueled offerings to their global clientele.

Organization: EY
Industry: Professional Services
Location: United States
Published: June 2025

Why do we believe this deployment?Customer identity, provider attribution, maturity, and source checks

Customer: EY
Provider: Microsoft
Maturity: Production
Linked source: partner.microsoft.com

The transformation resulted in greater operational efficiency, improved service quality and accuracy, and allowed the firm to maintain a human-centered approach while increasing digital capabilities

Customer identity supportedSource describes one deploymentMaturity supported

Primary read

Use case focus

Showing 3 of 3

1Intelligent Automation of Audit Processes
2Automated Tax Document Processing
3AI-Driven Advisory Enablement

Automated over 250 business processes globally using Microsoft Azure AI and Cognitive Services.
Deployed AI to streamline document review and routine workflow.
Designed a multi-year roadmap for digital transformation through AI.
Created an alliance with Microsoft to deliver ethical, people-centered AI solutions.

Technologies

Azure AI Azure Cognitive Services

Saved an estimated 2 million human hours annually.
Enabled auditors to spend more time on client advisory and value-adding activities.
Accelerated digital transformation initiatives at enterprise scale.

Sources & evidence1

Evidence: Medium65/100Evidence strength