KPMG’s US leadership is making regular trips to Silicon Valley as it looks for AI start-ups it can work with before they grow into serious competitors.
Tim Walsh, the chief executive of KPMG in the US, told the Financial Times the firm could form partnerships with such companies or take minority stakes to secure access to their technology.
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The effort is part of Walsh’s push to expose senior leaders more directly to businesses that could disrupt KPMG’s market.
He said the Silicon Valley meetings were designed to make both him and the management committee “uncomfortable” by bringing them face to face with emerging challengers.
Walsh said the aim was to speed up technology adoption across the firm.
He made that a priority after becoming chief executive last July, following more than 30 years at KPMG.
“Unless you’re seeing it, you may not understand the pace at which change is happening,” Walsh said.
“Regardless of how fast we’re moving, I’m confident it’s not fast enough.”
He said KPMG had previously relied on business development teams in Silicon Valley and client relationships to pass “signals” about technology shifts to senior management.
That has now changed. According to Walsh, the management committee now goes to Silicon Valley every five or six weeks. It also spends at least one day at a venture capital firm’s office meeting portfolio companies.
The venture firms involved so far include Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer, Emergence Capital and JC2 Ventures, run by former Cisco chief executive John Chambers.
Walsh said most of the start-up meetings had been “educational”. They have helped KPMG decide where to focus its internal development work, he said.
Some discussions, however, are expected to lead to alliances or possibly minority investments.
“We might want to get on a cap table [shareholder register] to signal our commitment to a founder,” he said.
Walsh said it is difficult for emerging growth companies to reach KPMG’s scale.
In that context, he said, partnering with the firm or taking its investment can work for the start-up, KPMG and venture investors.
The initiative is expected to lead to more arrangements like those announced since Walsh took over.
These include an alliance with Uniphore, a JC2 portfolio company, to develop AI agents jointly.
They also include a minority investment in Fieldguide, a Bessemer portfolio company that sells AI audit tools.
KPMG is also working with larger AI groups.
Last week, the firm announced an expanded partnership with Anthropic to develop new products for tax and legal clients.
Walsh dismissed suggestions that large AI companies could eventually replace consulting firms such as KPMG by dealing directly with corporate customers.
“We have sold and we have built a consulting business. It’s not easy,” he said.
He was referring to the spin-off of KPMG’s first consulting arm 25 years ago and the decision to re-enter the market in 2006.
Walsh said the Big Four and other consulting firms remain important routes to market for companies such as Anthropic.
“I would like to think that we will be friends forever. They’re spinning up capabilities to be able to help diffuse the technology into businesses, and we are optimally aligned with that, in terms of being able to help them do that.”
