KPMG Brings Cheating Into the AI Age By Using AI to Cheat on AI Exams

The image is upside down because Australia.

This story sounds like a joke but we assure you it is not. KPMG Australia has expanded KPMG’s storied cheating repertoire by being the first Big 4 firm to earn headlines about using AI to cheat on internal training. Not just any internal training but, in the case of an audit partner who will be paying out of their own pocket for their error, it was an internal test about AI. The test was open book, but “open book” doesn’t mean “upload the manual to AI” like the partner did.

Australian Financial Review reports:

More than two dozen KPMG Australia personnel have used artificial intelligence to cheat on internal exams since July, including a partner who will be fined more than $10,000 for using the technology in a training course about AI.

The big four accounting firm has upgraded its processes to detect AI cheating after putting in place policies and extra policing to tackle widespread cheating on internal tests between 2016 and 2020.

“Like most organisations, we have been grappling with the role and use of AI as it relates to internal training and testing. It’s a very hard thing to get on top of given how quickly society has embraced it,” said KPMG Australia CEO Andrew Yates to AFR.

“As soon as we introduced monitoring for AI in internal testing in 2024, we found instances of people using AI outside our policy. We followed with a significant firm-wide education campaign and have continued to introduce new technologies to block access to AI during testing.”

To KPMG’s credit, it was the firm that caught their people in the act and the caught partner who reported it to Chartered Accountants ANZ. The firm is fining the partner $10,000 (about $7k USD) while Chartered Accountants ANZ is still investigating so punishment from them could (probably will) follow. Average partner pay at KPMG Australia was $715,000 ($506k USD) for 2025.

Something else interesting from AFR’s report. The current rule is that firms only have to report this kind of stuff to regulators at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission if punished by a governing professional body. As mentioned above, Chartered Accountants ANZ hasn’t concluded an investigation so the firm wasn’t required to snitch on themselves to the ASIC. And yet, writes AFR:

KPMG maintains it voluntarily informed ASIC as part of its ongoing discussions with the regulator. However, in a response to queries from Greens senator Barbara Pocock, the regulator said KPMG had not “filed with ASIC a report about the instances of auditors cheating using AI” before the December Financial Review report.

That article led to ASIC contacting KPMG and the firm providing information on a voluntary basis including the new detail that a partner had been involved.

And they would have gotten away with it too if it weren’t for you meddling Financial Review reporters!

We suspect this is going to be a huge problem across firms in coming years so congrats to KPMG for blazing the trail.