Good morning and happy Monday, capital markets servants. I ventured out into the muck to dig up some news for you to start the week.
In this news brief
Your Services Are No Longer Needed
KPMG UK is trying to force 600 auditors out the door, saying it’s due to low attrition. Isn’t it weird how firms have been saying that for years now and also complaining about talent shortages? Weird.
KPMG UK has told nearly 600 staffers in its audit business that their jobs are at risk, according to people familiar with the matter.
Impacted employees were informed that they could be laid off, subject to a redundancy consultation, according to a memo to staff seen by Bloomberg News. The company ultimately expects as many as 440 people will leave the business if the proposal goes ahead following that consultation process, according to one of the people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named discussing non-public information.
“Current market conditions mean our attrition rates are very low within certain parts of our audit population, which is why we are proposing to right size those areas,” a spokesperson for KPMG UK said in a statement. “This isn’t a decision we take lightly.”
Laid Off AI Guy Has a Warning
Mainstream media in Australia comes with a bleak warning: AI is being blamed for job losses and those using it including a former PwC employee are warning this may just be the start
Former PwC employee Donald King has a bleak warning for workers not using artificial intelligence yet.
“If you’re not using AI then you should be worried. You should definitely be worried,” he told 7.30.
We know all too well what Paul Griggs is up to on this side of the globe. But thanks, bud.
“It was kind of like a young college grad’s dream job,” he told 7.30. “Working directly with OpenAI, the hottest tech around, working with the largest clients around. I was very happy to join. But that shifted as I got into the weeds and understood really what we were doing.”
He says his team’s goal was to automate at least 30 per cent of the manual work involved in routine back-office tasks.
He also found himself grappling with a “moral dilemma” because he was training AI systems to perform work traditionally done by people.
He got laid off in 2024.
Palantir x IRS
A bit of fun tech news from WIRED (the “fun” is heavily sarcastic, just to be clear): The IRS Wants Smarter Audits. Palantir Could Help Decide Who Gets Flagged
The Internal Revenue Service paid Palantir $1.8 million last year to improve a custom tool designed to help the tax agency identify the “highest-value” cases for audits, collection of unpaid taxes, and potential criminal investigations, according to documents WIRED obtained via public record request.
When the contract was signed, the IRS said it was using “more than 100 business systems and 700 methods,” built over the course of “decades” to select cases in which people may have incorrectly reported their taxes or owe the IRS money. As identifying potential tax discrepancies became more complex, the agency said its systems grew increasingly inefficient, and it needed to find a solution.
“This fragmented landscape can lead to a number of undesirable outcomes including but not limited to duplication of effort and cost, poor understanding of gaps in the coverage, and suboptimal case selection,” the IRS wrote in a document obtained by WIRED outlining the scope of the contract.
The custom tool that Palantir built to address the problem, dubbed the “Selection and Analytic Platform,” or SNAP, is designed to help the IRS streamline how it identifies potential fraud cases. For now, the software is only being used as part of a pilot program, according to the documents. Palantir and the IRS did not respond to requests for comment.
Deloitte Scrounges Up Some Billable Hours
A rare mention of Big 4 revenue-generating activities hits CBS News: States pay Deloitte, others millions to comply with Trump law to cut Medicaid rolls
States are now racing to update their eligibility systems to adhere to President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and domestic spending law. The changes will add red tape and restrictions. They are coming at a steep price ― both in the cost to taxpayers and coverage losses ― according to state documents obtained by KFF Health News and interviews.
The documents show government agencies will spend millions to save considerably more by removing people from health benefits. While states sign eligibility system contracts with companies and work with them to manage updates, the federal government foots most of the bill.
That price for just one state, according to the article:
Documents prepared by consulting firm Deloitte estimate that a pair of computer system changes for Medicaid work requirements in Wisconsin will cost nearly $6 million. Two other changes related to the state’s SNAP program will cost an additional $4.2 million, according to the documents, which Deloitte drafted for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
The New Guy
The Times discussed what Deloitte UK’s new CEO plans for the firm:
The promotion of Darren Graves, a Deloitte lifer who currently leads the firm’s tax and legal division in the north and south Europe region, was widely expected but has been rubber-stamped by a partner vote.
Graves, 47, was a shoo-in for the role because his name was the only one put forward by the partnership council, which oversaw the election process, after discussions with senior partners.
He said he was “incredibly proud to become chief executive of Deloitte UK at such a pivotal time” and added: “My focus will be twofold: to ensure we continue delivering exceptional value to our clients, by helping them navigate a period of complexity and seize new opportunities; and to reinvent our firm for the next generation.”
How do you think it feels being the only guy up for the job? Maybe I’ve been watching too much Iron Chef lately but high level competition has got to be part of the fun when you’re at that level, no?
They Aren’t Listening
A little something from Fortune: The AI doomsday everyone’s worried about is the wrong one
Imagine someone upstream in your company just deployed an AI agent. Their throughput doubles overnight. Work starts flying to you at twice the speed. But you’re still in Excel. You still don’t have access to the company’s data lake. Overnight, you’ve become the bottleneck — the weak link in a chain that’s suddenly moving faster than ever.
“This will expose the weakest link in an organization,” said Eric Bradlow, chair of the marketing department and vice chair of AI and analytics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, who uses that exact scenario to describe what he fears is coming. “If efficiency gains are happening here but not here,” he said, gesticulating with his hands, “it will be exacerbated and you will see it quickly.”
TLDR of the rest of the article: Companies need to invest in people and training, not just AI. Yeah, I’m not sure companies are going to absorb that message in time but good on you for trying anyway, Fortune.
The reason I’ve included it in this news brief is they got a quote from Deloitte US chair Lara Abrash, who’s referring to a Deloitte report that says IT spend accounts for roughly 93% of AI adoption budgets: “Ninety-three to seven is not the right level of effort in both places,” she said. “Companies should be spending as much time on the workforce right now as they are on the technology. And we’re seeing most companies focus much more on the technology.”
Well that was depressing. Sorry. Get in touch via email or text if you have a tip, a story, or just need to unload some sorrows. Be good, you.