--- title: PwC Is Using AI Like Crazy - Small Businesses Should Pay Attention Too url: https://www.velsof.com/blog/pwc-is-using-ai-like-crazy-small-businesses-should-pay-attention-too/ date: 2026-05-31 type: blog_post author: Ambrish Khan categories: AI Automation, Blog tags: Agentic AI, AI in consulting, AI-native operations, Anthropic Claude, CFO transformation, Digital Transformation, M&A technology, PwC --- ## **The Tipping Point for Enterprise AI** The enterprise AI conversation has shifted decisively from experimentation to execution. On May 14, 2026, [PwC and Anthropic announced a landmark expansion](https://www.pwc.com/us/en/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/anthropic-pwc-expand-alliance-agentic-enterprise.html) of their strategic alliance—one that positions [Claude, Anthropic’s frontier AI model](https://www.anthropic.com/claude), at the center of how PwC builds technology, executes deals, and reinvents enterprise functions for its global client base. This is not a pilot program or an innovation lab exercise. PwC is rolling out [Claude Code and Cowork](https://www.anthropic.com/product/claude-code) to a workforce of hundreds of thousands of professionals, training and certifying 30,000 practitioners, and establishing a joint Center of Excellence with Anthropic to industrialize AI deployment. The scale of the partnership signals a structural shift. Most enterprises today are still running on systems and processes designed for a pre-AI world—[a drag estimated at more than $2 trillion](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/anthropic-and-pwc-expand-alliance-driving-impact-across-client-work-and-the-firm-302772321.html) in unrealized value. PwC and Anthropic are setting out to help organizations replace that dead weight and rebuild around AI-native workflows from the ground up. ## **Agentic Technology Build — Engineering at Machine Speed** The first pillar of the alliance focuses on how software gets built. PwC’s engineering teams are [using Claude Code to deliver production-grade software](https://claude.com/product/claude-code) for major enterprises in weeks rather than quarters. This is not code-assist in the conventional sense—it is agentic development, where AI systems take on end-to-end engineering tasks across the full software delivery lifecycle. The results already in production are striking. A mainframe modernization engagement involving a COBOL codebase four times larger than originally scoped is tracking on time and under budget. In cybersecurity, agentic vulnerability operations—automated code review, containment, and patch deployment—have compressed incident response from hours to minutes, closing exposure windows before adversaries can exploit them. A stalled HR transformation program was revived with a working prototype in one week and a full application running thousands of daily transactions within two months. For enterprise technology leaders, the implication is clear: the bottleneck in digital transformation is no longer engineering capacity. With agentic build capabilities, the constraint shifts to organizational readiness and strategic prioritization. ## **AI-Native Deal-Making — Compressing the Path from Thesis to Value** The second pillar takes aim at one of the most resource-intensive activities in professional services: mergers, acquisitions, and deal execution. [PwC is reinventing how it conducts due diligence](https://www.pwc.com/us/en/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/anthropic-pwc-expand-alliance-agentic-enterprise.html), value creation analysis, and post-merger integration by deploying AI agents that work alongside deal teams throughout the transaction lifecycle. For private equity sponsors and corporate acquirers, this changes the economics of deal-making at a fundamental level. Diligence processes that historically required weeks of analyst time can be substantially compressed. Value creation hypotheses can be tested against broader datasets in real time. Integration planning can begin earlier and with greater precision, accelerating the path from thesis to value capture. The strategic implication extends beyond efficiency. When the cost and timeline of executing a deal drops meaningfully, the threshold for what is “worth doing” shifts—expanding the addressable universe of transactions and creating a structural advantage for firms that adopt AI-native deal processes. ## **Reinventing the Enterprise Function — From Pilots to Production** The third and perhaps most consequential pillar addresses the enterprise operating model itself. While many organizations are running AI pilots, PwC is running AI in production—building scalable, AI-native operating models for finance, supply chain, HR, and engineering functions. The launch of [a dedicated Office of the CFO business group](https://www.pwc.com/us/en/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/anthropic-pwc-expand-alliance-agentic-enterprise.html), anchored entirely on Claude, exemplifies this approach. Starting with regulated industries including banking, insurance, and healthcare, PwC is deploying AI across the full spectrum of finance operations: from targeted automation of journal entries and variance analysis to complete top-to-bottom redesigns of finance functions. Crucially, both PwC and Anthropic practiced what they preach—PwC deployed Claude internally for its own finance operations before bringing solutions to clients, and simultaneously helped Anthropic’s own CFO office scale its operations, controls, and international payroll. Production deployments across professional sports, insurance underwriting, and healthcare are already delivering measurable outcomes, with clients reporting delivery improvements of up to 70%. [Advocate Health, one of the nation’s largest health systems](http://Advocate Health, one of the nation's largest health systems)with 167,000 employees, is building toward full-scale deployment to serve patients across every community it operates in—including underserved rural areas. ## **What This Means for the Future of AI in Consulting and Digital Transformation** The PwC–Anthropic alliance is a bellwether for the professional services industry and for enterprise AI adoption broadly. Three implications stand out. **First,**the era of AI experimentation is over for serious enterprises. The firms that will capture value from AI are those that move from proof-of-concept to production-scale deployment—and that requires both technology capability and deep industry expertise. **Second,**agentic AI is fundamentally restructuring the economics of professional services. When AI agents can execute end-to-end workflows in engineering, deal execution, and corporate functions, the value proposition shifts from labor arbitrage to outcome delivery. **Third,**the competitive moat in enterprise AI belongs to organizations that invest in training and certification at scale. PwC’s commitment to [certifying 30,000 professionals](https://www.anthropic.com/news/pwc-expanded-partnership) is not a marketing initiative—it is an infrastructure investment in a workforce that can design, deploy, and govern AI-native operating models. For enterprise leaders evaluating their own AI strategies, the PwC–Anthropic partnership offers a clear signal: the organizations that will define the next decade of business performance are those building their operating models around AI today—not tomorrow. [PwC’s Anthropic alliance](https://www.pwc.com/us/en/technology/alliances/anthropic.html)[Learn more about Claude Enterprise](https://www.anthropic.com/enterprise) ### Related Services [AI & Automation](/ai-automation/)