In this exclusive interview, while on location at the ServiceNow Knowledge24 conference, Acceleration Economy’s Tom Smith hosts Hank Prybylski, global vice chair, transformation at EY, for a conversation on transformation initiatives, GenAI, responsible AI, and more.
Highlights
Transformation and ServiceNow Focus (00:45)
Prybylski’s role includes overseeing EY’s transformation to bring better value to clients and employees. He’s also the executive sponsor for the company’s relationship with ServiceNow. AI has been one of the catalysts for transformation but other technology innovations have also played big roles: cloud computing, cybersecurity, analytics, blockchain, and quantum all fuel new opportunities.
With 400,000 employees, EY is a huge ServiceNow customer, leveraging ServiceNow software in IT service management and HR service management. Prybylski says there are big opportunities to leverage ServiceNow as a business transformation platform to help re-engineer functions across clients’ industries. EY’s ServiceNow practice has grown about 30% a year globally and now has over 500 certified ServiceNow practitioners. It’s the fastest-growing alliance at EY.
EY’s Focus at Knowledge24 (03:38)
There are many conversations taking place about risk. EY sees a huge opportunity to leverage ServiceNow to improve risk management. There are also big opportunities in operational transformation and predictive maintenance — helping organizations’ machines and factories run more productively, for instance.
Responsible AI is also an important focus; customers are eager to capitalize on GenAI to transform their businesses but to do so in a safe, secure environment. Customers need a control framework to ensure models are being deployed safely. Large language models (LLMs) can be deployed to identify risks that humans would miss. Once those risks are identified, they can inform business decisions. “That whole process of engaging the entire organization and the workflow around risk management is an area where ServiceNow is just dominating,” he says.
Lessons From Early GenAI Use Cases (07:09)
EY recognizes big opportunities in diverse areas with GenAI use cases that will help pinpoint which processes to take forward to drive transformational activity. “We want to take the robot out of the human experience as opposed to taking the human out of the business process. It’s that human engagement opportunity that really is exciting us.”
Training is a big focus for EY employees and clients to ensure they have the required skills. The next step — and ServiceNow is a leader in this — is understanding the skills of your workforce. In the past, you had jobs and job descriptions. Now, you have jobs and skills requirements. EY has a ‘Skills Foundry’ driving the mapping of skills required in jobs and how that links to the workforce and training.
GenAI and ROI Expectations (10:51)
ROI comes into play in two areas. We’re still learning about productivity opportunities. EY has seen some cases where 90% of the human effort has been saved. The productivity savings in a process or sub-process area are being researched, including with MIT. That must be linked with ‘value engineering’ to pin down the benefits. Some will benefit employees of EY, some will benefit services delivered to customers. There are new costs — such as increased cloud consumption — in some cases. AI will also result in some brand-new services.
Future Outlook (12:30)
The pace of innovation isn’t going to slow down, he says. The leading organizations will be agile and responsive to customer needs. Prybylski is particularly excited about the integration of GenAI with best-in-class workflows.
