KPMG working with OpenAI to advance new “headless” enterprise tech model

Big Four firm KPMG announced a strategic alliance with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, to develop and deploy AI solutions that reflect a new vision for enterprise software in the modern era for both staff and customers, beginning with joint development of a supply chain and fulfillment solutions platform. 

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The two companies will collaborate closely to advance what KPMG called a “headless model of enterprise engagement” that retains traditional business applications while at the same time using AI as the main way of engaging with them. Vijay Subramanyam, advisory principal with KPMG, said what this means in practice is that things like ERP or CRM systems will continue to operate, but the primary work surface will be AI. 

“While many organizations are focused on simply adding AI features to existing workflows and applications, KPMG is helping clients leverage AI to transform the enterprise operating model itself. The challenge is not a lack of application capability. Most work spans multiple platforms, teams and data sources, making true end-to-end execution difficult. Enterprise applications such as ERP and CRM will continue to serve as critical systems of record, but AI is creating a new opportunity to transform how users engage with those systems. SaaS is not disappearing. Its user interface is evolving. More precisely, a new work surface is emerging,” he said in an email. 

Under the traditional model, employees log into these individual systems to find information, make decisions and complete tasks. Under this new model, those systems will continue to do things like manage data, transactions, controls and governance, but individuals won’t be directly interacting with them much. Instead, their main interface will be an AI-powered work surface supported by a bench of specialized agents that perform discrete tasks, as well as more advanced superagents that coordinate work across the enterprise systems to pursue outcomes. And so work becomes less about using these individual systems for discrete tasks within the workflow and more about coordinating the entire workflow across all of them. 

“SaaS is evolving; it’s becoming agentic,” said Chad Seiler, US industry leader for technology, media and telecommunications for KPMG. “We’re designing AI-enabled systems that will act as the front door for customers and employees to engage. This approach requires collaboration across the technology ecosystem, and OpenAI is a critical partner to KPMG as we help clients move from software-led transformation to intelligent systems that work across the enterprise technology stack.” 

KPMG will accelerate delivery through a “forward-deployed engineer” model, embedding senior engineers directly alongside OpenAI teams to translate business needs into new solutions. 

They will begin with partnering with OpenAI to design and deploy an AI-native supply chain and fulfillment orchestration platform for their own organization that unifies supply chain operations, fulfillment and finance through intelligent workflows and agents. The initial impetus for this was KPMG’s work with OpenAI on something very much like this for itself. OpenAI hired KPMG to help design and build a supply chain and fulfillment platform of their own. Rather than asking employees to navigate multiple systems and workflows, the goal was a single conversational interface that could access data, trigger actions and coordinate work across underlying enterprise platforms. After the success of this initial project, the two companies decided to take this approach to businesses as a whole as partners. 

“It’s one thing to work with frontier AI organizations, and then it’s another thing to work with them and go to market with them. KPMG is doing both with OpenAI,” said Subramanyam. 

The two will also bring this approach to KPMG’s state and local government clients by modernizing KRIS Connected, KPMG’s suite of SaaS solutions for public sector entities. The goal is to help agencies move from siloed legacy systems to connected case management, service delivery and decision support.

They also plan to cooperate on cybersecurity solutions, building on KPMG’s participation in the OpenAI Daybreak Cyber Partner Program. As a partner for that program, KPMG will help integrate OpenAI’s models and cyber capabilities into new AI-driven cybersecurity solutions. 

Subramanyam said that this alliance is one part of KPMG’s larger strategy of building a connected ecosystem of strategic alliances between numerous companies, including major AI and tech providers. 

“This alliance builds on our ecosystem, a connected network of strategic alliances, emerging technology partners, and industry specialists, and is part of a strategy to bring together the frontier AI companies and our long-standing technology alliances to deliver measurable outcomes for our clients. Together with all our ecosystem partners, including the major AI and technology companies, we will continue to help organizations move toward an AI-first operating model where intelligent agents and conversational experiences work across enterprise applications, data and workflows,” he said.