At Web Summit Vancouver this week, Techcouver sat down with Walter Pela, AI Client and Market Development Lead for KPMG in Canada, to discuss the professional services firm’s deepening commitment to artificial intelligence.
From launching its proprietary generative AI assistant, Kleo, to acquiring spatial intelligence platform LlamaZOO, KPMG is not just advising on digital transformation—it’s living it.
In this wide-ranging interview, Pela explains how KPMG’s “Client Zero” approach is shaping real-world AI deployments, why the firm is betting big on agentic AI, and what Canadian organizations need to do now to stay competitive in an era defined by automation, digital twins, and always-on intelligence.
KPMG in Canada has recently made significant investments in AI and technology. Can you tell us more about what this means?
WP: Absolutely. We recognized early in the journey how transformative the rapid advancements in AI – specifically generative AI – would be for our business and for the clients we serve. We acted quickly to develop our own tools, including our proprietary gen AI solution, Kleo, as well as rolling out Microsoft 365 Copilot to our KPMG teams across Canada.
We’ve continued to accelerate those investments, building new tools and solutions specific to various service lines, investing in training and upskilling for our staff, and recruiting new talent to add depth to our capabilities.
Most recently, we announced the launch of our Agentic AI Engine to help Canadian organizations realize the benefits of agentic AI while addressing safety, security and the principles of Trusted AI, all of which has garnered global recognition from analysts and the marketplace. We also just announced our acquisition of a spatial business intelligence platform called LlamaZOO, which pairs with our AI capabilities to drive incredible real-time insights and decision-making for organizations by bringing digital twin technology together with AI interrogation and agentic layers.
These tools work together to improve productivity and deliver more innovative solutions, both internally at our firm, as well as for our clients. We recognize Canadian organizations need operational levers to improve the ‘business of today’, new solutions to reimagine the ‘business of tomorrow’, and a partner to help them realize these aspirations – these investments reflect our commitment to realizing that vision.
Tell me more about KPMG’s overall AI strategy?
WP: Our strategy is all about bringing fresh and practical solutions to help our clients work smarter and faster. Sometimes that’s helping clients deploy tools like Microsoft Copilot 365 to help speed up tasks like research, document summarization, or brainstorming. Other times, it’s building more bespoke solutions like a client version of KPMG’s Kleo, our in-house GPT, or now building agentic workflows in a client’s business processes and technology environment. Our goal is to empower Canadian organizations to dream big, act fast and develop the agility to adapt to a technology and competitive landscape that is changing fast.
Currently, we are setting the stage for agentic AI – AI systems that can think and act with levels of autonomy – to do things like deliver pieces of a traditional human workflow or solve problems in real-time. It’s a game-changer for industries that need smarter ways to analyze data and make decisions.
We’re pairing those AI capabilities and systems with digital twin technology, which lets businesses create virtual models of their systems or processes. These solutions are a little like having a crystal ball for real-time monitoring and an always-on analyst to help you figure out the best way to optimize operations.
Together, these tools are helping our clients not just keep up but get ahead of the competition. Whether it’s simulating scenarios, predicting outcomes, or making decisions based on real-time data, we’re here to help them turn big ideas into actionable strategies and real, measurable outcomes.
How is AI changing the nature of work that firms like KPMG perform?
WP: AI is really changing how all Canadian companies work, and KPMG is no exception. Our initial focus was on using AI to improve productivity and decision-making. Think about time intensive tasks like preparing meeting notes or doing base research — generative AI tools can handle those quickly, freeing up time for employees to focus on more important judgement-oriented activities, and add even more value to the work they do for clients. We’re now adding agentic AI, which takes things a step further – not just reacting to a point-in-time prompt but woven into our processes, actively analyzing data, predicting outcomes, and helping our professionals solve problems with deeper knowledge. We’re using it to complement our amazing human capabilities, helping our teams work faster, more effectively and ultimately creating more value thanks to deeper insights and more time spent contextualizing the answers our clients are searching for.
I’ve seen KPMG often refer to itself as “client zero” – what does that mean?
WP: We believe that AI has enormous potential to help Canadian organizations raise their productivity which is why we’ve been champions of the technology; we also recognize it’s a big transformation, and we wanted to advise clients based on our own learnings as much as possible. At KPMG, we called this our ‘Client Zero’ approach—experimenting, piloting, and implementing AI across our own business to understand first-hand what works, what doesn’t, and how to overcome those challenges to realize the full potential of AI in client settings. We share those learnings and expertise with our clients, which creates trust and ultimately helps us create bolder, more innovative solutions for them.
There are a lot of buzz words when it comes to technology these days. What’s the difference between generative and agentic AI, and do organizations really need both?
WP: Organizations can gain a lot by using both generative and agentic AI, as they serve different but complementary purposes. Generative AI is great for individual parts of a project like creating content, brainstorming ideas, and speeding up creative processes. Think about marketing campaigns or summarizing information – it’s all about innovation and speed.
Agentic AI, meanwhile, shines when it comes to delivering workflows – especially those that have elements of decision-making. Agentic AI analyzes data, learns and adapts to changes, and can take actions, making it even more useful in certain business contexts.
They also work in unison, where generative AI fuels ideas, and agentic AI ensures aspects of those ideas are executed effectively.
However, deploying agentic AI has its own unique challenges and that’s why we built our Agentic AI Engine. You need technical capability, industry expertise, strategy and operating frameworks unique to AI – such as KPMG’s “Trusted AI” framework – along with technology infrastructure and robust solutions to do it well. Which is exactly what KPMG’s Agentic AI Engine offers. It’s about bringing all these components together, and making it faster, easier and safer to deploy these solutions for clients, helping them not just keep up with change, but lead it.
What advice do you have for Canadian organizations wanting to implement AI in their business?
WP: Before diving into AI adoption, it’s important to take a step back and develop a clear strategy for your organization. Start by identifying areas where AI can make the biggest difference. What business problems and opportunities offer the most value if they are unlocked with AI. These will be unique to your organization and your industry, and could be anything from improving customer service, to streamlining operations, or sparking innovation. Identify those areas and then run pilot programs to test solutions before scaling them across the business.
Equally important is preparing your team. Upskilling employees to work alongside AI ensures smoother adoption and maximizes the benefits. In parallel, it’s vital to establish a trusted AI framework that aligns with ethical standards, protects data privacy, and reflects your organization’s values. Transparency, accountability, and fairness are key to earning – and keeping – the trust of stakeholders.
By incorporating AI thoughtfully, businesses can unlock their potential to automate repetitive tasks, provide real-time insights for smarter decisions, and fuel creativity that keeps them ahead in a competitive landscape. With a structured approach and a solid framework, Canadian organizations can harness AI to drive meaningful change and position themselves as leaders in their industries.
Where do you see the future of AI going for KPMG?
WP: Looking ahead, we plan to continue expanding our AI capabilities and exploring new ways to integrate AI into our services. Just this week, as Web Summit’s inaugural global conference kicked off in Vancouver, KPMG in Canada wrapped-up a cross-country six-city AI Summit series, supported by Microsoft. We brought together thousands of clients, thought leaders, stakeholders and KPMG AI professionals across Canada’s major hubs to discuss this very topic – where is the future of AI going and how do we best harness it as a country and as an economy? KPMG is committed to staying at the cutting edge of technology and helping our clients navigate the evolving tech landscape. Our goal is to drive innovation and deliver impactful solutions that address the unique challenges faced by Canadian businesses.
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