Shortly after Anthropic launched new Claude financial agents, Big Four firm KPMG announced a global alliance with the AI giant.
The partnership paved the way for Claude Cowork to be embedded in KPMG’s platform serving tax and legal clients as well as private-equity-focused products offerings, according to a May release.
The tie-up and Anthropic's naming of KPMG as its “preferred consultant" represents a “step change” in KPMG’s relationship with the technology and how it can serve its clients, David Neuenhaus, the newly named global sector head of asset management at KPMG, told CFO Dive in a recent interview.
Fielding questions about it is also a big part of Neuenhaus’ new role, he said. “Every meeting we had with clients pre-Anthropic for sure was like, ‘let’s talk about your tech, let’s talk about AI,’” Neuenhaus said. “Now we’re getting specific calls from the market to discuss just this platform.”
Neuenhaus, an attorney and an expert in international tax issues, has deep experience in the M&A sector and has worked for KPMG for 15 years advising asset managers and institutional investors along with private equity firms.
The following Q&A with Neuenhaus has been edited for clarity and brevity.
CFO Dive: How is KPMG embedding Claude changing what you’re offering?
Neuenhaus: It’s a step change in that we’re moving from working next to each other to having Claude empowering our digital gateway platform which is the platform where we serve our clients on a global basis.
The other piece is the private equity side, we’re helping clients increase the value of assets post-acquisition…We’re working very closely with those operating partners and now using our technology deploy to help, whether it’s value creating, driving EBITDA for cash management, or helping to be more efficient at quarter close, we’re using technology at that asset level to bring more value.
CFO Dive: How did KPMG come to partner with Anthropic?
Neuenhaus: We have relationships with the market and bigger firms. But where we found particular synergy with Anthropic is our human first, human in the loop view of how you use and deploy AI. We had a very good cultural fit with Anthropic so we lined up at that level in the deployment of AI — making sure it’s got that human element to it. From both a cultural and opportunity perspective, it seemed like a great alignment.
CFO Dive: KPMG was an early adopter of machine learning and AI, so I was surprised you jumped to go with a whole different company for it.
Neuenhaus: Yes, so this is by no means a pencils down on all things AI technology. We move forward on lots of technology fronts and having been in motion and on our AI journey ourselves, [that] probably allowed us to have this specific discussion with Anthropic in the areas we’re teaming together.
But what we really believe is that we’re bringing the best in class on what we do which again is that industry knowledge and operational layer, they bring best in class on the technology layer. We’re not a technology development company; we don’t do what Anthropic does, what they do brings synergies with what we do and so we’re working together. But everyday there are lots of smart people within KPMG working on technology solutions…again this doesn’t mean pencils down or cause us to stop on our journey, it's just an opportunity to work with a great market leader.
CFO Dive: What sort of securities or protections do you provide CISOs and CFOs at your clients with regard to the information being put into Claude?
Neuenhaus: The digital gateway is our platform that has been and continues to be tested. It’s rock solid. We use it for goverment agencies. With Anthropic, they’re a world class company and their data protections are world class as well. All that being said, we have an entire fleet of professionals really focused on data protection...that’s why it’s been a very mindful march forward.
