From client zero to value: Frontier Firm transformation with EY and Microsoft

What does it take to be named one of the 14 founding members of the Microsoft-led Frontier Firm AI Initiative, developed in collaboration with Harvard University?

Frontier Firms are human-led, agent-operated enterprises that redesign work, decision-making and operating models to create value at scale with AI. The organizations creating advantage today are not waiting for the future to arrive; they are redesigning how work gets done, how decisions are made and how value is created.

As Client Zero for many of Microsoft’s most innovative solutions, the global EY organization moved beyond agentic AI experimentation to build exactly that: a hybrid model where AI amplifies human ingenuity and drives enterprise-scale value creation beyond today’s capacity limits.

So, how did we do it?

Early foundations with cloud and data

Our transformation began with the fundamentals. We built EY Fabric on Microsoft Azure: a unified, cloud-based platform that serves as the global backbone for data at EY and our clients, powering faster innovation at greater scale around the globe.

Then we addressed the data itself. A modern platform is only as valuable as the data that flows through it, so we set out to make ours accessible, governed and trusted — ready to power AI. EY Helix is a clear example: partnering with Microsoft, we unified our audit data supply chain with Microsoft Fabric and infused analytics across our spectrum of services — making EY one of the largest Microsoft Power BI users globally.

These technology and data foundations gave EY teams the platform and the trusted data to move fast in the agentic era.

Then, we unified it all. Working with Microsoft and other ecosystem partners, we brought intelligence, orchestration, data, workflows and governance together in a bespoke agentic AI platform, built on Microsoft Azure and embedded into our core platforms, workflows and decision-making processes. Altogether, it’s how the global EY organization works now — and a critical component of what it means to be a Frontier Firm.

At every step of the journey, our focus has been the same: not AI for its own sake, but AI in the hands of our people, embedded in real business processes and providing measurable outcomes.

By the numbers:

How EY harnessed agentic AI with Copilot to empower employees

The results have been transformative:

• Running agents across tax and legal research, deal management, HR and document drafting has driven a 15% productivity boost across the global EY organization.
• With over 16,000 EY developers using Microsoft GitHub Copilot and 18m+ lines of code accepted, EY created the Software Lifecycle Assist Agent to extend that momentum across the full software development lifecycle — driving 70% faster test case and script creation.
• PowerPost, built on Microsoft Power Platform and integrated with the EY SAP instance, automates core finance workflows using AI agents, driving 95% faster lead times with a 37% reduction in operational costs.
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, deployed to 100,000 EY users with embedded AI sales agents, is institutionalizing sales rigor on a global scale.
• EY teams have used EY Canvas, our global Assurance technology platform built on Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Foundry and Microsoft Fabric, to enhance more than 160,000 audit engagements, processing 1.4t lines of journal entry data annually.

The principles driving Frontier transformation

Our approach encompasses four core principles for AI transformation:

• AI must be built into the existing ecosystem.
• Work must be redesigned, not just automated.
• Human-agent collaboration is the new foundation of work.
• Transformation requires governance, trust and cultural change.

As businesses speed toward the Agentic Frontier — in which organizations shift from an agent-assisted model to an agent-operated model — we’re redefining how work happens across the enterprise.

Together, we combine human ingenuity with agentic AI to create extraordinary outcomes.

• Unlock new revenue opportunities.
• Accelerate innovation and decision making.
• Scale operations with reduced cost.
• Empower employees to focus on high-value work.

Why EY and Microsoft?

Our close collaboration as Client Zero for many of Microsoft’s innovative solutions creates a blueprint for organizations to progress confidently and de-risk their journey to becoming Frontier Firms, creating value from human-AI collaboration at scale.

EY and Microsoft bring deep, practical experience from deploying and scaling emerging AI capabilities within EY — building leading class technology systems with people at the center.

Today, we're bringing the power of agentic AI to our organization, our clients and the world.