OpenAI and PwC are joining forces to develop AI agents tailored for the modern finance department. The collaboration aims to automate complex workflows, enhance decision-making, and strengthen risk management within the office of the CFO.
The partnership focuses on building AI agents around core finance operations, including planning, forecasting, reporting, procurement, and tax. This initiative seeks to move beyond theoretical applications by grounding the development in real-world finance processes.
OpenAI's Internal Testing Ground
OpenAI's own finance department is serving as the primary testbed, referred to as 'customer zero.' This approach allows for validation of enterprise-scale workflows, governance models, and human-AI collaboration patterns before broader deployment.
Early results from OpenAI's internal use show significant efficiency gains. For instance, the use of AI agents has enabled processing five times more contracts with the same team size.
PwC brings its expertise in finance transformation and controls to help scale these AI agentic workflows from prototype to production environments. OpenAI contributes its AI models and product capabilities.
The collaboration seeks to embed AI into the core of finance functions, moving organizations from mere process efficiency to intelligent, decision-centric operations. This includes monitoring payments, reviewing contracts against policy, and updating forecasts dynamically.
As these AI workflows scale, managing AI usage and costs will become a new financial oversight challenge, a problem the partnership also aims to address.
This initiative aims to provide CFOs with a practical pathway to deploy agentic workflows, leveraging AI for more proactive insights and an adaptive operating model.
The partnership will build on OpenAI's internal learnings to help other enterprises modernize their finance functions.
