(Reuters) -KPMG said on Tuesday it will spend $2 billion on artificial intelligence and cloud services through an expanded partnership with Microsoft, closely following Accenture in betting on the latest technologies to weather a slowdown in advisory deals.
The accounting firm said it will incorporate AI into its core audit, tax and advisory services for clients as part of the five-year partnership.
Professional services firms face a slowdown in business as their customers downsize or hold off on consulting and transformation projects to save costs in a challenging macro economic environment.
The expanded partnership will help support KPMG's clients and 2,500 customers serviced jointly by KPMG and Microsoft.
(Reporting by Lavanya Ahire, Chandni Shah and Yuvraj Malik in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)