Annual report 2018: Jon Andrews, Head of Technology and Investments, video transcript

To survive in our fast-paced digital world, organisations of all shapes and sizes are having to transform and become technology enabled. PwC is no exception.

In the face of this disruption, we’re responding by building on our traditional strengths. We’re continuing to help our clients solve their most important problems by combining our business understanding with human insight and technology innovation.

And what we mean by business understanding is our technical expertise, our understanding of how the functions of businesses work and our deep industry knowledge.  And when we talk about human insight, that comes from our people’s ingenuity, their creativity and their personal relationships.

But what is critical now is underpinning this with significant investments we’re making in technology, to drive greater efficiency and effectiveness and deliver more value to our clients. We call this combination Intelligent Digital.

There have been many examples where this approach is really coming to life in our work this year, such as augmenting our audit work through the use of drones for the first time, which has driven higher quality and more efficiency.  Or, where we’re using machine learning to identify predictive indicators of gambling behaviour, meaning our clients can help to intervene with those individuals who are most vulnerable in our society.

At the heart of Intelligent Digital is the human difference, which is why we’re taking an active role in developing the tech skills of all our people. We’ve established tech degree apprenticeships in partnership with five UK universities to develop new tech talent, the first cohort just joined us in September 2018.

We recognise the importance of increasing diversity within the UK’s tech workforce too  - so we’ve set up Tech She Can, a group of more than 50 UK organisations working together to take action to increase the number of women in tech roles. By inspiring and educating young people on the exciting range of technology careers, we aim to tackle the root cause of the problem.  

We mustn’t underestimate the impact that technology can have on today’s businesses. Disruption is not only a threat, but it is also an opportunity and we believe that combining our business understanding, our people’s insight and the latest technologies we will be able to help solve some of society’s most important problems, both now and in the future.