PwC: LEADERS IN ACTION SPEAKER SERIES: SEASON 2, INNOVATING RESPONSIBLY WITH GENERATIVE AI
PwC’s Leaders in Action Speaker Series is an immersive firmwide development experience that inspires purpose-led and values-driven leaders at all levels. The series features thought leaders who share inspirational perspectives and insights, followed by facilitated skill-building activities that have helped shape the culture at PwC. Events are held both in person and virtually, activating broad participation.
Originally, Leaders in Action focused on the human dimensions of leadership and coaching—courage, inclusion, empathy, and trust. In Season 2 (fiscal year 2024), Leaders in Action evolved to also bring to life how employees can innovate responsibly with generative AI to develop a more connected, trust-based community of human-led, tech-powered leaders.
Program Details
To turn insights into actions, Leaders in Action is delivered as a three-part, office watch party experience.
• Connectivity (approximately 30 minutes): Employees mixed, mingled, and engaged in tech demo stations, experiencing the power of AI in action.
• Thought leader viewing (approximately 60 minutes): Employees watched the pre-recorded speaker conversations together as shared experiences.
• Hands-on activities (30 to 50 minutes): These created opportunities to further engage and experiment with the tools, with AI super-users facilitating discussions to bring contextual examples to life.
Season 2 Event 1: Innovating Responsibly with Ryan Reynolds (October 2023)
Actor and entrepreneur Ryan Reynolds joined PwC’s Chief Technology Officer and Chief People Officer to spark interest in genAI and discuss his innovative use of technology, including a behind-the-scenes look at an ad for his wireless company created with ChatGPT.
Season 2 Event 2: Innovating Responsibly with GenAI featuring Mira Murati (January 2024)
Tech leader Mira Murati engaged in a conversation with PwC’s CTO about the impact of AI on humanity. They explored how Responsible AI can enhance efficiency and drive innovation, highlighting its potential to transform industries. Her biggest piece of advice for PwC employees was to use and experiment with the tools—and they did!
Offices ran demo stations where tech leads showcased the capabilities of ChatPwC (an enterprise version of OpenAI’s consumer software application, ChatGPT) and Microsoft Copilot. The post-session event helped demystify genAI and centered on building skills around prompting and crowd-sourced use case identification.
Season 2 Event 3: Let’s Get Prompting with Generative AI (April 2024)
This event featured AI super-users across PwC’s offices. Learners were immersed with ChatPwC as they practiced and refined prompting techniques and followed business rules relevant to their day-to-day applications. Employees also engaged in learning activities such as PwC’s live game show held monthly to test their knowledge of AI.
Results
Across the three events in Season 2, PwC reached an average of 34,000 employees and partners per event. There was a 93 percent increase in using PwC genAI tools, including more than 25,000 weekly users and 10,000-plus daily users of ChatPwC across the PwC network of firms. PwC also climbed eight spots to #22 on Fortune’s “Best 100 Companies to Work For”