KPMG folds AI into new unit

KPMG is creating a Client Technology and Innovation group, effective October first, to build AI-native businesses at start-up speed.

New role reports to CEO

The group will be led by Todd Lohr, a fifteen-year KPMG veteran, who reports directly to CEO Tim Walsh, elevating AI strategy above the usual committee layers.

Lohr pushed for this structure

Lohr told Fortune he had been pushing for years for a singular leader reporting directly to the CEO to drive transformative change at KPMG.

“a singular leader that reports directly to the CEO, which I do, because that is how we're going to drive the transformative change that is required at KPMG”

Steve Chase retires

The move coincides with Steve Chase, vice chair and global head of AI and Digital Innovation, retiring from KPMG on September thirtieth.

Lohr's unusual path

Lohr, forty-nine, is an internal operator who co-founded Confiance, a financial-services consulting start-up, in two thousand eight before joining KPMG.

“not the best year to do a start-up”

Lohr built key partnerships

Lohr helped architect KPMG's alliance with Anthropic and now oversees relationships with Google Cloud, Microsoft, OpenAI and Databricks.

Four pillars of CT&I

The new group owns products delivered to clients, new commercial structures, firm-wide AI strategy, and an internal venture studio incubating edge disruption plays.

Lohr aims for a billion-dollar company

Lohr said he hopes a billion-dollar company emerges from the incubator, using Silicon Valley design principles to commercialize KPMG's internal ideas.

“I think KPMG and professional services in general have some of the greatest, we are a talent factory for most of the world on a lot of business skills. We have a lot of ideas. What we have not done is bring those ideas through commercial lens”

KPMG faces hallucination crisis

In June two thousand twenty-six, GPTZero found that KPMG's flagship report on agentic AI contained forty fabricated citations out of forty-five total.

Big Four all affected

GPTZero founder Edward Tian documented the same pattern across all Big Four firms: EY, Deloitte Australia and PwC all published reports with widespread AI hallucinations.

KPMG launches Hawk tool

KPMG recently launched Hawk, an AI tool that detects hallucinations in its content, mainly used by marketing to vet thought leadership pieces.

Lohr stresses responsibility

Lohr warned that AI is awesome but also an awesome responsibility, saying KPMG's acceptable use policy stretches back a decade to his first AI work.

“AI is awesome, but it's also an awesome responsibility that everyone needs to own”