AI seen more as an opportunity than risk: PwC's Sam Samaratunga

Mumbai: PwC India's risk business has more than doubled in size in the last two years and in another two months the partner count will cross 100, making India, along with the Middle East, the fastest-growing territories of scale globally, said Sam Samaratunga, global head of risk services at PwC.

For PwC and other Big Four firms, globally the risk business - which includes risk consulting, internal audit, cyber, forensics, risk managed services etc - has been one of the fastest-growing areas, along with tech consulting. The UK-based firm rakes in $8 billion through this business.

According to Samaratunga, several major megatrends are driving growth in risk business including shifting geopolitics, economic volatility, climate change and technological disruption.

"From a risk perspective, if we look back five or six years, risk management was primarily about mitigating downsides - preventing accidents from happening. Today, our focus has broadened significantly. It's about helping companies understand risk and take it intelligently. Organisations must take calculated risks to move forward; otherwise, they risk becoming obsolete," said Samaratunga.

He added that companies have experienced significant disruptions in the last five years, including a pandemic, various global conflicts, inflation, economic instability, cyber attacks and the ongoing effects of climate change, all of which have immediate and long-term consequences, prompting them to focus on risk assessment and mitigation.

"Our job is to help organisations manage risk intelligently and confidently while building resilience by design to withstand shocks," said Samaratunga.

He said questions about AI were dominating the conversations lately as the technology has caught the fancy of companies.

"CEOs see AI more as an opportunity than a risk. Of course, there are risks, but they see AI as an enabler of transformation. But there are risks associated with AI, starting with the need for the right data. The data must be of high quality and secure. Ensuring this baseline data is correct is an area of risk. Then there's the matter of security and privacy - data must be protected adequately," Samaratunga said.

The consultant said that to use AI safely, securely and reliably, several risks need to be mitigated. "Some of the newer generative AI models, like Copilot and others, are still not fully proven. We see companies, especially larger ones, experimenting and piloting different concepts in the generative AI world. There's a noticeable divide between regulated and unregulated sectors," he said.