Programme Overview
- All pilot teams continue to perform well. They are balancing key pilot requirements and BAU delivery.
- The programme continues to evolve and mature. Many lessons are being learnt across all Service Lines, which are extremely valuable. A recommendation to review.
- Risks also continue to evolve and identified. These should also be reviewed.
- The scope of the pilot programme is broad to ensure all requirements and ways of working are tested. Multiple agents and droids are being built, tooling is vast, all roles are being reviewed, hundreds of process flows have been built.
- Governance meetings continue to provide value and stimulate creativity, although attendance continues to vary across Service Lines and SPOCs. AI Programme Manager, Performance Excellence and Assurance continue to be the 'mainstays'.
- EY-Parthenon update is to be provided following key stakeholders return from annual leave.
5
Service Lines
12
Products
37
AI Tools
30+
Agents Defined
5-14
POD Size Range
20-30%
Targeted Savings
Assurance
Risk Radar (Greenfield) • Helix Spotfire Refactoring
- Two products in pilot scope. Multiple models and agents being tested; PDLC Agents, AI Orchestration, Kanban, Assurance Shared Services Model
- Two AI models expected to be produced from Assurance pilot. Assurance predicts three AI models required in total. An additional Canvas model to be built and piloted, following current pilot
- Target Savings: TBC
Consulting
Marketing.AI • EYWP • EY.AI for Risk-IA
- Three products in pilot scope
- One unified process for the CT Consulting Service Line (for all Products)
- Target Savings: 20-30%
Fabric
EY Fabric Next
- Fabric-Portal (brownfield) dropped from Pilot scope due to Fabric business requirements
- One product remains in scope; Fabric-Next (greenfield). Fabric-Next is the evolution of the fabric experience
- All products would adopt the Fabric-Next approach (AI pods + Kanban)
- Risk exists as AI solution built and tested on greenfield product. Fabric expect to add Developer Workflow (brownfield) to pilot scope
- Testing Aha! and Github Copilot in place of ADO
- Target Savings: 20-30%
Tax
EYXP • ITTS • EYMP • Payroll • MDR
- Five products in scope of pilot. MDR added
- Two AI experiences being built: Local user experience (ME), and Remote (WE) experience, for team productivity
- One unified process for the CT Tax Service Line (for all Products). However, teams given additional autonomy of selecting AI workflows (agents)
- Target Savings: 20-30%
EY Parthenon
Competitive Edge
- One product in scope: Competitive Edge
- AI-orchestrated, human-governed delivery system designed to eliminate rework loops
- Definition of Ready (DoR) as a hard control gate - work cannot enter delivery unless it meets DoR
- Single cross-functional product pod with end-to-end ownership
- Key Principle: Fix process before AI - AI amplifies existing dysfunction
- Target Savings: TBC
Status by Service Line
Assurance
Risk Radar (Greenfield) • Helix Spotfire Refactoring
| Progress Area | Risk Radar (Greenfield Replay) Simulated full release • 10.5 FTE → 6.8 FTE • 9 months → 3 months |
Helix Spotfire Refactoring Spotfire to Power BI migration • ~5 team members • 12 months → ~1 hour per migration |
|---|---|---|
| Future-state process |
Approach: Working through PDLC Phases (Ideation, Build, User Acceptance, Release, Maintenance). For each activity: question feature need, validate value, design AI-native activity including tools and roles, then test. Status: Ideation Phase redesign complete and under testing. Build phase redesign in progress. |
Approach: Reengineering-focused, AI-native migration from Spotfire to Power BI, centered on reverse engineering existing reports and producing implementation-ready specifications. Assurance are now the auditors for Tibco (who provide Spotfire), so Spotfire cannot be used. Must reverse engineer the Spotfire analyzers to determine the functional requirements. |
| Agents | Agents defined for each PDLC phase with AI Potential and AI Powered Process details. Both products taking Agentic approach with human-in-the-loop controls at validation, publishing, and prioritization decision points. |
Defined Agent Functions:
|
| Future Roles & POD Redesign |
|
|
| Tooling Plan |
Tools: ASU Studio (user-friendly Factory.ai wrapper), Factory.ai, M365 Copilot, EYQ, GitHub Copilot Integrations: Azure DevOps (backlog), GitHub (code), Playwright (test automation via agents) |
Tools: Spotfire bundle extraction scripts, Agentic orchestration workflows, Knowledge graph for context enrichment, MCP + LLM semantic model generation, ADK and BPA validation framework, Power BI transformation/report generation Integrations: Microsoft Agentic Framework for skill orchestration, CI/CD and automated status reporting pipeline |
| Early Risks |
|
|
| Lessons Learned |
Process redesign: Testing of AI-native process redesign is critical as we uncover new problems. Example - UX Concept: Initial flow had no standard way to share working prototype. Updated: PM builds prototype → imported into Figma → XD Lead reviews/updates → Tech Lead validates → sandbox → business testing. Token cost: Need well-established baseline for monthly token estimate by role. Token cost/coverage agreement with suppliers needs consideration in contracts/SOWs. |
|
Consulting
Marketing.AI • EYWP • EY.AI for Risk-IA
Unified Process: One process for all CT Consulting products. 3 products in pilot scope with 3 POD complexity tiers (Simple 5 / Medium 8 / Complex 14).
| Progress Area | Status & Details (All Products) |
|---|---|
| Future-state process | One unified process for the CT Consulting Service Line (for all Products). AI tools (Factory.ai) are a core consideration. Close monitoring of token consumption required. Build vs buy tooling decisions complete. |
| Agents (8 Droids) |
8 Droids Defined:
|
| Future Roles & POD Redesign |
8 Future Roles Defined:
Business Domain Expert
Business processes, client pain points, translate goals to requirements
Prompt Engineer - COE
Prompt engineering for AI tools, iterative refinement, NLP concepts
AI Engineer
AI-powered dev environments (Replit, Cursor), CI/CD, agentic frameworks
UX/UI Designer - Curator COE
UX templates, design systems, user journeys, accessibility standards
Solution Architect - Curator COE
Scalable architecture, cloud platforms, security/compliance, microservices
QA Automation Specialist
Automated testing pipelines, Selenium/Cypress, security scanning, CI/CD integration
Project Lead
Agile/sprint planning, stakeholder communication, risk management
Knowledge Engineer
ML/AI data architecture, deep learning, domain expertise, process knowledge Simple POD
5
1-3 months (scope timelines)
20-30 story pts/sprint Straightforward, limited scope Medium POD
8
3-6 months (scope timelines)
40-60 story pts/sprint Multiple components Complex POD
14
6-12+ months (scope timelines)
70+ story pts/sprint Large-scale, high complexity Greenfield vs Brownfield differentiation established. POD restructuring for FY27 H1 underway.
|
| Tooling Plan | 10 Tools: Figma, Motif, Experience Studio (in-house), Replit, AHA, ADO + Skadoosh MCP, GitHub, Factory.ai (Droid), Cursor, GitHub Copilot CLI |
| Early Risks |
⚠️ Critical Governance Notice:
Effective governance of AI tool usage is now a delivery-critical control. Risk from insufficient guardrails and limited visibility into token consumption can lead to unplanned cost escalation. Direct threat to delivery continuity.
|
| Lessons Learned |
1. Use the right tool:
3. Optimize your prompts:
|
Fabric
EY Fabric Next
AI-First Transformation: One product in pilot scope (Fabric-Next greenfield). Fabric-Portal (brownfield) dropped due to business requirements. All products would adopt the Fabric-Next approach (AI pods + Kanban). Target Savings: 20-30%
| Progress Area | Status & Details |
|---|---|
| Future-state process |
The EY Fabric future-state delivery process has been formally redesigned as part of the AI-First Fabric Transformation. The redesigned PDLC replaces sequential hand-offs with AI-assisted, parallel execution across ideation, build, test, and release. Operating Model - AI-First by Default:
|
| Agents |
EY Fabric has defined a clear AI-agent model supporting the future-state process:
Human-in-the-loop checkpoints are explicitly retained for approvals, quality gates, and compliance. |
| Future Roles & POD Redesign |
Target Team Composition (AI-First POD)
Typical POD Structure
Size:
5-6 (hard cap)
Quality, DevOps, architecture embedded - not standalone
Ways of Working (Kanban)
How Roles Change
Product/Outcome Lead
Backlog → Outcome accountability
Engineers
Build/test/deploy/operate; AI by default
QA/Test
No longer standalone; embedded automation-first
DevOps/Platform
Golden paths, automation, self-service |
| Tooling Plan |
7 Approved AI Tools for Fabric:
Factory.ai
AI-powered dev accelerator for code gen, refactoring, documentation, tests
DROID CLI
Developer automation agent for setup and workflow execution
GitHub & GitHub Actions
Version control with CI/CD automation, builds, tests, security scans
SL Assist
AI-driven SDLC orchestration for requirements, UI, code, testing, docs
Figma
Collaborative UI/UX design and prototyping
Aha!
Roadmapping, ideas intake, prioritization, release planning
Motif
Micro-frontend UI framework with design system components
GitHub Copilot
AI code assistance for inline suggestions Note: Testing Aha! and Github Copilot in place of ADO
|
| Early Risks |
|
| Lessons Learned |
|
Tax
EYXP • ITTS • EYMP • Payroll • MDR
Unified Process: One process for all CT Tax products. 5 products in pilot scope with POD sizing by program complexity (Small/Medium/Large) and project type (Greenfield/Brownfield). Two AI experiences: Local (ME) and Remote (WE) for team productivity.
| Progress Area | Status & Details (All Products) |
|---|---|
| Future-state process |
"Way We Work" (WWW) transformation program establishing versioned, continuously evolving workflows. Focus on optimal workflows where autonomous and semi-autonomous agents collaborate seamlessly with human contributors to accelerate, standardize, and improve software delivery. Key Principle: Teams given additional autonomy of selecting AI workflows (agents) while following the unified process. |
| Agents |
Agents are evolving as new concepts such as plugins and missions become mainstay. Agents will become primitives within these constructs, leveraging skills, tools and slash commands to be used within Workflows/Missions and packaged as plugins. 22 Agents Defined: Droid Orchestrator
Droid Analyst
Droid Designer
Droid Architect
Droid Developer
Droid QA
Droid DevOps
Droid SRE
Droid Security
Droid Data
Droid Docs
Droid Reviewer
Droid Refactor
Droid Test
Droid Debug
Droid Migrate
Droid Explain
Droid Learn
Droid Plan
Droid Research
Droid Support
Droid Automate
|
| Future Roles & POD Redesign |
POD Sizing by Program Type:
POD sizes differentiated by program complexity and project type (Greenfield vs Brownfield).
Small Program
Greenfield: 5 resources
Brownfield: 7 resources Focused, single-feature delivery Medium Program
Greenfield: 7 resources
Brownfield: 9 resources Standard delivery configuration Large Program
Brownfield Only: 12 resources
Large greenfield not anticipated for FY27 |
| Tooling Plan |
7 Tools:
Factory.AI
AI-powered development and workflow orchestration
GitHub & GitHub Copilot
Version control with AI code assistance
Azure DevOps
Backlog management and CI/CD pipelines
M365 Copilot
Productivity and documentation assistance
Figma & Figma Make/Replit
Design and rapid prototyping
Aha!
Roadmapping and product planning
Azure Copilot
Cloud infrastructure assistance |
| Early Risks |
|
| Lessons Learned |
7 Key Lessons from Way We Work Initiative:
|
EY Parthenon
Competitive Edge
AI-Orchestrated Delivery: Future-state PDLC is an AI-orchestrated, human-governed delivery system. Definition of Ready (DoR) as hard control gate. Single cross-functional pod owns delivery end-to-end.
| Progress Area | Status & Details |
|---|---|
| Future-state process |
Core Design Principles:
1. Intake & Problem Structuring
2. Backlog Generation
3. DoR Enforcement (Critical)
4. Planning & Sequencing
5. Build & Test
6. Pre-Release Validation
7. Release & Deployment
8. Stakeholder Communication
|
| Agents |
Key Principle: Agents are aligned to control points and flow orchestration (not standalone tools). They form an orchestrated control system across PDLC.
Core Agents (Phase 2 Focus): Upstream (Highest Priority)
Backlog & Flow
Build & Test
Cross-cutting
|
| Future Roles & POD Redesign |
Operating Model Shift: From role-based delivery → responsibility-based pods with AI execution
Key Shift: Humans define and validate; AI generates and executes Single Integrated Pod (Per Product)
End-to-end ownership from intake → UAT
What Changes
|
| Tooling Plan |
Key Principle: Small number of core tools + orchestrated agents
6 Core Tools:
Factory.ai
Agent creation & orchestration
ADO-integrated Agents
Backlog + governance
GitHub Copilot
Developer assist
M365 Copilot / ChatGPT / Claude
Reasoning + generation
Figma
UX artefacts
GitHub
Code repository |
| Early Risks |
Key Risk Statement:
Without strict control gates and governance, AI introduces cost and risk faster than it creates value.
|
| Lessons Learned |
6 Key Lessons:
|
Lessons Learned by Service Line
Assurance
- Testing is Critical: Testing of AI-native process redesign is critical - uncovers new problems requiring iterative refinement
- High-Autonomy Gains: High-autonomy steps deliver immediate efficiency gains
- Human-in-the-Loop: Moderate-autonomy stages require explicit human-in-the-loop controls for quality
- Token Baseline: Need well-established baseline for monthly token estimate by role
- Contract Considerations: Token cost/coverage agreement with suppliers needs consideration in contracts/SOWs
- Example - UX Concept: Initial flow had no standard way to share prototype. Updated: PM builds prototype → Figma → XD Lead → Tech Lead → sandbox → business testing
Consulting
- Use the Right Tool:
- GitHub Copilot: Best for inline code suggestions
- MS Copilot: Best for general research, summarization
- Factory AI: Reserve for full workflow orchestration only
- Not every task needs Droid - use lighter tools first
- Choose the Right Model: Use /model in Droid to select based on task complexity:
- Simple tasks: 0.2-0.4 tokens
- Medium tasks: up to 0.8 tokens
- Complex tasks: 1-2 tokens
- Optimize Prompts:
- State your goal clearly in the first prompt
- Mention only the relevant function/class, not the whole file
- Use #file mentions instead of pasting code
- Start a new chat for each new task
- Provide schema or 2-3 row sample instead of full data dumps
Fabric
- Early Socialization: Importance of early socialization with delivery teams before introducing AI-enabled model
- Remove Blockers First: Remove non-AI process blockers before introducing AI - existing inefficiencies compound with automation
- Real Execution Testing: Validate AI-native processes through real execution rather than design alone
- Selective AI Usage: Selectively use AI agents to balance efficiency and cost - not every task needs heavy AI
- Measure Outcomes: Success measured by value delivered, not volume of features - focus on cycle time, throughput, delivery health
Tax - 7 Key Lessons from Way We Work
- 1. Tools Alone Don't Change Outcomes - Workflows Do: Adoption stalls when teams are left to "figure it out themselves"
- 2. Agentic Delivery Requires Explicit Role Design: Agents must be treated as first-class delivery participants with defined scopes
- 3. Cost and Token Economics Become Material Very Quickly: Always-on heavy agent contexts create exponential cost growth
- 4. Workflow Coverage is More Effective Than Full SDLC Modeling: Start with high-impact workflows, not comprehensive coverage
- 5. Upskilling is a Prerequisite, Not a By-Product: Capability building must run in parallel with workflow rollout
- 6. Measurement Must Shift From Activity to Outcomes: Static KPIs do not fit rapidly evolving agentic systems
- 7. "Way We Work" Must Be Versioned and Continuously Evolving: Positioned as living initiative that evolves with models, tooling, economics
EY Parthenon - 6 Key Lessons
- 1. Fix Process Before AI: AI amplifies existing dysfunction - broken processes lead to faster rework loops
- 2. Upstream is the Constraint: Poor intake → rework loops → delivery inefficiency
- 3. Definition of Ready is Critical: Must be explicit, measurable, and enforced as a hard gate
- 4. Human-in-the-Loop is Essential: AI prepares artefacts; humans approve at gates
- 5. Tooling Alone is Not the Solution: Operating model + behaviour change required for success
- 6. Training is Urgent: Teams need prompt engineering skills and understanding of AI capabilities
Early Risks by Service Line
⚠ Critical Governance Notice (Consulting)
Effective governance of AI tool usage is now a delivery-critical control. Current signals indicate risk from insufficient guardrails and limited real-time visibility into token consumption, which can lead to unplanned cost escalation and rapid depletion of available investment funding. This creates a direct threat to delivery continuity, including the possibility of pausing usage if budget coverage cannot be confirmed or reducing headcount.
Assurance Risks
- Token cost vs. efficiency gain may be cost prohibitive depending on location/quality expectation
- Semantic accuracy and overfitting risk in automated processes
- Alignment across teams on process, tools, source of truth, and handoffs
- Lack of clarity to individuals due to activity overlap/segregation of duties leading to duplicative work
Consulting Risks
- Inadequate role-based (including seniority) usage controls driving higher tool costs
- Lack of real-time monitoring of token consumption (product/eng code/user/consumed tokens)
- Management of token limits at product level including notifications
- Defining the right strategy in each phase of PDLC on how to use the tools
- Delivery continuity at risk if budget coverage cannot be confirmed
- Urgent need for competency-based training and learning plans
Fabric Risks
- Adoption challenges if teams are not sufficiently socialized on the AI-enabled model
- Dependency on Fabric Portal onboarding for full metrics visibility
- Risk of over-using heavy AI agents where lighter tools would be more effective
Tax Risks
- Unpredictable tool/token costs - cost governance must be built into workflows from day one
- Lack of continuous upskilling of resources - capability building is prerequisite
- Continuously addressing cross-cutting concerns: Cost, Security, Performance, Reliability, Quality
- Guardrails (what agents can access, execute, transmit) are mandatory
- Skills-based agent composition required to reduce token cost and improve quality
EY Parthenon Risks
- AI amplifying broken process: If DoR not enforced, AI creates faster rework loops
- Token cost / lack of control: No real-time monitoring leads to cost escalation risk
- Skills gap: Teams lack prompt engineering capability and understanding of AI usage
- Governance & guardrails: Risk of inconsistent outputs and lack of explainability
- Adoption risk: Low engagement from teams and resistance to new ways of working
AI Tools by Service Line
Assurance (5 Tools + 3 Integrations)
Tools:
ASU Studio (Factory.ai wrapper)
Factory.ai
M365 Copilot
EYQ
GitHub Copilot
Integrations:
Azure DevOps (backlog)
GitHub (code)
Playwright (test automation)
Consulting (10 Tools)
Figma
Motif
Experience Studio (in-house)
Replit
AHA
ADO + Skadoosh MCP
GitHub
Factory.ai (Droid)
Cursor
GitHub Copilot CLI
Fabric (7 Tools)
Factory.ai
DROID CLI
GitHub
GitHub Actions
SL Assist
Figma
GitHub Copilot
Tax (9 Tools)
Aha!
M365 Copilot
Figma
Figma Make/Replit
Azure DevOps
GitHub
GitHub Copilot
Factory.AI
Azure Copilot
EY Parthenon (6 Tools)
Factory.ai
ADO-integrated Agents
GitHub Copilot
M365 Copilot / ChatGPT / Claude
Figma
GitHub
Integrations: Aha!/Intake → ADO, ADO → Factory.ai, Figma ↔ ADO
Agents & Droids Defined
Assurance Agents
- Agents defined for each PDLC phase
- AI Potential mapping per activity
- AI Powered Process details
- Agentic approach with human-in-the-loop controls
- Playwright integration for test automation
Consulting Droids (8)
- Feature/User Story Creator
- Code Generator
- Code Reviewer
- Test Case Generator
- Test Script Generator
- OSS/Aquasec Finding Fixer
- UX Reviewer
- Product Document Generator
Future Roles (8)
- Business Domain Expert
- Prompt Engineer - COE
- AI Engineer
- UX/UI Designer - Curator COE
- Solution Architect - Curator COE
- QA Automation Specialist
- Project Lead
- Knowledge Engineer
Fabric Agents
- Feature and Story Generation
- Solution Design Assistance
- Code Review
- Test Case Generation
- QA Automation
- Human-in-the-loop checkpoints for approvals, quality gates, compliance
Tax Agents (22)
- Triage & Router Agent
- Product Strategy Agent
- Planner Agent
- Architect Agent
- Developer Agent
- Code Review Agent
- Test Engineer Agent
- CI/CD Agent
- Infrastructure Agent
- Release Manager Agent
- Security Agent
- Observability Agent
- Incident Commander Agent
- Data Engineer Agent
- Documentation Agent
- Analytics Agent
- Compliance Agent
- Communication Agent
- Dependency Tracker Agent
- People & Culture Agent
- Knowledge Manager Agent
- Experiment Agent
EY Parthenon Agents (6 Core)
- Upstream (Highest Priority):
- Requirement Intake Agent
- PRD/Story Generator Agent
- DoR Validation Agent (CRITICAL)
- Backlog & Flow:
- ADO Health Agent
- Planning & Sequencing Agent
- Build & Test:
- Code Generation Agent
- QA Automation Agent
- Cross-cutting:
- Stakeholder Communication Agent
Future agents: PRD optimisation, NFR validation, Risk prediction, Metrics/insights