pwc (PricewaterhouseCoopers), one of the world's four largest accounting firms, released the top 6 AI companies in 2025 Forecast report.

PwC said that the emergence of generative AI has made it easier to develop AI applications. A large general model requires only a small amount of customization to create products suitable for different fields such as finance, finance, development, and customer service.

Among them, PricewaterhouseCoopers specifically mentioned that the large-scale application of AI Agents is crucial for enterprises, which can more than double the existing workforce and will subvert the traditional work model to achieve "human intelligence". machine collaboration”.

1. AI strategy: a key choice that determines the future direction of an enterprise

AI strategy is crucial to the success of an enterprise, and its value is not only reflected in improving productivity and efficiency; Help companies design new services, develop market strategies, and catch and correct their own mistakes. Now that AI has the ability to independently reason and understand the impact of decisions, companies should integrate it into their operational architecture.

An effective AI strategy should adopt a combined approach, including achieving small-scale gains through systematic "foundational strategies", carefully selecting and focusing on achievable "breakthrough strategies" projects, and boldly pursuing high returns But extremely challenging “change strategy” projects, such as innovative AI-driven business models. When selecting large models, companies should focus more on how to leverage their own institutional knowledge and proprietary data to leverage the unique advantages of AI, rather than just focusing on the model itself.

2. AI workforce: AI Agents can help enterprises double their workforce

In the process of rapid development of AI, the transformation of AI workforce is becoming a key driver for the transformation of enterprise operating models. force. The emergence of AI Agents will not lead to the reduction of the corporate workforce as some people have feared. On the contrary, it will introduce many new members to the corporate team, thereby bringing about a significant expansion of the workforce and a deep transformation of work methods.

As digital employees, AI Agents have strong autonomous task execution capabilities. They can efficiently handle daily customer inquiries and improve customer service experience with fast and accurate responses; in the field of software development, they can automatically generate a "first draft" of software code, providing developers with a powerful starting point and accelerating the development process; they can also integrate human The provided design concepts are transformed into specific prototypes to help the rapid implementation of innovative ideas.

These capabilities allow AI Agents to take on many repetitive and regular tasks, freeing up the time and energy of human employees so that they can focus on more creative, strategic and complex tasks.

Anthony Abbatiello, head of workforce transformation at PwC, believes AIAgents will be revolutionary in transforming the workforceThe role of sex, combining human creativity with the efficiency of machines to unleash unprecedented levels of productivity and innovation.

This change will fundamentally reshape enterprise workflows. Take customer service as an example. In the past, manual customer service required a lot of time to answer common questions, but AI Agents can respond to customer inquiries immediately and provide preliminary solutions.

When encountering complex problems, human customer service can use their own experience and professional knowledge to conduct in-depth processing based on the information provided by AI Agents, thereby achieving human-machine collaboration and improving service efficiency and quality. In terms of product design, human designers can work closely with AI Agents. The designers propose creative concepts, and the AI ​​Agents use their data processing and analysis capabilities to quickly generate multiple design solutions and conduct preliminary screening and optimization. Designers then evaluate and improve the solutions provided by AI Agents based on their own aesthetics and professional judgment, and achieve efficient output of innovative designs through multiple iterations.

With the widespread application of AI Agents in enterprises, the labor structure of enterprises will undergo profound changes. The number of knowledge workers and personnel in positions such as sales and field support may double with the addition of AI Agents. This means that enterprises will usher in new development opportunities in terms of market response speed, customer interaction quality, product design innovation, etc. Enterprises can bring products to the market faster, better meet the diverse needs of customers, and enhance the competitiveness of products.

However, this change also brings new challenges to enterprises. For many businesses, incorporating AI Agents into their workforce strategy is a huge mindset shift. Enterprises need to establish new management roles and responsibilities specifically responsible for integrating digital employees into existing workforce systems and effectively monitoring and managing them.

This requires business leaders to actively guide employees to adapt to new ways of working and change employees’ perceptions of AI so that they understand that AI is a tool that enhances human value, rather than a threat that replaces humans.

In this process, the role of the human resources department also needs to be redefined. HR must not only manage traditional human employees, but also learn to manage AI Agents. This includes mastering different skills and developing new ways to recruit, develop and assess talent.

For example, when AI takes over most of the basic work, companies need to cooperate with universities and other institutions to provide new employees with direct training paths into senior positions to ensure that the talent pool can adapt to the new labor structure. At the same time, enterprises also need to establish a complete management mechanism to balance the deployment cost and return on investment of AI Agents, formulate indicators to measure the performance of human-machine teams, and conduct strict supervision to prevent unexpected, harmful or non-compliant behaviors of AI Agents.

As enterprises continue to improve their management and application capabilities of AI Agents,, there may be a trend of "Agents Center" replacing "Excellence Center". Enterprises may establish work teams based on AI Agents in low-cost areas to take advantage of local resources to reduce costs. The intellectual property rights generated during the development of AI Agents and their geographical distribution may bring tax benefits and other benefits to enterprises.

Although establishing an “Agents Center” may require a higher initial investment, in the long run, it is expected to generate a higher return on investment within a few years. The rise of AI Agents has brought unprecedented opportunities and challenges to enterprises. Only by actively responding to them can enterprises take an advantageous position in the new workforce transformation.

3. AI ROI: Depends on responsible AI practices

As AI plays an increasingly central role in corporate operations, companies must adopt a systematic and transparent approach. Ensure the ongoing value of your AI investments and manage risks. Company leaders should proactively promote AI governance, conduct comprehensive risk assessments, identify standardized risk taxonomies, and introduce independent oversight mechanisms such as internal audit teams or third-party expert assessments.

While U.S. federal regulations are expected to remain flexible, companies will still need to pay attention to differences in state regulations, especially with regard to privacy, to ensure compliant operations, achieve strategic goals, and secure robust investment in different industry contexts rate of return.

IV. AI and Sustainable Development: Challenges and Opportunities Coexist

AI has great potential in accelerating energy transformation and helping enterprises achieve sustainable development goals, but currently its energy needs are Supply has not yet reached equilibrium. Businesses should deploy AI strategically and optimize how it is used, such as designing AI interfaces that encourage efficient use.

AI can help companies automate the collection and analysis of sustainability data, streamline compliance processes, optimize supply chain sustainability, and quantify the value of low-carbon products. In the long term, improvements in computing power and renewable energy supplies will reduce costs, allowing AI to play a greater role in sustainable development.

5. The impact of AI on product development: shortening the cycle and improving competitiveness

In the field of product development, AI, especially multi-modal AI, is triggering a revolution. It can accelerate design iteration, virtual testing and troubleshooting, and is expected to shorten the product development cycle in half, reduce costs and increase product personalization.

However, many companies face the challenge of skills gaps and need to immediately start improving the data science skills of engineering teams and recruiting relevant talents. Enterprises should also update their technical architecture to support "edge AI", promote IT transformation, and reorganize their technical teams to adapt to the needs of the AI ​​era.

6. AI’s reshaping of the competitive landscape of the industry: Each industry faces different speeds of change

AI will comprehensively change various industries, but the speed and focus of change in different industries vary. existIn the consumer market, companies will widely use AI to improve marketing, supply chain management, financial operations and customer service, and enhance competitiveness through means such as intelligent customer service and dynamic pricing. However, some companies still need to make up for the lack of skills and technical infrastructure. In the field of financial services, AI-native start-ups and large financial institutions will continue to lead innovation, and other companies may face the risk of falling behind if they do not accelerate their strategic layout.

The medical industry will accelerate AI applications under a more flexible regulatory environment, pharmaceutical and medical technology companies will make breakthroughs in drug development, and medical service providers will also use AI to optimize operations and improve clinical outcomes.

In the field of industrial products, some industry leaders will use high-quality data and standard processes to use AI to improve efficiency, accelerate research and development, and shorten time to market, while other companies need to accelerate technology upgrades and skills improvement. In the technology, media and telecommunications industry, AI agents will change software platform requirements and business models, and telecommunications companies will enhance their capabilities through hybrid AI solutions.

About PwC

PwC’s history can be traced back to the 19th century. It was formed by Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand. Formed from the merger of long-established accounting firms.

PwC’s history can be traced back to 1849, and it has accumulated profound experience in accounting and auditing and other fields; Cooperation also has a glorious past and also has a high reputation in the industry. In 1998, The two firms merged.

PwC has offices in 155 countries and regions around the world, with more than 295,000 employees. It mainly provides three major businesses: auditing, taxation, and consulting. Many of the world's top 500 companies are their clients. .