AI and digital solutions are the cornerstone of effective decision-making in any business, according to the KPMG Digital Solutions team, with its lead, Marc Rizzo, underscoring the necessity of adopting innovative approaches to the smooth running of companies, whatever the size.

“Our goal [at KPMG Digital Solutions] is making data easily accessible seamlessly to the business, supporting decision-making through analysis and analytics (ex AI), and organising data,” he explained, describing the 10-strong team of certified data engineers, data analysts and data operations as specialists with a broad range of expertise across all the main industries.

“We are always looking to innovate in a way that brings our clients real value. We are not interested in technology for the sake of technology, but we look to apply smart solutions to our clients’ problems. If they are on the cusp of the technological state-of-the-art, all the better,” he continued. To do so, the multi-disciplinary team – “which is capable of delivering on any of the data needs of our clients” – deal with a gamut of data, made available to them by their clients for analysis and processing purposes.

This includes financial, and geographic points, as well as questionnaires or handwritten forms, which may require digitisation. Concretely, this data allows the team to create and optimise the accuracy of their operational models. “Not Cindy Crawford or Johnny Depp,” Rizzo added, but “logical representations of reality. They try to mimic the real world.

Our job is using and organising data with various techniques to build digital approximations of the world around us.” These models “become valuable in understanding what has happened, what is happening and what will probably happen”, providing possible sources of recourse for the business challenges facing each particular client.

“The Maltese market has started to awaken to the opportunities that AI and machine learning bring and we are still only scratching the surface. Malta has the skill set necessary to deliver advanced analytics solutions.

KPMG also has strong technical skill sets in this area, working on both local and international projects,” the Data & Analytics team said, stressing the necessity for companies to understand the role their data plays in bolstering their growth.

The “Focus needs to be on AI explainability and AI governance. AI is notoriously difficult to explain, with complex algorithms that sometimes borrow statistical concepts, and large datasets that are difficult to manage. The ability to explain what is happening ‘under the hood’ will build trust in approaches from regulators and business owners.”

Building such trust needs to be integral to the very construction of the digital solution, he said.

“The technical ability to work with such technologies is there; where we need to evolve is in the ability to have them explain themselves to their users and in the governance structures to supervise them. This will, in turn, build confidence and foster innovation.”

Rizzo insisted the Maltese business community is beginning to recognise the pivotal role played by data in the success of their companies. Indeed, he points to the growth of the KPMG Digital Solutions team – “the best demonstration of the growth of use of data is the increased volume of work we have experienced, our team growing by five times over the past two years.

“Our clients are recognising the importance of managing their data better. Particularly, they want to be able to track where their data is originating from (known as lineage) and to make it available centrally and securely to the right people in the business, specifically reducing the barrage of excel sheets being moved around their or organisations,” he explained.

Looking ahead, he expects this approach to continue to garner pace, particularly with the focus on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting, internationally. “We are also working on some interesting initiatives specifically targeted at helping businesses improve these aspects using data techniques.

The team’s enthusiasm and passion for this area is going to reap some great results,” he concluded. Based in Malta, KPMG Digital Solutions offers data-driven operations and solutions through which clients can enhance their processes, and their business’ futures.