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Recent Editions
Risk Channel
North America
Professional-services firms including PwC, McKinsey, EY, Deloitte, and KPMG are cutting executive assistant and other support roles as they look to reduce costs, improve profitability, and invest more heavily in artificial intelligence. The layoffs come amid slowing growth in consulting and professional services following the post-pandemic boom, with firms increasingly relocating support jobs from expensive hubs such as New York and London to lower-cost locations including Florida, Poland, India, Argentina, and the Caribbean. Executive assistants, who can earn more than $100,000 annually at top firms, are seen as particularly vulnerable to AI because many administrative tasks - including scheduling, travel booking, expense management, and document preparation - can increasingly be automated. PwC’s US business reportedly cut about 600 support staff earlier this year, while other firms including Grant Thornton, Baker McKenzie, and Standard Chartered have also announced reductions or restructuring plans affecting support functions. Industry experts say firms are prioritizing higher-paid revenue-generating employees in areas such as AI, cybersecurity, and private equity, while support staff are often the first targets during cost-cutting efforts. Some observers also believe companies are overstating AI’s immediate impact to justify layoffs that were already planned.
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Risk Channel
UK/Europe
Verizon has said software flaws rather than stolen passwords have become the dominant entry point for hackers. In a review of more than 31,000 incidents in its annual Data Breach Investigations Report, Verizon found 31% started with vulnerability exploitation. The report said attackers are using AI to spot and exploit known vulnerabilities at machine speed, with the technology accelerating attacks from months to hours. Hackers are “demonstrably using GenAI to help at different stages of attack including targeting, initial access, and development of malware and other tools . . . AI’s primary impact is currently operational: automating and scaling techniques defenders already know how to detect, not yet unlocking these novel or rare attack surfaces.” Meanwhile, employees are not waiting for IT approval before adopting AI tools. Unapproved AI usage at work tripled from 15% to 45% of the workforce, making “shadow AI” the third most common source of non-malicious data leakage.
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