Professional services giant KPMG has pulled a research report on artificial intelligence after multiple organizations disputed claims about their AI usage, with the firm now investigating whether the document was riddled with AI-generated fabrications. The report, titled "Redefining excellence in the age of agentic AI," was originally published in October 2025 and has been removed from KPMG's websites pending an internal review. The situation is particularly embarrassing because KPMG appears to have used AI to help write a report about AI.
The trouble began when research group GPTZero identified a series of inaccuracies in the report, telling the Financial Times that the errors stemmed from AI hallucinations—confident but false outputs that generative AI systems sometimes produce. Several major organizations confirmed to the FT that the report misrepresented their AI initiatives. UBS, the UK's National Health Service (NHS), Swiss Federal Railways, and Transport for London all stated that claims about their AI usage were either untrue or misleading. A KPMG spokesperson acknowledged the issue, saying, "We expect all our people to follow our guidelines on the responsible use of AI, including human oversight to validate content and verify independent sources."
The KPMG incident follows a similar embarrassment last month when fellow Big Four accounting firm EY withdrew a report on loyalty rewards programs that appeared to contain fake footnotes and AI hallucinations. Together, the two episodes have raised fresh concerns about quality control at major professional services firms that have been aggressively marketing their AI expertise to clients. KPMG's investigation is ongoing, and it's unclear whether the report will be republished in revised form or shelved permanently.