MCA Awards 2026

AI Jobs Barometer
Best Use of Thought Leadership

AI skills insights shift debate from job fears to productivity and social value

AI’s impact on jobs, productivity and society is one of the defining questions of our time, yet public debate has been dominated by speculation rather than evidence. Business leaders, policymakers and workers have lacked reliable insight into how AI is reshaping labour markets, skills and economic performance. PwC created the AI Jobs Barometer to fill this gap – the first global, data‑driven assessment of AI’s real‑world impact, built on nearly a billion job ads and linked to company‑level financial data. The Barometer provides unprecedented evidence of how AI is changing work, productivity and social value, and has become a flagship contribution to global debate.

The Barometer was designed to move the conversation from fear to facts. PwC’s Strategy& UK Economics team, working with experts in workforce, AI and markets, built a repeatable analytic framework capable of tracking AI exposure, skills change and outcomes across countries, sectors and occupations. By analysing demand for more than 33,000 skills – including 376 AI‑specific skills – and linking labour-market signals to the financial performance of 46,000 companies, the Barometer reveals how AI is reshaping productivity, wages and job growth. It also examines AI’s gender implications and the balance between automation and augmentation, offering a nuanced picture of how AI affects different groups of workers.

The findings challenged prevailing narratives. Productivity growth has nearly quadrupled in industries most exposed to AI since the rise of generative AI. Job availability has grown by 38% in roles most exposed to AI, contradicting predictions of widespread displacement. Workers with AI skills command a 56% wage premium, demonstrating that AI can make people more valuable, not less. And women, who hold a larger share of AI‑exposed roles in every country analysed, face both heightened risks and significant opportunities. These insights reframed the debate, showing that AI’s impact is disruptive but ultimately constructive when supported by the right skills and policies.

To communicate the findings, PwC created a vibrant global campaign. A hero film produced by an Emmy‑award‑winning team, a digital experience, a plain‑English report and country‑specific presentations ensured the insights were accessible to business leaders, policymakers and the public. Senior PwC leaders presented the Barometer at major global forums including Davos, TED, APEC and VivaTech, while a coordinated media and social campaign amplified its reach. Within the firm, activation workshops and toolkits helped teams use the insights to spark client conversations.

The impact has been exceptional. In its first month, the Barometer gave PwC a #1 share of voice on AI for the first time. It is now PwC’s most successful global thought leadership campaign after its long-standing CEO Survey. The work has sparked extensive client engagement, and helped PwC become the World Economic Forum’s official Knowledge Partner on AI. It has influenced policymakers, think tanks and public debate, and continues to serve as a trusted reference point for organisations navigating AI’s implications.

The AI Jobs Barometer has established PwC as a leading global voice on AI, demonstrating how rigorous, real‑time evidence can shift debate, shape policy and support clients as they prepare their workforces for the future.

UK E-readiness study
Best Use of Thought Leadership

Consumers drive objective insights, to triumph over noise around EV adoption

Electric vehicle (EV) markets entered a period of uncertainty in 2025, with conflicting narratives around affordability, infrastructure and long-term demand. Short-term fluctuations were often misread as structural decline, leaving industry leaders making high-stakes decisions without reliable evidence. PwC identified a crucial gap: although EV businesses understood existing customers, they had little insight into prospective and first-time buyers whose choices would determine mass adoption. To bring clarity to a noisy debate, PwC created eReadiness 2025 - a global, consumer-driven evidence base designed to reveal adoption barriers and shift the conversation from technology rollout to consumer readiness.

The initiative provided an independent, objective source of truth when the market most needed it. PwC recognised that only a rigorous, globally comparable dataset could help leaders distinguish structural issues from temporary noise. The research focused on decision-stage behaviours rather than abstract attitudes, capturing factors shaping affordability, confidence, trust and real-world usability. Drawing on client engagements and industry conversations, PwC identified four dimensions of EV readiness: Government Incentives, Demand, Infrastructure and Supply, and built a structured index to compare markets over time.

To deliver this, PwC mobilised a multidisciplinary team spanning customer insight, automotive and energy expertise, policy, data science and market strategy. The result was a global survey of around 18,000 consumers across 28 countries, supported by a KPI framework enabling year-on-year and cross-market comparisons. A dedicated UK workstream provided deeper analysis of domestic affordability, charging readiness and policy confidence, ensuring the findings were globally authoritative yet locally relevant.

PwC communicated eReadiness as a global-to-local activation campaign, not a one-off report. The 2025 findings were presented at IAA Mobility Munich’s Smart Mobility Stage and live-streamed to more than 500,000 people, reaching OEMs, infrastructure providers, media, hyperscalers and mobility innovators. The report was supported by interactive online outputs, national indices and country-level analysis of charging behaviours, buyer preferences and second-hand EV appetite. Markets localised the insights through websites, social channels, media briefings, client sessions and industry forums. In the UK, it anchored the Automotive Summit and National Wealth Fund/PwC discussions; in Germany, OEM engagement; and in Italy, a Milan ecosystem launch with around 100 government, industry and infrastructure stakeholders. The campaign turned a global benchmark into decision-ready insight for boardrooms, policymakers and investors.

The impact has been significant. eReadiness 2025 has positioned PwC as a leading voice in the global EV debate, providing a trusted benchmark in a market crowded with opinion. It has anchored major industry forums, supported senior-level discussions and generated substantial commercial interest. In the UK alone, the study has informed work with OEMs, dealer networks, logistics providers and new market entrants. Across Europe, it has shaped strategic conversations with major automotive brands and contributed to coordinated dialogue between government, industry associations and infrastructure stakeholders.

As a platform, eReadiness continues to evolve, offering an evidence-based foundation for decisions shaping the future of mobility. By prioritising independence, rigour and consumer insight, PwC has created a thought leadership asset that cuts through noise, reframes debate and supports better decisions across the EV ecosystem.

Dwr Cymru Welsh Water - Trawsnewid
Change and Transformation in Private Sector

Strengthening Welsh Water’s foundations: Delivering financial discipline, smarter investment and better outcomes for customers and the environment.

Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water entered a period of unprecedented scrutiny as the UK water sector faced intense public, political and regulatory pressure. Ofwat’s latest five‑year regulatory cycle (known as AMP8, covering 2025–2030) required companies to deliver a major step‑up in environmental and service performance, backed by tougher penalties and closer oversight of spending, governance and delivery. At the same time, credit‑rating downgrades across the sector increased the cost of capital, and heightened expectations around financial discipline and long‑term resilience.

Recognising the scale of change required to address these challenges, DCWW partnered with PwC to design and deliver a transformation programme – Trawsnewid – focused on stabilising the business, improving affordability, and creating a more integrated, outcome-led operating model. The ambition was not simply to cut costs, but to build a more efficient, transparent and resilient organisation capable of meeting regulatory expectations and delivering better outcomes for its customers.

PwC worked alongside DCWW leaders to strengthen core financial controls, align budgets with regulatory commitments and improve transparency across the programme. A new control framework brought together cost, schedule, risk and change information into a single source of truth, enabling clearer oversight and faster, more confident decisions. Early work focused on stabilising spend, identifying non‑value activity and improving operational efficiency, supported by a Spend Control Tower and a structured Activity Value Analysis. This created immediate savings, and helped redirect effort to essential frontline work.

As the programme progressed, PwC and DCWW jointly designed a new Target Operating Model, to shift the organisation away from siloed, engineering-led structures towards end-to-end value chains aligned with customer, water and environmental outcomes. The redesign clarified accountabilities, streamlined governance, and proposed a right-sized organisation with clearer decision rights and a stronger focus on performance. This included embedding regulatory accountability within business units and simplifying management layers to free up capacity for frontline operations.

A hallmark of the programme was the strength of the partnership; PwC and DCWW leaders adopted a ‘two-in-a-box’ model across each business group and enabling workstream, ensuring shared ownership of decisions and enhanced capability for the long term. A robust governance structure also ensured coherence, auditability and disciplined delivery. This collaborative approach enabled sensitive decisions to be made constructively, supported by data driven challenge and a shared commitment to improving customer outcomes.

The impact has been significant. DCWW has strengthened financial control, aligned its budgets with regulatory plans and identified multi-million-pound savings. Operational improvements include reductions in reactive maintenance and improved asset reliability. Governance is more disciplined, decision-making is faster, and management information is more integrated and transparent. The first wave of the new operating model has been approved, and the organisation is now better positioned to deliver AMP8 and prepare for the next regulatory cycle.

Beyond the immediate benefits, the programme has created a lasting legacy. DCWW now has an operating model aligned to creating value for its customers, clearer accountabilities, stronger financial discipline, improved insight into asset performance and a credible pathway to long-term resilience. The transformation has strengthened confidence among customers, regulators and investors, while demonstrating the value of consulting in helping essential service providers navigate complex regulatory, financial and operational challenges.

City of London Police Report Fraud (Project Purple & Project Indigo)
Change and Transformation in Public Sector

Empowering police to fight modern crime with a modern organisation

Almost half of all UK crime is now cybercrime or fraud, costing the UK economy £26bn and causing untold emotional harm to victims. The rate of this growth was proving incredibly challenging to the previous Action Fraud system, along with the National Fraud and Intelligence Bureau. As a result, victims experienced a poorer-quality service, and the information collected was inadequate for identifying enough viable lines of enquiry.

A newly appointed City of London Police (CoLP) leadership team recognised the scale of the problems caused by outdated, fragmented systems and manual processes that didn’t deliver the high-quality data needed to investigate and prosecute crimes. Stepping up to the challenge, they created an ambitious transformation programme to deliver the service the public needed and deserved.

PwC was engaged to help redesign the end-to-end service, with victim experience at its core. The ambition was to create a modern, accessible reporting journey, improve the quality of information available to police, to build an organisation capable of responding to evolving crime. The programme also needed to deliver value for public money, comply with policing and regulatory requirements, and strengthen the ability to prevent and disrupt criminal activity.

PwC’s asset-led design maximised out-of-the-box technology reducing complexity and accelerating delivery. The transformation covered both the public-facing Victim Services function and the ‘back office’ Crime and Intelligence Service that supports investigators. This holistic view ensured consistent, victim-centred designs across the whole system.

A strong working relationship underpinned the entire programme with PwC and CoLP agreeing a partnership charter at the outset. PwC supported adoption through extensive training, a champions network and on-the-ground coaching after ‘go live’. Security and compliance were prioritised throughout, with robust controls introduced to protect sensitive data, ensuring the service met policing standards.

The new ‘Report Fraud’ service went live in December 2025 – less than a year after work began on the victim services solution. Early results were significant: abandoned calls fell from 34% to 5%, calls were answered five times faster, and the time to process victim reports reduced by 32 days. The enhanced question set and intuitive CRM system improved data quality, enabling faster and more accurate triage. In the Crime and Intelligence Service, instant prioritisation replaced week-long delays, and automated disruption processes increased the volume of harmful entities taken down.

Beyond operational improvements, the programme delivered broader public value. Victims experience a faster, clearer and more supportive reporting journey. Staff are freed from manual processing and able to focus on complex cases and vulnerable individuals. Enhanced management information provides better insight across the service, while improved stakeholder engagement enables businesses and law enforcement partners to act more effectively.

In addition, the service is designed for continuous improvement, enhancing benefits and results through optimisation and the introduction of new technologies, including AI.

The transformation has strengthened public confidence, modernised a nationally significant policing service, and created a scalable, future-ready platform capable of adapting as crime evolves.

NHS England Frontline Digitisation Support Offer
Change and Transformation in Public Sector

First of Type’ approach changing the delivery model of national-scale digital transformation across the NHS

The Frontline Digitisation programme addressed one of the NHS’s most urgent transformation priorities: improving patient safety, staff productivity and operational resilience amid rising demand and workforce pressure. Backed by around £2 billion of national investment, it aimed to accelerate adoption of Electronic Patient Records (EPRs) across the NHS, replacing fragmented paper-based processes with integrated digital records supporting safer care, faster decision-making and more efficient services. Programme evidence suggested EPR implementation could reduce average inpatient length of stay by 4.5%, releasing thousands of bed days annually while improving patient and staff experience. Yet this was not simply an IT rollout. It was a large-scale organisational transformation affecting clinicians, operational teams and digital leaders. Delivering it across more than 190 organisations, each with different maturity, capability and culture, required a new national change approach. The programme addressed the lack of experienced expertise in the system and the need to deliver in small funding windows.

Working with NHS England, PwC and its consortium partners designed and delivered a first-of-type Frontline Digitisation Support Offer that reshaped how complex change could be enabled in a federated public sector system. The challenge was as much cultural and organisational as technical: aligning around 17 national NHS England teams with more than 190 provider organisations, overcoming scepticism created by previous national IT programmes, and building confidence among local leaders who wanted support rather than prescription. In response, the team focused on trust, creating an “emotional contract” with stakeholders and a one-to-many model combining shared support for common challenges with targeted specialist intervention where needed. This approach made better use of scarce expertise, reduced duplication and increased reach. PwC and consortium professionals worked alongside 30–50 NHS England colleagues. Capability building was strengthened through 120+ in-person Learning Labs involving over c900 clinical, operational and digital staff, plus more than 150 national events on change, cutover and data migration. A multi-channel engagement strategy extended the programme’s reach, generating over 160,000 views of online resources, engaging more than 3,500 bulletin recipients, connecting with a community of practice of over 500+ members, and responding to more than 200 requests for specialist support.

The programme delivered measurable impact, built lasting capability and set a new benchmark for national change delivery. More than 80% of participants reported improved delivery readiness, and over 80% of Trusts said they were more confident in leading their EPR programmes. Trusts also strongly endorsed the value of the support model: only 24% believed comparable support could have been sourced locally within the NHS, while around half said they would otherwise have needed to procure similar help externally, increasing cost and risk. Economic analysis estimated savings of £35.5 million to £122 million through reduced duplication, lower procurement costs and decreased implementation risk. Beyond these figures, the programme improved the relationship between national and local delivery, created practical mechanisms for peer learning at scale, and showed how data, agile methods and human-centred engagement can make transformation more effective and sustainable. For the NHS, it established a repeatable model for future digital change: a bold response to a systemic challenge, innovative delivery in complex conditions, benefits realisation, optimisation, and a legacy beyond it.

Deliveroo - Contact Centre Sourcing Optimisation
Commercial Impact

Procurement transformation delivers huge profitability hike for City investors

Following rapid growth during the COVID 19 pandemic, Deliveroo faced a pivotal moment. With a new CFO in place and a public commitment to improve profitability, the business needed to deliver a significant uplift in EBITDA through a major reduction in non people operating expenditure. Procurement was central to this ambition, yet the function lacked the visibility, tools and strategic capability required to drive meaningful commercial outcomes. Supplier contracts were fragmented, many were short-term, and negotiations often relied on limited data and inconsistent processes. Although Deliveroo had invested in an advanced tendering platform, the team was not equipped to use it effectively, and the organisation needed a transformation that could deliver immediate impact while building long term capability.

PwC was engaged to help unlock the full potential of Deliveroo’s technology investment and support the Procurement function to deliver the savings required to meet investor expectations. Drawing on its Sourcing Optimisation methodology, PwC brought together procurement specialists, game theory experts and technology practitioners to identify the categories with the greatest opportunity for value. A detailed spend review highlighted Contact Centre operations as the strongest candidate for transformation: a large, long standing category operating on an outdated pricing model that no longer reflected market norms.

PwC combined deep sourcing expertise with category specialists in Contact Centres and logistics to redesign the commercial model, shifting from headcount based pricing to outcome based structures aligned to performance metrics. Game theory techniques were translated directly into the tendering platform’s functionality, creating structured competition between suppliers, and signalling the client’s intent to reshape the supply landscape. Carefully timed feedback rounds and transparent data insights encouraged suppliers to refine their proposals, while PwC supported Deliveroo’s Procurement team to navigate sensitivities around long standing supplier relationships. This included coaching on stakeholder engagement, helping the team build confidence in the case for change and strengthening alignment across the business.

As part of the transformation, the Sourcing Optimisation work created significant EBITDA improvement opportunities for Deliveroo which can now be translated to the wider DoorDash group. The scale of impact far exceeded typical benchmarks for procurement activity in the online food delivery sector, demonstrating the power of combining advanced sourcing technology with game‑theory‑led competition design. The success of the programme also strengthened the credibility of Deliveroo’s Procurement function, which gained new skills, improved processes and a repeatable methodology that can now be applied across other categories.

Beyond the immediate financial opportunity, the programme has left Deliveroo with a more capable and strategically positioned Procurement function. The team now has the tools, insights and operating model to deliver sustained commercial value, supported by a technology platform used to its full potential. The transformation has also improved cross functional relationships, enhanced governance and created a blueprint for future sourcing activity. The programme’s success has attracted positive attention from industry commentators, reinforcing Deliveroo’s position as a leader in procurement innovation.

Most importantly, the work has demonstrated the tangible commercial impact that strategic procurement can deliver, supporting Deliveroo’s commitment to investors, and enabling the business to drive long-term value. 

Unilever: Logistics Cost Transformation
Commercial Impact

Innovation in logistics procurement puts Unilever on the road to significant cost savings

The FMCG industry faced significant inflationary pressures, with rising transport, energy and raw material costs threatening margins and competitiveness. Unilever remained focused on mitigating these challenges across its global operations. Road transport represented one of the company’s largest areas of third-party spend, yet visibility of pricing performance varied across regions. Procurement teams relied on different processes, tools and data sources, making it difficult to benchmark costs consistently, identify opportunities or execute sourcing activities in a standardised way. In a highly volatile logistics market, Unilever recognised the need for a more transparent, scalable and data-driven approach to transport procurement.

To address this challenge, Unilever approached PwC to help develop a Transport Price Transparency (TPT) capability designed to create consistent visibility across its global road-freight network and enable more informed procurement decision-making at scale. Working collaboratively, Unilever and PwC co-developed a bespoke analytics platform that connects to logistics and procurement data sources to provide lane-level insight into transport spending and pricing performance.

The platform created a single source of truth for transport pricing, enabling procurement teams to compare performance across internal and external reference points and better understand the drivers of transport cost. By combining market intelligence, operational data and should-cost modelling, the solution provided a level of transparency and decision support not previously available within the organisation. Buyers were able to identify pricing inconsistencies, prioritise sourcing opportunities and make more informed procurement decisions across regions and transport categories. The TPT capability has unlocked significant value for Unilever and demonstrated the impact that data-driven procurement can deliver at scale.

To maximise the value of these insights, Unilever later partnered with PwC to pilot a more standardised approach to transport tender management. Drawing on PwC’s deep category expertise, advanced sourcing technology and game‑theory‑based competition design, this approach enabled procurement teams to embed TPT insights directly into sourcing and tender decision-making, improving consistency and commercial performance across complex logistics tenders. The combination of improved cost transparency and more disciplined tender execution strengthened procurement effectiveness while enabling teams to focus more strategically on supplier management and value creation.

The programme delivered significant commercial impact, with early deployments exceeding expectations and demonstrating the effectiveness of combining advanced analytics with structured sourcing approaches in complex market conditions. Following this success, the TPT capability has continued to scale across the organisation and is now embedded within core logistics procurement processes.

Beyond the immediate financial benefits, the initiative established a scalable foundation for long-term capability development within Unilever’s logistics procurement organisation. The programme has strengthened data-driven decision-making, improved visibility of transport spending patterns and created a more transparent and strategically enabled procurement function that continues to generate sustainable value beyond the initial implementation.

Standard Chartered Bank; CEO Enterprise Leadership Programme
People and Leadership

Developing enterprise leaders with the vision to create value in a changing world

Standard Chartered is a leading international banking group, with a presence in over 50 of the world’s most dynamic markets. Similar to other global organisations, the bank faced the dual challenge of pursuing long-term growth while responding to short-term pressures and opportunities in a fast-paced, ever-changing environment. To excel, it recognised the need for a group of senior leaders with the skills, vision and enterprise mindset to navigate this landscape and drive the organisation forward.

PwC was invited to partner with the bank to design and deliver the Enterprise Leadership Programme (ELP) – a 18-month initiative aimed at reshaping the beliefs and behaviours of Standard Chartered’s 35 high potential leaders. Sponsored by the Group Chief Executive, the programme sought to shift leaders into long-term, ecosystem-aware thinking, broaden their strategic horizons and strengthen collaboration across the organisation. The ambition was not simply to develop individual leaders, but also to build a collective leadership community capable of driving the bank’s future success.

Working as one team across the UK, US, Asia and Africa, PwC brought together specialists in strategy, leadership, customer experience, technology, AI and organisational development. The programme was grounded in a new value-creation framework co-developed with the bank, providing a shared reference point for understanding how the organisation could create value in a changing world. This foundation shaped a learning journey that combined thought leadership, immersive experiences and exposure to emerging global trends.

The programme was delivered through four in-person modules held in strategically important markets – China, India, Kenya and the United States. Each module centred on a three-day event featuring keynote speakers, panel discussions, client-site visits and experiential learning. PwC’s global network played a central role, bringing in subject-matter experts and senior leaders to challenge participants’ thinking and expose them to new perspectives. The design was intentionally dynamic, evolving in response to participant feedback and the bank’s shifting strategic priorities.

A defining feature of the programme was its emphasis on collaboration and collective leadership. Participants worked together across markets and functions, breaking down silos and building strong relationships that have continued beyond the programme. PwC’s consultants and Standard Chartered’s leaders co-created the experience, with some PwC partners even joining modules as participants, reinforcing the sense of shared learning and trust.

The impact has been significant: 70% of participants have been promoted or taken on larger portfolios, strengthening leadership capability across the bank. Leaders report a marked shift in mindset, greater confidence in navigating emerging ecosystems, and a deeper understanding of how to create value beyond traditional banking models. Collaboration has increased, with leaders coming together more frequently to address complex challenges and drive cross-organisational initiatives.

Beyond individual development, the programme has helped embed value creation into leadership conversations and decision-making. It has also impressed many external participants, who contributed to individual modules and observed the quality and impact of the programme’s design. Several have been interested to explore how PwC could bring aspects of the programme to their own senior leadership, in other industries, reflecting the programme’s distinctive nature and transferability.

MSRe
Performance Improvement in the Private Sector

Efficient, autonomous finance operations underpin performance gains for reinsurer

MS Reinsurance (MSRe) was entering a period of strategic growth, but its finance operations were not keeping pace with the demands of the business. Month-end closes were taking almost 50% longer than the parent company’s expectation, while settlement delays and manual hand-offs created inefficiency and operational risk. The finance function also relied on a group-wide system that limited MSRe’s autonomy, slowed decision-making and constrained its ability to scale independently. With the organisation already modernising its underwriting and reinsurance operations, there was a clear risk that outdated finance processes would be embedded into the future architecture, perpetuating the very barriers the business was trying to remove.

PwC was engaged to help MSRe transform its finance performance, shorten the month-end cycle, reduce manual effort, and equip the finance team to provide timely, trusted insights to underwriting and client-facing colleagues. The programme also needed to establish a standalone finance platform that would give MSRe full ownership of its systems and support its long-term growth.

Working as a trusted adviser within a complex programme environment, PwC redesigned how finance information and processes were managed, creating a clearer, more consistent flow of work and eliminating unnecessary manual activity. Delivered alongside wider changes to MSRe’s core systems, this reduced duplication, improved accuracy and accelerated essential finance tasks, while also giving the finance team greater confidence in the reliability of their data.

To give MSRe full control of its finance operations, PwC implemented a dedicated instance of Oracle ERPM, separating the business from the group’s shared system, and removing dependencies that had previously slowed change and increased cost. Strong governance and close collaboration with finance, IT and third-party teams ensured that the transition was carefully sequenced, protecting business continuity while maximising performance gains. This disciplined approach was essential in an environment where multiple major change programmes were running concurrently.

Thanks to this work, MSRe now completes its month-end close in line with the parent company’s expectation. Manual effort across core finance processes has fallen significantly, releasing capacity for higher-value work. Settlement timeliness and operational efficiency have improved, and the finance team can now provide faster, more reliable insights to support underwriting decisions. The move to an independent platform has reduced complexity, strengthened controls and lowered ongoing finance and IT run costs, giving MSRe a more scalable foundation for future growth.

These improvements have delivered clear financial benefit. Annualised gains from capacity release and cost avoidance provide a multi-year ROI of approximately 2-3x, and mean the programme will pay for itself within two years. These results compare strongly with similar finance transformations in the insurance sector – particularly given PwC’s challenge of delivering the programme alongside a major underwriting system replacement.

Beyond the numbers, the transformation has strengthened MSRe’s confidence, collaboration and decision-making. Finance now operates as a more responsive, trusted partner to the business, with clearer ownership of processes and greater autonomy to adapt as the organisation grows. The improvements have been embedded into everyday operations, ensuring that MSRe continues to benefit from a simpler, more controlled and more efficient finance function. 

Yorkshire Water - Embedded Commercial Intelligence ECI
Performance Improvement in the Private Sector

From Reactive Review to Real-Time Control: Embedding AI-Enabled Commercial Intelligence at Yorkshire Water

Yorkshire Water manages a multi-billion-pound asset base, spending around £1.2bn each year across hundreds of operational contracts that underpin essential public services. With capital investment set to increase significantly in the next regulatory period, a new approach to commercial assurance was needed to manage rising commercial risk.

Like many organisations, Yorkshire Water relied on traditional commercial assurance processes that were often manual and retrospective. As a result, issues were identified late, and operational teams lacked the evidence needed to challenge suppliers effectively.

PwC was engaged to help Yorkshire Water develop technology enabled cost controls to reduce leakage and improve decision-making across its most-material contracts. The organisation needed a scalable, preventative approach that could validate spend in real time, provide a single view of contract performance, and embed more consistent, evidence-based commercial management.

Working closely with Commercial, Procurement, Finance and operational teams, PwC co-developed Embedded Commercial Intelligence (ECI) – an AI-enabled capability that shifts assurance from retrospective review to real-time, preventative control. The solution brings contract terms, invoice data and operational information together in one place, enabling 100% validation of spend and offering actionable insights that help teams identify overbilling, non-compliance and operational inefficiencies earlier and more accurately.

The programme was delivered using a build–iterate–embed approach, to demonstrate value quickly and ensure the solution aligned with day-to-day working practices. Through ‘day in the life’ workshops, PwC and Yorkshire Water codified key commercial mechanisms, identified where value could leak and translated these risks into targeted assurance tests. Disparate datasets were cleansed and consolidated into a unified view, addressing long-standing issues such as inconsistent coding, missing fields and supplier format variations. By co-designing analytics, dashboards and workflows with contract managers, PwC ensured the solution was intuitive, practical and immediately usable.

The pilot demonstrated the power of real‑time commercial intelligence. Assurance coverage increased from around 10% of spend to 100%, enabling contract managers to focus on genuine risks rather than manual checks. The pilot identified 2–3% commercial leakage, delivering a 4:1 ROI through immediate recoveries – and highlighting further opportunities to increase ROI to 12:1. Automated assurance delivered significant efficiency gains, eliminating manual, time‑intensive processes and saving more than 30 hours per month on a key contract. Behavioural insights – such as identifying that 5–11% of fleet‑related charges stemmed from driver behaviour – enabled targeted interventions that would previously have been impossible.

Decision-making is now faster, more transparent and grounded in a single, trusted view of commercial performance. Operational teams report greater confidence in challenging suppliers, supported by clear audit trails and evidence-based insights. ECI has been embedded into routine contract management through training, playbooks and governance, and is now scaling to cover up to 39 contracts representing 60% of supplier spend. Contract managers describe ECI as a tool they “cannot do their jobs without”, reflecting a move from reactive issue-resolution to proactive, insight-led commercial control.

Overall, the programme has strengthened Yorkshire Water’s governance, improved transparency and positioned the organisation to manage its supply chain with far greater confidence.

Cabinet Office, Government Grants Management Service
Performance Improvement in the Public Sector

Streamlined grants service cuts overheads and boosts value for public money

The UK government administers thousands of grants each year – many of them small, simple schemes designed to support communities, charities and local initiatives. Yet these non‑complex grants often required the same mobilisation, due‑diligence and assurance effort as much larger programmes. Departments were spending disproportionate time and money on administration, while inconsistent processes created avoidable risk and slowed delivery for applicants. The Cabinet Office recognised that a more efficient, consistent and transparent approach was needed to protect public funds and improve the experience for citizens and civil servants alike.

PwC was engaged to help design and pilot a new Government Grants Managed Service (GGMS): a centralised, standardised service for administering non‑complex grants. The aim was to reduce administrative overheads, strengthen fraud and assurance controls, and improve data quality, while ensuring that policy decisions remained firmly with individual departments. The Cabinet Office also sought to test whether a shared service could ultimately become self‑funding, delivering long‑term value for money.

Working closely with the Government Grants Management Function and seven departments, PwC co‑designed the operating model, procedures and performance framework for the new service. The team focused on creating a streamlined, end‑to‑end process that removed duplication, reduced reworking and provided a consistent experience for applicants. Alongside this, PwC supported the development of a government‑owned digital platform to automate routine tasks, standardise workflows and capture high‑quality, comparable data across schemes.

The pilot demonstrated the model’s feasibility and quickly built confidence across departments. Six grant schemes were administered in the initial phase, enabling the Cabinet Office to test the service across different types of funding. Following this success, the pilot was extended for a further year, during which the GGMS administered more than 20 schemes worth over £100m and supported 11 departments and arm’s‑length bodies. This provided robust evidence of scalability, and demonstrated that the service could operate effectively as business‑as‑usual.

The performance improvements were significant. Administration costs for non‑complex grants fell by an average of c.40% – far exceeding the original 20% target. Standardised processes and clearer handovers reduced delays and made delivery more predictable for both departments and applicants. Fraud and error controls were strengthened, with consistent due‑diligence and quality‑assurance checks reducing risk by 25% compared with departmental baselines. The service also proved highly scalable, responding to unexpected surges in demand – including a 150% spike in late‑stage applications for one scheme – without delaying payments to recipients.

For applicants, the experience is now clearer and faster, with more consistent communication and fewer requests for clarification. Civil servants benefit from reduced administrative burden and better tools, enabling them to focus on policy, oversight and outcomes rather than manual processing. The improved data quality also supports better decision‑making and greater transparency across government.

The Cabinet Office estimates that, if adopted across just 5% of general grants, the GGMS could generate up to £142m in annual savings – money that can be redirected to frontline services and public priorities. The success of the pilot has led to a major procurement to establish the service long term, reflecting strong confidence in its ability to deliver sustainable value for taxpayers.

Sheffield City Council - Future Sheffield Programme
Performance Improvement in the Public Sector

Major transformation reduces council costs, improves services and builds reputation

Sheffield City Council serves one of England’s largest metropolitan areas, with diverse communities and rising expectations for responsive, high‑quality public services. By 2023, the Council faced significant financial pressures, fragmented operations and declining public confidence. Services such as Housing required urgent improvement, while the organisation as a whole needed to close a budget gap of more than £60m. Although the Council had set out an ambitious vision through its Future Sheffield programme, early progress was hampered by inconsistent governance, siloed working and limited capacity to deliver change at scale.

PwC was engaged to help the Council turn this ambition into a coherent, disciplined and sustainable transformation. The aim was to improve outcomes for residents, strengthen organisational grip and identify substantial recurring savings, while building the internal capability needed to sustain progress. The partnership focused on creating a joined up, outcome led organisation that could deliver better services and restore public trust.

Working closely with a refreshed leadership team, PwC helped establish a corporate Transformation Office to provide clarity, pace and accountability across the organisation. This created a single roadmap for change, aligning 11 major programmes under one governance framework, and giving councillors and senior leaders clear visibility of progress, risks and financial benefits. The approach brought structure to previously fragmented efforts and laid the foundations for a genuine ‘One Council’ way of working.

As governance strengthened, delivery accelerated. Customer Experience was redesigned to make services more accessible, integrated and digitally enabled, improving the experience for residents and reducing avoidable demand. Oversight of external spend was tightened, commissioning processes were strengthened, and Finance and Business Support functions were reshaped to reduce duplication and increase resilience. Crucially, the transformation of Sheffield’s large Housing service – an area under intense regulatory scrutiny – was aligned to the corporate programme, ensuring improvements were embedded within wider organisational reform.

The partnership also focused on sustainability. PwC supported capability-transfer through coaching, formal training and blended delivery teams, enabling the Council to build long‑term skills in programme management, benefits realisation, data and digital reporting. As the Transformation Office matured into a permanent corporate function, external support tapered, ensuring the Council could continue delivering improvements independently.

The programme has identified c£45m in recurring savings, now built into the Council’s medium-term financial strategy – a return on investment of more than 3:1. More than 100 Contact Centre staff have completed operational optimisation work, customer journeys have been redesigned, and a new Customer Experience function has been created to drive continuous improvement. The Council now operates with clearer governance, stronger financial grip and more coordinated services, improving both staff experience and outcomes for residents.

The transformation has also helped rebuild trust in the organisation. Partners and stakeholders now see a council that is more decisive, more transparent and more consistent in how it delivers services. Most importantly, the changes have created a more stable, resilient organisation – one better able to support its communities, deliver value for money and sustain improvement long into the future. 

Public Sector Procurement Community of Practice
Social Value

Where capability meets community: a new model to support upskilling junior staff

The UK’s Social Mobility Commission highlights that regional disparities and educational inequality continue to create significant socio-economic barriers to accessing professional and managerial roles. While the public sector strives to address these barriers, time pressures, budget constraints and departmental silos restrict opportunities for skills development, confidence building and professional networking, particularly for junior civil servants from underrepresented or lower socio-economic backgrounds. This weakens the long-term resilience of public sector functions, including commercial teams, and ultimately the frontline services citizens rely on, from prisons and schools to essential digital services.

PwC responded by partnering with commercial leaders across government to establish a cross-government Commercial and Procurement Community of Practice (CoP). The aim was to create an inclusive, low-cost model that would strengthen capability, confidence and connectedness among early-career professionals. Co-designed with DSIT, with input from other departments including MoJ and FCDO, the CoP provides regular learning and networking sessions tailored for junior staff across the UK.

PwC assembled a multidisciplinary team, funded by PwC’s Social Value Fund, enabling the CoP to operate at no cost to participating departments. This reduced financial barriers and widened access to development for staff who might otherwise have been excluded. The team reflected a wide range of experience, modelling the inclusive culture the programme sought to build, and grounding sessions in real delivery challenges.

Each session followed a consistent, practitioner‑led format: informal networking, core theory, practical case studies and structured group work. This created a trusted, neutral space where participants could learn from peers, share challenges and build confidence in applying new skills. As the CoP matured, departments increasingly nominated participants through word‑of‑mouth, reflecting the value of the model and the sense of community it created.

The CoP has delivered measurable social value across individuals, organisations and the wider public sector. In its first year, it reached more than 90 participants from 12 departments and arm’s‑length bodies, with strong repeat attendance and consistently high satisfaction scores. Participants reported increased confidence, improved technical and interpersonal skills, and greater ability to apply learning in day‑to‑day procurements. Apprentices and early‑career staff described the CoP as particularly valuable for progression, with several requesting more practical courses of this kind.

The programme has also delivered significant value for money. By providing a free, cross‑government model, the CoP enabled departments to avoid training costs. The model has since inspired parallel communities in the private sector, and demonstrated its transferability to other specialisms such as finance and technology.

What’s more, the CoP has established a blueprint for inclusive capability-building across government. It has strengthened cross‑departmental collaboration, widened access to professional networks and created a sustainable model that supports long‑term social mobility. By enabling junior staff from diverse backgrounds to build confidence, skills and connections, the CoP contributes to a more resilient, representative and effective public sector workforce – delivering lasting social value for the communities that rely on it.

National Highways Road Investment Plan 3
Strategy

‘Golden thread’ strategy secures record road funding in the face of uncertainty

National Highways is responsible for operating, maintaining and improving England’s 4,500‑mile strategic road network – a national asset that carries a third of all motorised traffic, and underpins economic growth, freight movement and access to services. Every five years, the organisation must secure a multi‑billion‑pound funding settlement through the government’s Road Investment Strategy (RIS). This settlement determines the network’s safety, reliability and long‑term resilience. For the third funding cycle (RIS3), National Highways faced a more complex environment than ever before: a changing profile of work, high inflation, volatile supply chains, and changing customer expectations, all against the background of high level of interest from the Department for Transport, HM Treasury and the Office of Rail and Road.

The organisation needed a credible, evidence‑based strategy that could support Government ambitions and justify long‑term investment. It also wanted to build its own strategic capability. Previous settlements had relied heavily on external consultants, and National Highways sought to become more self‑sufficient in shaping future RIS cycles. The stakes rose further in 2024 when a change of government delayed the settlement and introduced a one‑year interim funding period, raising the possibility of a return to annual budgets. It became even more important for National Highways to develop a strong plan that could continue to drive economic growth and provide certainty to the supply chain, while being adaptable to external changes.

To meet this challenge, National Highways formed an alliance with PwC, AtkinsRéalis and Jacobs to act as its integrated Technical Partner. Working as a single, badge‑less team, the alliance combined strategic advisory, engineering insight, economic analysis and risk expertise. Together, they developed a ‘golden thread’ linking complex technical evidence to strategic decisions and a coherent investment case. This approach ensured that analysis, risk modelling and narrative were aligned, enabling National Highways to present a clear, defensible rationale for long‑term funding.

A coaching‑through‑delivery model paired alliance specialists with National Highways leaders and practitioners, embedding capability as the strategy was built. This enabled the client team to develop practical skills in strategic planning, risk assessment and investment case development, strengthening its ability to lead future funding rounds. The alliance also supported deeper engagement with HM Treasury, shaping a narrative that reflected funders’ expectations.

When the political context shifted, the alliance helped National Highways adapt its plan, strengthen its argument for five‑year certainty, and demonstrate how long‑term funding would protect value‑for‑money, support productivity, and maintain network performance.

The outcome was a £27bn five-year settlement, with considerable step up for renewals, secured despite fiscal constraints. This settlement provides the long‑term certainty needed to plan efficiently, reduce supply chain risk, and deliver safety, reliability and congestion improvements for road users. It also validated the alliance’s core aim: National Highways demonstrated that it could lead a complex funding cycle with reduced external reliance.

The programme leaves a lasting legacy. National Highways now has a stronger strategic planning function, a clearer understanding of portfolio risk and a repeatable model for future RIS cycles. The integrated approach has improved relationships with government and regulators, strengthened leadership cohesion, and created a more resilient foundation for managing one of the UK’s most important national assets.

Unilever – Project Verdi
Strategy

Social Housing and Home Upgrade Grant Delivery Partner
Sustainability

Helping to make England’s building stock warmer and easing the cost-of-living crisis

The UK faces a major challenge in improving the energy efficiency of its building stock, particularly for people most exposed to high energy costs and the health impacts of cold, damp environments. To address this, a UK public sector body launched major retrofit programmes designed to reduce carbon emissions, improve energy performance and support better outcomes for communities most affected by rising energy prices. Delivery was devolved to a diverse group of public and non-profit delivery bodies, whose capability, supply-chain access and local delivery contexts varied widely. The public sector bodies overseeing the programme needed a national model that could maintain pace and standards, provide assurance and consumer protection, and rapidly identify and resolve risks across a complex portfolio.

PwC was engaged to mobilise and lead a scalable Delivery Partner model capable of supporting consistent, high-quality delivery across England. Within a month, PwC assembled a 100-strong consortium team, including specialist engineering partners, bringing together expertise in programme management, financial assurance, fraud and error prevention, and technical retrofit. The model combined national governance and portfolio control with local presence, enabling Project Managers to work closely with delivery bodies and understand local market constraints. Clear escalation routes, weekly touchpoints and targeted interventions ensured that risks were identified early and addressed before they became systemic.

A structured monitoring and assurance framework strengthened quality, compliance and consumer protection. PwC introduced evidence checks, reconciliation processes and risk-based assurance to protect public funds and ensure value for money. The team also embedded clearer stakeholder-engagement expectations, accredited quality requirements and PAS-aligned technical assurance, improving installation standards and end-user experience. AI and advanced analytics accelerated evidence review, change control and fraud-risk triage, saving hundreds of hours and enabling programme leads to focus on the highest-impact issues.

The Delivery Partner model has delivered significant impact. To date, the schemes have achieved 0.215Mt CO₂e savings, equivalent to taking more than 110,000 petrol cars off the road for a year, contributing directly to climate action. The schemes have also supported meaningful energy cost reductions for people most in need, helping ease cost pressures and support wider health and wellbeing outcomes. PwC has supported 191 projects nationally and enabled approximately £1bn of funding to be delivered with strong assurance. Through evidence checks and fraud-risk triage, the team identified and prevented 2–3% of potential fraud and error. A targeted risk-based intervention model, mobilised in just three weeks, unlocked delivery barriers and contributed to a 14% uplift in the number of buildings upgraded.

The engagement has strengthened national retrofit capability, improved supply-chain confidence and established a repeatable, scalable model for delivering building decarbonisation at pace. The public sector bodies involved now have clearer portfolio visibility, stronger governance and more consistent delivery standards. The model has become a preferred approach for future retrofit schemes, demonstrating that robust assurance, consumer protection and value for money can be achieved while delivering high-quality upgrades that reduce emissions, lower costs and improve lives.

DESNZ - Climate Finance Accelerator
Sustainability

Scaling Climate Finance solutions in Emerging Markets

The Climate Finance Accelerator (CFA) programme has supported 238 businesses across ten countries to mobilise $500+ million in climate finance - demonstrating how private capital can be unlocked at scale to support the global sustainable energy transition. Delivered by PwC on behalf of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), the CFA was designed to tackle one of the defining strategic challenges of our time: how to accelerate low-carbon investment and business growth in emerging economies where capital is not yet flowing at the speed or scale required. The CFA has become a flagship instrument of the UK's International Climate Finance portfolio, by strengthening sustainable business innovation, deepening local capital markets and connecting investors with bankable low-carbon ventures.

The CFA operates across ten countries. It identifies and enrols high-potential climate-mitigation entrepreneurs, companies and projects as cohorts; which receive structured support to strengthen their investment proposition before matchmaking them with investor groups across domestic and international capital markets. PwC's dual-delivery model combines a central team providing global methodology and learning, with local delivery partners who bring deep market intelligence and investor networks. CFA also aims to create a sustainable legacy by catalysing market transition through demonstrating viable business models and creation of an investor track record in these growth markets.

A defining feature of the CFA is its ability to convene the climate finance ecosystem around shared challenges. The programme continues to adapt its approach to investment support, expanding to explore the use of innovative approaches and alternative financial instruments. By example, the recent Climate Investing Hackathon hosted in London saw the CFA convene leading investors, policymakers and technical experts to accelerate breakthrough financing models capable of unlocking private capital for climate projects in emerging markets.

The CFA's results (2020-2025) demonstrate value for money and tangible impact via:

• $500+ million investment mobilised across 60 deals, at an implied leverage ratio on public spending of £31 per £1.
• 50+ ecosystem events convening 200+ financial institutions and 350+ policymakers.
• 238 ventures accelerated with tangible climate impacts - for example;
  • In South Africa, Wetility, a distributed energy provider, secured $30m investment to avoid over 250,000 tonnes of GHG emissions.
  • In Vietnam, Dat Bike, an e-mobility startup, secured $4m investment to facilitate the adoption of 30,000 e-wheelers which will avoid 26,000 tonnes of GHG per year.
  • In Mexico, SOURCE, received Series D investment of $130m, for hydropanels that produce high-quality drinking water in remote areas - each one replacing 57,000 plastic bottles.
  • In Turkey, DRONEQUBE, an agri-tech startup, secured pre-seed investment. Its technology enables a 30% reduction in methane and nitrous oxide emissions and boosts vineyard yields by 20%.

Building on this momentum, PwC were selected to manage delivery of the CFA as it enters a new five-year scale-up phase, doubling in size - a direct reflection of the programme's proven ability to deliver impact and DESNZ's confidence in PwC as a long-term delivery partner.

Beazley
Technology Transformation

Putting planning first, to see early benefits in complex global finance transformation

Building on Beazley’s significant growth and global market prominence, the programme set out to strengthen the scalability of its finance operations and enable faster, more confident decision-making. The objective was to modernise core finance processes while improving the reliability, granularity and accessibility of financial insight.

PwC worked with Beazley across financial planning and analysis, Procure-to-Pay, Record-to-Report, analytics and controls, as well as the business logic supporting premium, reinsurance and claims processes. The ambition was to create a proactive and future-proof finance framework that could evolve with the business and deliver benefits iteratively.

Recognising the long-term nature of the programme, PwC adopted an unconventional FP&A-first approach. Workday Adaptive was deployed before the broader Workday ERP transformation, allowing Beazley to realise early benefits, build confidence in the programme and use practical learning from planning to inform later ERP design. This approach helped sustain momentum and has since become an important blueprint for other complex finance transformations.

The programme then modernised transactional finance processes around Workday ERP. Procure-to-Pay and Record-to-Report processes were redesigned with stronger controls, clearer exception handling and more consistent data flows. OCR and email ingestion were introduced to improve invoice processing, while PwC also helped codify and automate the business logic for premium, reinsurance and claims activities. This created greater consistency across upstream and downstream processes and improved confidence in financial reporting.

PwC and Beazley delivered the transformation through a collaborative “one team” model across the UK, US and India. Fortnightly show-and-tell sessions and quarterly delivery milestones helped maintain pace, transparency and engagement. PwC’s BXT workshops brought together business, experience and technology perspectives to co-create plans, clarify ownership and support adoption across different roles and locations. “Winning Teams” sessions helped Beazley colleagues shape the future vision, while interactive change activities, including quizzes, polls, escape rooms and game-show formats, made the transformation engaging and memorable.

More than one million upstream transactions are now processed in a more automated way each month, along with a reduction in rebooked or reclassified journal entries. Procure‑to‑Pay processes have been strengthened, with continued increase in accuracy of invoices captured via OCR. Reporting capabilities have expanded significantly, with a threefold increase in data dimensions to support analysis and decision‑making.

Beyond the quantified benefits, the transformation has changed how Beazley’s finance teams work. Automation, embedded controls and improved analytics have created 144 days of annual capacity, removed 68 spreadsheets and end-user solutions, and enabled finance colleagues to focus more time on analysis, strategic insight and business partnering. Connected planning and finance processes now give the business more timely, credible and granular information, helping teams model initiatives, assess market changes and make decisions with greater confidence.

The programme has strengthened Beazley’s foundations for future growth and created a scalable, insight-led finance platform. For PwC, it has demonstrated the value of delivering FP&A first, then using that momentum to support ERP transformation, business logic automation and embedded analytics across a complex global organisation.

British Heart Foundation - Enterprise Foundations
Technology Transformation

Charity transformation gains from clear governance at its heart

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) is one of the UK’s largest and most trusted charities, funding life‑saving cardiovascular research and supporting millions of people with heart disease. With 650 shops and 30 million donated items processed each year, its retail operation is central to raising the income that funds this mission. But legacy systems and manual processes had become increasingly inefficient, exposing the charity to operational, cyber and continuity risks. Income was plateauing, staff and volunteers were tied up in low‑value tasks, and a crucial retail system was approaching end of life. Without intervention, these pressures risked reducing the funds available for research at a time when demand for BHF’s services was rising.

PwC partnered with BHF to deliver a multi‑year, enterprise‑wide technology transformation designed to protect and grow income, modernise operations and build sustainable digital capability. Rather than pursuing isolated upgrades, BHF chose a single, integrated transformation that would reshape how the charity operates across retail, finance, technology and data. The programme was guided by clear principles: ‘adopt not adapt’ to reduce long‑term cost and complexity; a single governance model to manage interdependencies; value‑led delivery to prioritise outcomes; and a strong focus on capability-transfer, so BHF could own and evolve the platform independently.

PwC and BHF operated as one team, with multidisciplinary specialists embedded across the charity’s functions. This close partnership enabled realistic planning, rapid issue resolution and decisions grounded in the realities of live retail operations. A clear, disciplined governance framework kept the programme aligned and moving at pace, ensuring decisions were made quickly and consistently while managing risk effectively.

The technology solution centred on two major components: a new AI‑enhanced application for managing donated stock, and a modern Microsoft platform to support retail operations, finance processes and income generation. Agile, incremental delivery ensured early value, including improvements to Gift Aid validation and stock booking. The donated‑stock application digitalised the highest‑volume process in the charity, enabling faster booking‑in of items, more accurate pricing decisions, and better use of staff and volunteers. The Microsoft platform replaced unsupported systems, reducing cyber, security and operational risk.

The transformation has already delivered substantial benefits. Embedded validation has eliminated more than £500k of annual Gift Aid leakage, and donated items are now processed in half the time. Modern cloud-based systems have significantly reduced cyber, operational and regulatory risk building a foundation for future transformation Meanwhile, early capability-transfer has strengthened digital confidence and cross functional collaboration across BHF.

The programme has also delivered cultural benefits. Frontline staff and volunteers are now equipped with intuitive tools that support better decision-making, while trustees and senior leaders have greater confidence in operations through more robust systems. BHF is becoming increasingly digital by default, with stronger collaboration across functions and a solid foundation for future innovation.

BHF now has a modern and resilient operating model that protects and grows the income needed to fund lifesaving research. The transformation shows how clear governance, disciplined delivery and cloud-based technology can fundamentally strengthen a charity’s ability to deliver its mission.

Eleni Godwin
Apprentice of the Year

Eleni works in PwC's Consulting practice with a focus on Defence, motivated by the importance of national capability and the people who deliver it. Her remit centres on client delivery, where she combines analytical thinking, strategic intent and clear storytelling to strengthen capability and support those operating in complex, high-stakes environments.

What sets Eleni apart is the maturity she brings as an apprentice, blending analytical rigour with emotional intelligence and practical innovation. She supported the design of a strategic, end-to-end capability development framework for a major arm of the Royal Navy, with her visual narrative shared at a flagship defence trade show and used to align senior leadership messaging with wider Navy strategy. She also played a pivotal role in Succession, a bespoke experience for senior military and civil service leaders, producing tailored briefs that elevated each session and helped shape its rollout to PwC's most strategic global accounts. Through Women in PwC in Defence, she actively champions inclusive change.

Eleni's lasting impact will be in the environments she creates: ones that strengthen capability, inclusion and the quality of decisions made by leaders. She will continue to scale Succession, deepen data-driven delivery and grow as a future leader of Consulting.

Rachael McGinty
Apprentice of the Year

Rachael plays a pivotal role in shaping the experience of junior talent across PwC Consulting, while delivering real operational and organisational value. She has become a bridge between senior leadership and early-career colleagues, trusted with confidential, business-critical processes and major firm-wide events.

What sets Rachael apart is the breadth of impact she has had as an apprentice. She co-created and led the Rising Stars programme, a leadership initiative for high-performing junior talent that has improved engagement, capability and consistency across teams and territories. Through the Career Pathways programme, she has helped deepen trusted client relationships and strengthen PwC's position as a long-term partner. During the firm's transition from Google to Microsoft, she became Consulting's go-to expert for SharePoint and Asana, reducing delivery risk and championing adoption at scale.

Rachael's lasting impact is in changing how the firm thinks about its early-career community. Trusted, influential and commercially aware, she leads with clarity, high standards and empathy, and is living proof that apprentices are not leaders of tomorrow, they are leaders now.

Antoinette K Meehan
Chartered Management Consultant of the Year

Antoinette K Meehan (AK) is a Director in PwC Consulting who leads complex, high-stakes transformations at the intersection of human-centred leadership and emerging technology. She helps organisations navigate commercial pressure, uncertainty and the human impact of change in industries where the stakes for people, products and the planet are high.

What sets AK apart is her judgement under pressure, and the energy, ambition and clarity she brings to teams navigating change. She is known for communicating difficult truths with empathy, challenging long-held assumptions, and helping organisations reimagine new possibilities for growth, customer relevance and innovation. Combining pace with sustainability, and commercial ambition with deeply human leadership, she creates momentum, trust and belief across teams. She has aligned global leadership teams around a unified customer vision, governed post-merger complexity, and rebuilt executive confidence during periods of organisational strain, leaving clients with clearer strategic direction and sharper decision-making.

Beyond client delivery, AK shapes PwC’s perspective across Industrial Manufacturing, Automotive, Mobility and Electrification, particularly around AI and customer experience. As a new parent, she is deeply committed to inclusion and sustainable leadership, actively supporting new parents and creating environments where future leaders can thrive with confidence, ambition and authenticity.

Lydia Taylor
Chartered Management Consultant of the Year

Over eight years in management consulting, Lydia has led complex, enterprise-wide transformations across energy, utilities, industrials and services. She acts as a coordinating hub on major programmes and a trusted advisor to senior leaders, with a purposeful, principled style that motivates teams, builds client trust and delivers lasting value.

What sets Lydia apart is the way she combines disciplined delivery with humanity. She fosters psychological safety and reflective practice, creating environments where diverse views genuinely improve decisions, and adapts her leadership style to what each team and moment needs. On a once-in-a-generation transformation in the regulated utilities sector, she grounded decisions in stewardship and societal impact, provided evidence-based counsel and embedded co-creation and capability transfer so the client could sustain progress long after the engagement.

Lydia's lasting impact lies in raising standards across her teams, clients and the wider profession. She coaches colleagues on Chartered Management Consultant (ChMC) competencies, champions ethical judgement and reflective practice, and treats Chartership as a responsibility to leave organisations and the consulting profession better than she found them.

Manisha Bhola
Experienced Leader

Manisha is a stand-out consultant in PwC's Health practice, advising senior stakeholders on national-scale programmes and helping shape the culture of the practice itself. Her remit spans complex client delivery, eminence and the development of the next generation of health consultants.

What sets Manisha apart is calm authority paired with compassion. She navigates sensitive stakeholder dynamics, brings coherence to evolving requirements and maintains momentum without ever compromising on quality or care. She combines structured delivery with a real understanding of the pressures clinicians and operational leaders face, and plays a pivotal role in shaping Health eminence through coordinated, high-quality content. Her leadership on a national digital-readiness programme strengthened delivery confidence across hundreds of organisations and contributed to industry recognition for partnership working.

Manisha's lasting impact is felt as much in her colleagues as in her clients. Her inclusive style is a hallmark of how the practice engages, she coaches and mentors junior consultants to accelerate their development, and she is helping define what experienced leadership looks like in health consulting for the years ahead.

Shaun Boyle
Experienced Leader

A second-career consultant, Shaun leads complex, fast-moving programmes where ambiguity is the norm and the stakes are high. He is the person clients and teams turn to for structure, momentum and clarity, and a trusted advisor at C-suite level on technology and operational transformation.

What sets Shaun apart is sound judgement under pressure. He guides diverse teams through difficult decisions, restructures responsibilities and clarifies ownership when programmes get stuck, and enables senior leaders to move forward with confidence. He played a pivotal leadership role in a global technology separation in the energy sector, coordinating critical migrations across teams, geographies and time zones, while keeping people, delivery and risk in balance. Throughout, he blends disciplined delivery with an inclusive, people-centred approach.

Shaun's lasting impact is the capability he leaves behind. He delegates real responsibility, coaches individuals through stretch experiences, and mentors students at Newcastle University, opening doors into the profession. Clients and colleagues consistently describe him as someone who motivates teams, strengthens their organisations and makes others better.

Liza Lirova
Inclusion Award

Liza is a senior manager in PwC's Financial Services Finance Transformation practice, leading complex change while fostering the skills and leadership of her teams. Her remit blends high-quality client delivery with a deliberate commitment to making inclusion a driver of stronger outcomes, not just a value.

What sets Liza apart is her ability to embed inclusion as a performance strategy. She simplifies complexity, translating intricate systems into accessible insights so that diverse teams and stakeholders can contribute meaningfully and own the decisions that follow. That approach has delivered measurable results, including significant process efficiencies and a meaningful uplift in client capability, while widening the circle of voices shaping each design. Inside the firm, she has reshaped how teams collaborate and learn, curating and standardising knowledge assets, opening up participation and creating leadership opportunities for junior colleagues.

Liza's lasting impact is the demonstration that inclusive leadership and commercial performance reinforce each other. She accelerates the development of future leaders, builds scalable capability for clients, and leaves teams better equipped to deliver lasting value, on her programmes and well beyond them. 

Vince Cuddon
Inclusion Award

Vince is the driving force behind PwC's partnership with the Amos Bursary, an organisation dedicated to advancing opportunities for young people of African and Caribbean heritage. He operates with minimal oversight, reflecting the trust placed in him by both PwC and the bursary's leadership, who count him as a key advisor.

What sets Vince apart is the way he leads with authenticity and purpose. He has transformed the firm's "ColourBrave" partnership into a model of meaningful, sustained impact, galvanising colleagues to create a multidimensional programme that supports students at every stage. He has built structured recruitment pathways that reduce complexity and widen access, mobilised a large team of mentors and coached colleagues on inclusive leadership. He gives sustained personal volunteering time, often evenings and weekends, and strengthens the bursary's long-term capability by advising its leadership and improving its core systems for sustainable growth.

Vince's lasting impact is measured in lives changed. He communicates with clarity and empathy, engages hundreds of students each year, and has embedded the partnership firmly within PwC's culture, creating opportunities that strengthen both the profession and the communities it serves. 

Matthew Dowling
Rising Star

Matthew has developed at remarkable pace since joining PwC, delivering outcomes for clients in insurance, health and technology. His combination of strong analytical skills, curiosity and resilience means he is consistently trusted to lead critical workstreams independently, often well beyond what his grade would suggest.

What sets Matthew apart is the maturity he brings to client and team relationships. He acts as the sole on-the-ground performance improvement coach for a major insurance client in Sri Lanka, navigating cultural differences, building senior relationships and delivering measurable performance uplift through a blend of data-driven insight and skilled stakeholder management. He guides new programme management teams, challenges assumptions constructively and shapes productivity improvements, while coaching experienced managers and senior leaders with diplomacy and confidence.

Matthew's lasting impact is already visible in the colleagues and teams he supports. He transfers skills generously, builds inclusive and solution-oriented environments, and is widely seen as a future leader of the practice. He demonstrates what is possible when an early-career consultant combines technical strength with genuine professionalism and care. 

Grace Rawcliffe
Team Leader Consultant of the Year

Grace brings structure, assurance and momentum to some of the most complex transformation challenges in UK defence. As a team leader, she guides technical, multi-stakeholder programmes and advises on initiatives shaping the future of defence workforce and capability development.

What sets Grace apart is the way she absorbs complex, technical domains at pace and turns them into clarity for clients and teams. On a major test and evaluation transformation programme, she defined a long-term roadmap for how the UK tests and assures its defence assets, accelerating decision-making and strengthening collaboration across organisational boundaries. On a separate skills initiative, she shaped a forward-looking concept for more flexible careers across defence and industry, building strong relationships with senior leaders along the way. Throughout, she models steady, inclusive leadership and champions diverse perspectives.

Grace's lasting impact is defined as much by how she brings teams together as by what she delivers. She creates environments where people feel supported, valued and able to do their best work, leaving clients with stronger plans, better-equipped teams and more confidence to take the next step.

Kate Kenyon
Team Leader Consultant of the Year

Kate led the restoration of end-to-end finance operations for a major retailer following a significant business-wide incident. The remit was demanding, time-critical and high-stakes, requiring her to hold a complex client environment together while a 16-person team rebuilt confidence in the underlying systems.

What sets Kate apart is her ability to lead with both clarity and humanity in genuinely uncertain conditions. She built trust quickly with senior client stakeholders, translated complex risks into actionable decisions and provided the reassurance leaders needed to act. Her cross‑functional mindset meant she understood the knock-on impacts of restoring operations, enabling effective sequencing and steady progress through long hours and shifting priorities. She established structure and disciplined ways of working from the outset, while creating a culture of resilience, openness and mutual support that kept her team motivated and well.

Kate's lasting impact is in how she navigated the highest kind of pressure without losing sight of the people delivering the work. She restored operations, rebuilt client confidence and demonstrated what calm, human leadership looks like when it matters most.

Caroline McMenamin
Technology Consultant of the Year

Caroline leads PwC's Microsoft Power Platform practice, guiding complex programmes and earning the trust of clients across sectors. She is a dynamic, influential technology leader who combines deep technical capability with a people-centred approach to shaping the firm's wider technology offering.

What sets Caroline apart is her ability to turn ambitious ideas into practical, high-quality solutions that change outcomes for people, not just systems. She has designed and delivered AI-enabled, automation-driven applications that tackle societal challenges, including a national rollout of a bespoke retail application across nearly 700 charity shops in just three months, work that has been recognised with multiple industry awards and PwC's firmwide Technology Award. She has also helped transform government grant processing through automation and AI, demonstrating how the Power Platform can scale meaningful change.

Caroline's lasting impact extends beyond client work. She has grown the Power Platform team within PwC's Egyptian Technology and Innovation Centre from one to ten consultants, building inclusive, high-performing team culture and developing the next generation of technology talent. Her work is felt across teams, clients and the communities her solutions support. 

Nils de Jongh
Technology Consultant of the Year

Nils helps senior leaders make AI work at enterprise scale. His remit spans the most consequential decisions organisations face on AI today, from identifying where it will create real value, to scaling it responsibly across operating models, technology and people. He guides clients through that complexity and builds the foundations to sustain success once the headlines fade.

What sets Nils apart is the breadth of leadership he combines with deep technical understanding. He leads global operating-model transformations that embed AI into how organisations are run, and establishes enterprise-wide AI Transformation Offices to give clients durable governance and momentum. He translates technical complexity into clear, decision-grade narratives, which is why clients describe him as a trusted advisor and, in some cases, their de facto Chief of Staff. He also champions digital inclusion, ensuring AI ambitions translate into responsible, accessible outcomes.

Nils's lasting impact reaches well beyond individual programmes. He shares his experience through thought leadership, industry summits and C-suite strategy sessions, and is widely recognised within PwC as a multiplier of talent, investing in the next generation of leaders who will define how AI is used responsibly in business. 

Kenza Elmrabti
Young Consultant of the Year

Kenza works on large, complex transformation programmes across the government, public and charity sectors, focusing on the data foundations that enable clients to unlock the full potential of advanced AI. Her remit puts her at the intersection of two of the most demanding areas of modern consulting: deep technical work and high-stakes public and social impact.

What sets Kenza apart is her ability to lead diverse, experienced technical teams as a younger consultant, with the maturity and credibility usually associated with much later in a career. Leading delivery for a major charity sector client, she brought clarity, pace and a clear commitment to excellence, fostering collaboration and creating a respectful environment in which specialists could do their best work. She combines a strong understanding of data and AI with the judgement to translate technical possibility into outcomes that matter to clients.

Kenza's lasting impact is already visible in the relationships she builds, the teams she lifts and the standards she sets. She represents the next generation of consulting leadership, technically grounded, inclusive by instinct, and ambitious about the scale of impact she can deliver in the years ahead.