Fireside Chat, Interview
Leading Through Complexity: EY’s Janet Truncale on Leadership, AI, and the Modern Boardroom
- Janet Troncalli serves as EY's Global Chair and CEO since 2024, overseeing a workforce of 400,000 employees and 14,000 partners across 150+ countries.
- EY's updated strategic purpose is "Shaping the Future with Confidence," emphasizing its role as a journey partner for clients' most complex transformations.
- The firm has transitioned into a "tech-enabled professional services" model, prioritizing AI-led service delivery and managed services over traditional advisory models.
- To accelerate growth and investment capacity in AI and technology, EY has restructured its operating model to integrate closer ties with its largest member firms.
- EY is fostering a "challenger model" culture to encourage calculated risks and disruption, even within regulated sectors like audit and financial services.
- The firm has established alliance partnerships with major technology providers to orchestrate technology ecosystems for clients as independent intermediaries.
- EY is pivoting toward "co-source" and managed service relationships, helping clients decide which capabilities to retain in-house versus outsource.
- Approximately 90% of EY professionals have received advanced AI training, with baseline training provided to every employee.
- EY's audit platform is now unified across 160,000 staff globally to enable consistent, real-time AI deployment and scalable learning.
- EY's tax platform is currently undergoing genification to ensure knowledge is accessible, allowing professionals to operate at the top of their licenses.
- EY explicitly maintains a "humans at the center" approach to AI, retaining human judgment and oversight for objectivity despite technological integration.
- CEO confidence metrics show momentum building toward early 2026, though recent geopolitical conflicts have dampened the M&A and IPO markets.
- Troncalli cites the ongoing war as a significant tail risk, specifically regarding mobility challenges and the impact on fast-growing economies in conflict zones.
- Despite short-term uncertainty, EY reports that client capital deployment for transformation is accelerating rather than slowing.
- Troncalli identifies a pivotal career moment as being encouraged by a mentor to lead the financial services audit practice, a decision that required overcoming personal risk aversion.
- The Global Executive Leadership team has adopted a "alignment over consensus" operating principle to manage constructive debate and decision-making in a complex organization.
- The leadership team instituted mandatory ground rules for interactions, including requiring all members to have a voice and ensuring no one takes personal offense during high-stakes debates.
- The firm recognizes that workforce shapes are evolving permanently, with only those embracing new technology expected to remain relevant long-term.
- EY launched "EYAI" in 2023, positioning the firm as "client zero" to demonstrate AI utility internally before offering it to external clients.
- Troncalli notes that the firm serves as a "trusted advisor" to Fortune 500 CEOs, leveraging deep historical relationships (including with Goldman Sachs) to evolve service delivery models.