Regulatory Consulting at KPMG Government Institute

Overview

KPMG rounds out the Big Four with a public-sector practice and a Government Institute that pair policy research and regulatory advisory with one of the more developed ‘trusted AI’ governance programs in professional services. KPMG’s AI-policy relevance flows from its audit-and-assurance DNA: it approaches AI as a governance, risk, and compliance problem, anchored by its Trusted AI framework, which embeds ethical principles across the AI lifecycle with human oversight. In May 2025 KPMG launched KPMG AI Trust, a suite of services (enabled by the ServiceNow AI Control Tower) to help clients ensure AI reliability, accountability, and transparency as they scale — spanning readiness, compliance, legal, regulatory, security, and risk-transformation governance. KPMG has also become a leading source of data on the AI trust gap: its landmark global study with the University of Melbourne surveyed more than 48,000 people across 47 countries, and its recurring AI Quarterly Pulse survey tracks executive sentiment. For agencies confronting AI governance, audit, and procurement requirements, KPMG is positioned to translate compliance expectations into operating practice.

AI-Focused Regulatory Work

KPMG’s central thesis — that ‘AI is moving fast, but governance is lagging’ — is backed by unusually large evidence bases and operationalized into product. Its global trust study (led by the University of Melbourne with KPMG) found that only about 46% of people worldwide are willing to trust AI systems, capturing the tension between rising adoption and lagging confidence that sits at the heart of AI policy; its AI Quarterly Pulse survey found that 82% of leaders expect risk management to be their biggest AI challenge and that 93% believe GenAI investments have already enhanced their competitive position. KPMG turns that diagnosis into governance machinery: the Trusted AI framework translates responsible-AI principles into scalable, lifecycle-wide action, and KPMG AI Trust — built on its longstanding alliance with ServiceNow — uses AI (including agents) to help clients manage AI intake, assessment, development, deployment, and monitoring so systems are secure, compliant, and ethically sound. Crucially for credibility, KPMG applies this to itself: it has pursued ISO/IEC 42001 (the global AI-governance certification standard) and embedded AI into its own smart-audit platform, KPMG Clara, to flag high-risk transactions — demonstrating governed AI in the highly regulated audit context. KPMG explicitly flags that governance is even more important for agentic AI, where risk must be orchestrated across multiple autonomous agents. For an AI-policy directory, KPMG’s value is as the assurance-and-governance pole of the Big Four: less a publisher of think-tank policy than a firm building the audit-grade controls, standards alignment (ISO 42001, NIST), and trust infrastructure that responsible government and enterprise AI will require.

Notable AI Policy Work

• Maintains the Trusted AI framework — embedding ethical principles and human oversight across the AI lifecycle — and pursued ISO/IEC 42001 certification, the global benchmark for AI governance.
• Launched KPMG AI Trust (May 2025), a suite of governance services enabled by the ServiceNow AI Control Tower to ensure AI reliability, accountability, and transparency across readiness, compliance, legal, regulatory, security, and risk.
• Published (with the University of Melbourne) ‘Trust, Attitudes and Use of AI: A Global Study 2025’ — surveying 48,000+ people across 47 countries and finding only ~46% willing to trust AI systems.
• Runs the AI Quarterly Pulse survey (82% of leaders expect risk management to be their biggest AI challenge; 93% say GenAI has enhanced competitiveness), a recurring read on executive AI sentiment.
• Embedded governed AI into its own smart-audit platform, KPMG Clara, to flag high-risk transactions — demonstrating trusted AI in a highly regulated context — and flags heightened governance needs for agentic AI.

Thought Leadership

1. Trust, Attitudes and Use of AI: A Global Study 2025 (with University of Melbourne)
   One of the largest global studies of public AI trust — 48,000+ people across 47 countries — finding adoption rising but only ~46% willing to trust AI systems.
2. KPMG Launches AI Trust Services (enabled by ServiceNow)
   A suite of governance services to ensure AI reliability, accountability, and transparency across the AI adoption lifecycle.
3. KPMG Trusted AI Framework
   KPMG’s framework translating responsible-AI principles into scalable, lifecycle-wide action with human oversight.
4. Advancing Responsible AI (ISO 42001 & Trusted AI)
   KPMG’s use of the ISO 42001 AI-governance standard and its Trusted AI framework to guide transparent, human-centric, ethical AI — including in its own KPMG Clara audit platform.

Clients

Federal, state, and local government agencies plus regulated commercial sectors (financial services, healthcare) for AI governance, audit, and risk. Key alliance partner: ServiceNow (AI Trust / AI Control Tower). Research partner: the University of Melbourne (global AI-trust study).