The Finance edition
The AI news of that week, in plain language.
This week: a consultancy firm that cuts itself with made-up AI sources, plus smarter Excel and sharp fraud tips.
PwC reports full of made-up sources: an expensive lesson about unchecked AI
Four advisory reports turned out to be largely written by AI, with made-up footnotes and studies that do not exist.
Four advisory reports from PwC Middle East, dated 2024 to 2026, turn out to be largely written by AI. They are full of made-up footnotes, MIT studies that do not exist, and fabricated quotes. A detection company found it, and the Financial Times confirmed it. The reports were meant to win new clients. The result: serious damage to their reputation.
Background for subscribersFeel free to let AI draft a cover text or a summary for your figures. But never copy an AI-named source, study, or figure into a client document without checking it against the real source yourself. Treat every AI answer like an intern's first draft: useful, never to be passed on blindly. Your name is tied to the accuracy, not the tool's.
Excel Copilot now shows where an answer comes from
The July update of Copilot in Excel shows inline citations, so you see straight away what an AI answer is based on. There is also a link to Power BI for live data, and Copilot now works in workbooks where AutoSave is off. Handy when you want to quickly check whether a result is correct.
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