SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 20 (Reuters) - - KPMG said on

Wednesday it would spend $100 million over the next four years

to bolster its enterprise artificial intelligence services

through a partnership with Alphabet's Google Cloud.

Part of the money will be spent on payments directly to Google,

though the majority will be spent on in-house efforts that

leverage Google's products, Steve Chase, vice chair of AI and

innovation for KPMG, told Reuters in an interview. That includes

developing AI agents and training the firm's workforce to become

proficient with the technology.

While Wall Street waits on the technology industry to

demonstrate returns commensurate with the billions in capital

expenditure it is pouring into AI, professional services

providers have become one of the first business beneficiaries of

the technology as large businesses tap accounting and consulting

firms for help on implementing AI inside their companies and

product offerings.

"We strongly are in the camp that it is moving from [proof of

concept] and experimentation to scaling," Chase said. "We

believe that professional services is going through the largest

transformation that it will likely ever go through."

He cited a KPMG poll of business leaders, which found that about

50% of surveyed organizations planned to spend $100 million on

AI initiatives over the next 12 months, and about 20% planned to

spend at least $250 million.

Bookings for KPMG's Google Cloud-related services have grown

10-fold over the last two years, Chase said.

In keeping with clients' demands, KPMG is spreading its bets

across cloud providers. In July 2023, the firm announced a $2

billion commitment across five years to expand AI and cloud

services via Microsoft ( MSFT ).

Google's president of revenue for its cloud division, Matt

Renner, told Reuters the company is emphasizing partnering with

consulting firms as part of its cloud growth strategy. The

company's third-quarter earnings beat in October was driven in

part by a 35% boost in cloud sales.

Renner predicted that the three major cloud companies - Amazon ( AMZN )

, Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Google - and most professional

services firms would continue to "grow pretty exponentially

together."

Chase declined to share how much KPMG has invested into its

Google Cloud practice to date, but said Wednesday's tranche was

the "largest direct investment commitment" with Google so far.

"We anticipate making additional announcements about

additional investments in this area," he said.