‘I’m completely satisfied to say my job has by no means been boring’ says director and head of knowledge

Katherine Leenhouts discusses her work within the information and AI area and affords her recommendation to professionals seeking to emulate her profession

PwC’s Katherine Leenhouts is a director and the top of knowledge however she didn’t initially plan for her profession to go in that course. “My path began at college. I began off contemplating a level in one thing like Greek literature,” she advised SiliconRepublic.com. 

“As an alternative, I obtained hooked on enterprise after working for 2 small companies throughout summer season jobs. I switched majors and shock, I beloved my programming lessons. That they had the correct mix of tangible outcomes, problem and creativity. 

“I interned at PwC, because of the steerage of one in every of my professors, and accepted a full-time position with one in every of their early information analytics groups. Greater than 15 years later, I’m completely satisfied to say my job has by no means been boring.”

Along with AI, information and analytical abilities, what talents empower your work day after day?

Communication is a big a part of my day-to-day life.  Whether or not I’m partaking with senior leaders from different organisations, collaborating with our personal management or guiding interns or graduates on my group, the flexibility to adapt is vital. I discover it’s essential be fast in your toes. You want to have the ability to shift from understanding and digesting key details about a shopper undertaking to explaining key modifications within the information and AI area. That communication is available in many varieties, whether or not by way of displays, written proposals, requirement paperwork, or visible stories. My favorite is speaking by way of visible codecs equivalent to dashboards, slides, stories or different graphics. There’s nothing extra satisfying than seeing a fancy thought land and provides somebody the perception they should make a top quality choice.

Do you utilize any abilities that you just didn’t count on to make use of at the start of your profession?

Detective abilities. I like a very good set of necessities. Once I began, I assumed folks would know precisely what they wanted. What I found is that the preliminary job is simply the start line. I as soon as had a shopper ask for a dashboard to trace the standing of her firm’s inside audit initiatives worldwide. By way of asking questions and getting deeper into necessities, I discovered she had an issue with long-running audits that went previous their deadlines. These had been then generally adopted by lengthy remediations. She didn’t need the standing of inside audit initiatives, she wished a dashboard that gave her a abstract of the place initiatives had been caught so she might unblock them. We outlined classes for delayed initiatives. She (and we) wished information from the precise system auditors used to do their work, not from a manually up to date spreadsheet. We delivered a dashboard that up to date recurrently, required no out-of-system updates, and gave her the knowledge wanted to take immediate, common motion to maintain the enterprise centered on enhancements. The power to query deeper and totally perceive is one that’s way more necessary than I realised at the beginning of my profession.

How essential are office AI, information and analytical abilities, within the AI period?

AI fluency is now a fundamental requirement. Efficient use of AI raises the usual of our work. Instruments like coding assistants allow us to iterate extra rapidly. AI Brokers, LLMs and others can deliver the usual of labor up a number of ranges. It’s essential that people know use AI to boost and refine their very own concepts. With out private steerage, LLMs present reams of good-quality however generic output. We count on a person’s perspective and ability to shine by way of. Once we interview people, we’re on the lookout for individuals who suppose creatively, ask insightful questions, and excel at fixing issues. Candidates that embrace the AI period with a mindset that values curiosity and innovation stand out.

What’s thrilling a few present position in AI and are there many challenges?

The sector of AI is being created and refined each day. It jogs my memory of a kid’s earliest years. Sooner or later they’ll’t crawl in any respect, the following they’re all around the home. AI is lots like that. Each week the panorama modifications. Once you’re working within the area, you’re a part of the story. That’s thrilling. There are numerous challenges. For a lot of organisations information modernisation was a nice-to-have as a substitute of essential. Because of this, it may be difficult to use superior AI strategies. Organisations may be risk-averse. It takes compelling use instances to immediate modifications to insurance policies in order that they stability the dangers inherent in using novel applied sciences with the advantages and discount of threat in present processes. On a private stage, adapting to new methods of working is a continuing effort. What I like about our group is that this adaptation is usually enjoyable and fascinating. 

What profession routes can be found to folks expert in AI, information and analytics?

There are two methods I see that individuals may be expert in AI, information and analytics. Within the first occasion folks have foundational technical abilities, like programming in Python or SQL, working with information in cloud environments, creating and analysing insights or analysing the impression of AI on safety. In that case, at PwC you’ll discover a place in our tech, information plus AI group or in our cyber observe. Within the second occasion, if persons are data-literate, know ask good questions and use AI instruments to speed up their work. 

AI has remodeled office abilities expectations, how can a robust chief encourage their groups?

Sturdy leaders set an instance. They create areas for groups to share data and spotlight best-practices. Change is troublesome, particularly given the fast modifications within the AI area over the previous three years. At PwC we assist groups navigate these modifications by embedding AI champions throughout the enterprise to make it simpler to undertake new habits. Our interns and graduates undergo coaching on the instruments obtainable, moral use and our ways-of-working.

Have you ever any predictions for the way the 12 months forward might unfold when it comes to AI and automation traits?

I believe that is the 12 months there’s a requirement to begin to see tangible returns from AI investments. We may even see the primary IPO of an AI firm. I count on we’ll see extra LLMs geared in the direction of particular use-cases, like supporting shopper well being queries. We’ve already began to see extra insights into what folks “search” with LLMs (see Microsoft AI’s It’s About Time: The Copilot Utilization Report 2025) – I hope we see extra of this. We would start to note a transparent distinction between corporations that undertake AI to unravel enterprise issues and those who proceed business-as-usual. Total, I count on this area to proceed to evolve at tempo and hold pushing us to be modern, suppose creatively and hold shifting.

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