PwC delivers analysis of real-time data and trends

Just about every company struggles to stay on top of what’s happening in our fast-changing world. Especially the trends and events that may impact the firm or influence its business. Many look for support from decision intelligence platforms; AI platforms that can help perform research and analysis effectively. One such is Trensition’s Trendtracker platform. Explains Trensition’s founder and CEO, Vincent Defour, "Trendtracker is like an advanced AI strategy analyst that continuously scouts the external environment to detect changes in trends. It analyses these trends focused on the context given by the company using it. It delivers an extra level of intelligence on how to act upon those trends.” Seeing the value for our firm and clients, PwC’s not just using Trendtracker ourselves, but we’ve created a joint business relationship (JBR) with the start-up to be able to offer the service to clients. 

The trends the platform identifies aren’t just happening now. “Trendtracker sifts through all kinds of knowledge, all kinds of insights, analysing the noise, deriving insights from that noise and providing recommendations on trends that have the potential to affect a company today, two years from now, five years from now or even further into the future. It helps companies better understand what they need to do to stay relevant and competitive,” Vincent Defour notes. As to who the tool targets, he says, “strategy teams, risk teams, innovation teams, all kinds of teams that have that external scouting responsibility and who must map what they find onto the company’s internal strategy.”

PwC has been connected with Trensition for several years. "The company had been a participant in our PwC Scale programme and had therefore been in touch with the PwC ecosystem," enthuses Matthias Coene, a Director in PwC Belgium’s Assurance practice.

"The concept of continuous risk sensing and horizon scanning isn’t new, but it’s a complex and time consuming activity. Looking for a more efficient way to answer a client request for an assessment, we searched for a tool that could help. Trensition came to mind. When we noticed the opportunity to integrate this in our client projects, the ball got rolling."

“In our search, we met with other platforms like Trensition. But comparing functionalities, look and feel, ease of use as well and the added value provided by the platform, it was clear that Trendtracker was way ahead of what others could provide,” notes Matthias Coene. And the tool’s continually evolving both in terms of technology and functionality. Trensition’s striving to stay ahead of evolutions in AI and how they can be integrated into the Trendtracker tool. “It’s already evolving in terms of how you can interact with the platform. It’s moving from a typical dashboard to a tool that you can converse with, be it via voice agents or prompting. In that way, it’s demonstrating the capabilities of AI in real life,” Vincent Defour explains. “Recommending Trendtracker to clients highlights PwC’s ability to bring the latest technologies to bear on our services to the benefit of clients,” Matthias Coene enthuses.

Since the original usage, PwC’s experts have used the Trendtracker platform in many ways. “In preparing client proposals and pitches, we’re better aware of the trends that could impact the client and the topics that should be on their radar. We consider what the trends mean for a specific organisation and a sector as a whole. We always have access to the latest news,” Matthias Coene notes. He goes on, “it’s like having a virtual colleague who can help you analyse vast amounts of data in a very short time period.” We not only call on Trensition for client work, but for tracking trends that could impact PwC too. To see which relevant topics should be on our own radar. 

Like any AI tool, the results from Trendtracker require human intervention to interpret results, but it still offers a massive advantage in terms of time saving. You can do what would’ve traditionally been two or three days of research in a matter of minutes. And it’s in real time. You can open the tool during a client meeting to access the very latest information.

Partnering with PwC offers Trensition access to new sources of information and learning. The company’s finding out about the workflows of an advisory consultant, a risk consultant and so on. What kind of data these profiles typically look for. How workflows can be automated. “That’s co-creation in terms of product innovation. But it’s also a commercial partnership with PwC. PwC has access to a market we don’t, and it has a huge amount of credibility in the market.  Together, we’ve a joint offer where PwC offers a service and Trendtracker adds in product and AI capabilities, making it really interesting,” Vincent Defour concludes.