PwC Creates LIKEZERO For Enhanced Data Capture

PwC has spun out its technology for proprietary intelligent data capture to help create a new business, LIKEZERO, focused on next-generation data capture, a press release says.

The new development comes from a management buyout by Souter Investments, a private equity-focused family investment office, and Manfield Partners Limited.

According to the press release, LIKEZERO will help to boost a new, more intelligent level of insight, helping banks, financial institutions (FIs) and other regulated businesses to analyze and extract insight and data from clients’ clients. That aims to boost their risk management and contract governance, transformation and remedial activities.

With LIKEZERO, companies can activate an automated capture of data and then utilize proprietary, next-generation data mining and matching techniques to allow a scalable process for any type of document, eliminating the need for human review, per the release.

Michael Lines, CEO of LIKEZERO, said the moment is “hugely exciting” for the business and that it is critical for financial institutions to be able to operate at new levels.

“In today’s highly complex, unpredictable and regulated world, the ability for financial institutions to understand and manage their counterparty risk has become a critical function,” he said, according to the release. “Events such as Brexit, the cessation of Libor and the implementation of new regulations such as the new margin rules for uncleared, over-the-counter derivatives, or indeed the impact of a global pandemic, all make the assessment of risk increasingly challenging. I’m convinced that our proprietary software and expertise is the best in the market, and there lies the opportunity for us.”

Accounting firms, including PwC, EY, Deloitte and KPMG, have been working to invest in artificial intelligence, going beyond just automating processes and addressing things like entrenched AI work, data analysis and tech training for any employee.

Narayanan Vaidyanathan, the head of business futures at the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, said the idea is to help move industries forward, creating new jobs in fields like accounting and auditing where other duties were automated.