Ausgrid Pilots KPMG's KymChat Guided-Buying Assistant on Azure OpenAI for Procurement

Ausgrid, the largest energy network on Australia's east coast, piloted an AI-enabled guided-buying assistant for its procurement team with KPMG and Microsoft, according to a KPMG client story published in March 2026. Ausgrid reports fewer errors, improved efficiency, stronger user feedback and initial reductions in manual effort and administration time, but no figures were published. Procurement at Ausgrid was becoming more complex and more regulated. The team needed to make faster and compliant purchasing decisions, cut manual work, cope with skill shortages and integration challenges without major system changes, and build policy guidance into everyday decisions. The pilot used KPMG's guided-buying accelerator, powered by KymChat, KPMG's enterprise AI assistant co-developed with Microsoft, built on Microsoft Azure OpenAI and integrated into KPMG's Workbench. Selected Ausgrid policies, processes and procurement rules were embedded into KymChat so that its guidance follows Ausgrid's own requirements and governance controls. The accelerator was connected to Ausgrid's existing systems in a controlled way to limit disruption and speed adoption, and targeted procurement workflows were streamlined to reduce manual steps and improve accuracy. The pilot was designed with scalability in mind, and Ausgrid and KPMG plan to use its learnings to shape possible future phases.