Mumbai, Nov. 18 -- The Australian winter, which runs from June to August, proved to be rather harsh for Deloitte, one of the Big Four accountancy and consultancy firms. Not because of climate change, but because of artificial intelligence (AI).

Deloitte's member firm in Australia had been tasked with reviewing the country's welfare system, which had been facing flak for wrongly penalizing welfare recipients and jobseekers. The Deloitte team submitted a 237-page review last December. After the department of employment and workplace relations published the review on its website in July, University of Sydney academic Christopher Rudge pointed out that it was riddled with errors. And then, hell broke loose for Deloitte.

It turned out that D...