New Delhi: PwC has come under scrutiny after an investigation revealed AI hallucinations, fabricated citations, and fake references in its research reports. This issue follows similar AI-related reporting errors by fellow ‘Big Four’ firms KPMG, EY, and Deloitte.
An investigation by researchers at AI detection platform GPTZero analysed four thought leadership reports published by PwC Middle East and found AI-generated content multiple times.
The researchers found that reports were riddled with fabricated citations, broken links and references to studies that never existed.
PwC has become the latest Big Four firm to come under scrutiny, raising concerns over the use of AI in client-facing research.
The investigators found that PwC Middle East reports published between 2024 and 2026 consisted of hallucinated citations.
After the claim, PwC Middle East updated a limited number of supporting citations in the reports mentioned by GPTZero.
PwC said the firm has quality control processes for research and content development that employees are expected to follow.
Also read: LinkedIn is adding a ‘seems like AI slop’ option prompt to posts on their platform
From KPMG to EY
GPTZero had earlier exposed KPMG’s October 2025 report titled ‘Redefining Excellence in the Age of Agentic AI’. The report relied heavily on generative AI and contained widespread artificial intelligence hallucinations. This forced KPMG to pull down the publication.
Of 45 cited sources, 40 were found to be fabricated or heavily distorted.
In May 2026, EY Canada removed a report on loyalty rewards programmes from its website after researchers flagged several mistakes.
EY reviewed its report titled Points of Attack: Uncovering Cyber Threats and Fraud in Loyalty Systems. Researchers found that the report contained fabricated data and misattributed citations and references to a non-existent McKinsey report.
EY then took the document down from public access when the issues were raised.
GPTZero also found AI hallucinations in Deloitte’s report last year.
The researchers found that in the 234-page report, of 141 citations, more than 30 issues were identified, including 19 hallucinations.
(Edited by Saptak Datta)