EY Canada has removed a report on loyalty rewards programmes from its website after researchers identified several mistakes. The report, which was allegedly AI-generated, apparently included AI hallucinations, inaccurate citations and references to studies that do not exist. The consulting firm said it is now “reviewing the circumstances that led to this article’s publication” following scrutiny over the report, titled Points of Attack: Uncovering Cyber Threats and Fraud in Loyalty Systems, as reported by the Financial Times.
The research group at GPTZero found that the report, which is used by EY consultants in Canada to market cybersecurity services, reportedly contained fabricated data and misattributed citations and references to a non-existent McKinsey report. EY took the document down from public access when the issues were raised.
“EY Canada takes the accuracy of all the content we publish seriously and we have an organisation-wide commitment to the responsible use of AI,” the company said. EY added that the report was not connected to any client work.
Researchers Flag Fake Citations and Inconsistent Data in EY Report
GPTZero researchers said the report included multiple inconsistencies. According to their analysis, the report estimated the loyalty programme market at $200 billion while also claiming unclaimed loyalty points amounted to the same figure. The researchers also found that more than half a dozen footnotes linked to webpages that either did not exist or did not contain the information cited.
“Publishing a report online is essentially a form of data injection into the pool of knowledge that is the internet. When the report includes fake information (either vibed citations or false claims) it can ‘poison the well’ by misleading future researchers, especially if the report is published by a well-known consulting firm and hosted on a high-traffic website,” GPTZero researchers Om Ogale, Paul Esau and Alex Cui wrote in a blog post.
Broader Implications for AI in Professional Services
The incident adds to a series of cases involving AI-related errors in professional services and legal sectors. EY’s rival Deloitte reportedly revised a report prepared for a Canadian provincial government after fake academic citations were discovered. Separately, law firm Sullivan & Cromwell apologised to a New York court last month after court filings repeatedly misquoted US bankruptcy laws and cited cases incorrectly.
Despite concerns around AI-generated inaccuracies, consulting firms continue to increase investments in AI tools and services. EY said in October that its AI-related revenue had grown 30% year over year and that 15,000 employees had worked on AI-related client projects ranging from enterprise transformations to AI governance frameworks.
The removal of the report comes as companies across sectors face growing pressure to balance AI adoption with oversight and content verification processes.
