‘Discover’ Where to Start With AI

If I read one more article about artificial intelligence (AI), I’m going to pull out what’s left of my hair! If you’re anything like me, you’re seriously tired of the theoretical jargon and words like AI pilot and digital transformation. I’m exhausted reading abstract articles about AI’s potential to revolutionize the accounting and finance profession, followed by no practical steps of what to actually do to implement it!

Full disclosure: I’m just a practical, old-time, semi-retired, non-tech-savvy certified public accountant (CPA) who struggles to use a TV remote control. I don’t need all the AI theory; I need answers to a few basic questions:

1. What specific practical tasks can AI do today to make a CPA’s life easier?
2. What specific practical steps can a CPA do today to prepare AI for the next tax season?
3. What dollars will this save me?

Last year, with my frustration and passive-aggressive nature in hand, I marched into Chris Stephenson’s office, alliantgroup’s director of intelligent automation, and aired my AI grievances. He explained that there was a process for answering all those questions above—it’s called “AI discovery,” and he’s helped hundreds of businesses in every industry, including CPA firms, take this important first step.

AI Discovery: The Practical First Step

Last year, Stephenson put together a think-tank session with 200 of the nation’s top CPAs. The goal was to gather feedback on how AI might help their practices. The number one thing he heard from the audience was, “I don’t know where to start.” That’s because while CPAs understand that there’s incredible potential with AI, they still don’t know what to do with it, where they should put it, what it does best, how to scale it across a practice, or how to get it to do what they need.

So, with this in mind, Stephenson proceeded to walk the room through an AI discovery process. This is a process where organizations can identify where AI actually makes the most sense for them and how they can get started.

Here’s what the AI discovery process roughly looks like.

1. Ideation Session: This part is a workshop that gives everyone (partners and staff) an opportunity to present their problems and ideas for possible AI solutions. Everyone on your team probably has AI ideas—the trick is getting them all out in the open and figuring out what’ll add the most value to your firm.
   
   
2. Scoring: So, you got a bunch of ideas, but now what? This is where scoring is critical. Discovery often hinges on scoring each idea based on objective measures to determine their priority. Every firm is different, but you want to score on several dimensions. For example, which idea can get solved the fastest, which will have the biggest impact, or which can scale for every department? This way you can rank which idea has the highest value and which one you should start with.
   
   
3. Technology Infrastructure Assessment: Now that you know which AI projects are going to have an impact on your business, you need to assess whether your firm’s technology is even ready for them. You’ll need to have your technology infrastructure evaluated to determine its AI readiness and find out if there are any shortcomings preventing you from getting started.
   
   
4. Roadmap: Finally, you need a clear roadmap to lay out how you’re going to deploy each solution. Do you need to buy or build an AI solution? Do you need to train employees? How do you measure if your solution is having an impact? A roadmap should lay all of that out for you.

Interestingly, at Stephenson’s think tank, 500 ideas were generated during the ideation session. His team ran their scoring algorithm and identified five common problems that AI could help nearly every firm resolve with AI:

1. Collecting payments from clients.
2. Requesting and processing documents from clients.
3. Moving trial balances to workpapers.
4. Responding to IRS letters.
5. Handling internal queries, like HR questions.

Although these were the most identified issues with this group of 200 CPAs, it’s important to remember that every firm is different. Not every firm needs one of these five solutions. So, just don’t jump to buy a package of AI add-ons from a local vendor to solve issues that may not even exist in your firm. Instead, do your own AI discovery to identify your firm’s biggest pain points and develop a plan to attack them with AI.

AI’s Impact on the Bottom Line

After Stephenson shared his think tank story with me, a number of things from my past started flashing before me. I thought about all the time I spent with client billing and developing Excel spreadsheets to analyze and justify my hours and bills so I could put that information into a client letter. I also thought about the time I spent on routine IRS notice letters and all the other mundane tasks that bored me.

More importantly, I thought about how much money I could’ve saved if AI did some of these specific tasks for me. In fact, some early statistics are showing that firms that adopt AI are earning 40% more per professional. Another statistic shows that companies that are AI leaders are outperforming competitors by six times compared to those not using AI. Further, firms that employ document request tools and trial balance to workpaper tools are seeing up to a 25% reduction in time preparing tax returns.

Given this positive impact, I can’t help but ask a couple of questions: Would life have been better as a CPA 45 years ago when I started in public practice if AI existed back then? Should I leave my semi-retired life behind and consider a return to public accounting now that AI is in the picture?

The answer to the first question is an obvious “yes,” and the answer to second question is an even more obvious “no.” But for those still in the game, let’s face it: It’s time to jump on the AI bandwagon. But, before you get lost in the AI jargon jungle out there (trust me, it’s easy), take some time to begin your AI discovery process. By doing so, your firm’s next tax season might just be more profitable, with less stress, more free time, and more fun.