By Andrew Guy, CEO at FD Intelligence
In my previous post, I explored the perfect storm of challenges facing UK accountancy firms. Today, I’m diving into Intelligent Automation and AI.
I’ll explain why and how these compelling technological capabilities are successfully meeting the challenges of increasingly low productivity – talent shortages and rising work demands.
What is Intelligent Automation
Intelligent Automation is a cutting-edge blend of robotic process automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning. Think of it as a team of AI-enriched, software robot assistants delivering more productive, higher quality work that flows faster across firms. These digital assistants can:
- Read your screen
- Understand documents including emails and handwritten notes
- Classify and extract data from documents
- Analyse complex data
- Make smart decisions
- Perform repetitive tasks without errors
Most importantly, when faced with complex situations, these robots know when to seek human guidance, ensuring accuracy and quality control.
Intelligent Automation relies on software robots that mimic human abilities to ‘see’, ‘think’, and ‘do’ work. How are these abilities realised?
- SEE: robots can view computer screens, handle prompts, and read scanned documents, emails, and even handwriting to extract relevant information.
- THINK: using machine learning algorithms, robots can analyse data, make decisions, and flag any discrepancies for human review.
- DO: following predefined business rules, robots can perform repetitive work without errors, 24/7, involving human expertise only when necessary.
What’s the impact on UK Accountancy Firms?
Intelligent Automation takes efficiency and productivity to the next level by automating repetitive tasks, such as invoice processing, reconciliation, and compliance work. Gone are the days of tedious manual data entry and monotonous spreadsheet manipulation.
The good news does not stop there. Now complex financial statements can be analysed and interpreted in a matter of seconds, income documents can be classified and data seamlessly entered into the tax return.
By utilising machine learning algorithms, capabilities like OpenAI not only automate routine tasks but also empower your accountants to make informed decisions based on real-time data analysis.
Furthermore, these capabilities enable accountants to stay ahead of the curve in an increasingly competitive landscape. So, as well as delivering faster, more accurate results, they can position themselves as trusted advisors and strategic partners within their organisations.
Sector specialists are also creating “productised” Intelligent Automation solutions to uniquely deliver specific activities, like tax returns and payroll processing. This approach, coupled with novel consumption charging models, also enable a lower cost of entry to a wider range of accountancy firms.
It’s no surprise that Intelligent Automation adoption in the UK accountancy sector is rapidly gaining momentum. Over 50% of the top 50 and wider 100 UK accounting firms are already employing it to meet their challenges.
In fact, by 2026, I expect that 90% of the top UK 100 firms will adopt intelligent automation, along with the majority of small and medium firms.
Benefits of Intelligent Automation
- Productivity boosts: manage peak workload periods confidently without hiring more staff. Scale existing resources to manage growth.
- Reduced cost & risk: perform tasks faster and remove errors to boost quality and compliance. Generate up to 30% in savings.
- More time for greater value delivery & satisfaction: liberate employees from number-crunching and data processing, allowing them to focus on more valuable strategic advising.
- Improved services: faster service completion times lead to greater customer loyalty and more time for high-value services.
- Quick ROI: benefits are being seen in weeks for simple processes, with complex, end-to-end process automations deliverable in just 3-4 months.
A Global Trend
This shift towards Intelligent Automation isn’t limited to the UK. In the US, research by Wolters Kluwer US Tax & Accounting covering 1,500 accountancy firms shows that 59% are interested in intelligent automation to automate routine actions in 2024.
The need is compelling and urgent: more than 300,000 U.S. accountants and auditors have left their jobs in the past two years. A decreasing number of accounting graduates can’t fill this gap.
Moreover, research data from UiPath and Bain indicates that 70% of senior executives view AI-driven automation as “very important” or “critical” to their business pursuits.
Looking Ahead
Intelligent Automation is not just about removing tedious tasks; it’s about helping your firm reimagine what’s possible. It’s a powerful toolset that can help address the challenges of talent shortages, increasing work demands and the need for more strategic services. I like to use the phrase “Let’s take the robot out of the human”.
In my next post, I’ll explore specific areas of accountancy work being transformed by Intelligent Automation, including a case study that demonstrates its real-world impact.
Stay tuned to discover how these capabilities are revolutionising tasks from tax to payroll processing and beyond.
