There is a lot of excitement and discussions on artificial intelligence (AI) and there are two camps of people. Are you in camp ‘let’s just weather the storm’ or are you the early adopter in the market always looking for ways to use new tech?
We start with a rebrand from Google, saying goodbye to Bard and hello to Gemini, which follows from internal changes. What is the big deal, I hear you ask and rightly so; Google Gemini is a multi-modal large language model, which can produce content in a variety of formats, including text and images. The potential from one of the big tech companies is very exciting.
The race is on when it comes to legislation and safeguarding the impact of AI. Be that news from the US Government positions for the US AI safety institute, or Meta announcing plans towards labelling of AI generated images.
What are we doing in the AI space as accountants for clients?
For some, AI has become a bit of a buzz word; we have seen advancements over the last two or three years in the tools we use.
Our bread and butter has been converting businesses over to cloud-based software like Xero. Such software has a number of time-saving features, often not fully utilised on conversion, such as bank statement rule setting and introducing invoice data capture, whether from photos, emails or fetching data from suppliers directly via third-party apps. We are finding businesses coming to us for advice and health checks to make sure automation opportunities are not missed.
Moving away from book-keeping, we are finding we can create insightful reporting by drilling down to product/service levels or location- based analysis. This data has been used either as part of regular monthly management reporting or live dashboards. Bespoke live dashboards are exciting for business owners to have their financial outlook readily available.
How are we seeing our clients use AI in owner-managed businesses?
We are seeing a greater interest in understanding the use of the likes of Chat GPT generally, where basic e-mail templates seem to the starting point for many individuals. Indeed, AI is starting to become a real game changer for many marketing departments and the possibilities are very impressive.
Back to financials, and, ultimately, it comes back to a few areas that create the ability to become more efficient and gain further useful insight into business. As new data becomes available, there is a question on data quality that will drive management decisions.
How should businesses be preparing for AI transformation?
In a recent report, published in partnership with the UK government, it is reported as little as 15% of all businesses have adopted at least one AI technology. There are multiple reports discussing the start of the shift from excitement to deployment for 2024.
Having access to good quality data is our top tip to businesses, with various technology options providing deeper insights. Process reviews are very important and may identify automation opportunities that can be carried out internally or externally.
Is technology friend or foe?
There is concern surrounding GDPR that needs to be managed. With new advancements comes new fraudulent and criminal activity, which are becoming more complex and advanced. Unless you have paid for an enterprise version of ChatGPT, for example, it is not advised to put sensitive information onto the platform. And even then, for those that are willing to invest, care must be taken that the answers to the questions asked are factually correct.
Generative AI, while impressive, has limitations. One key limitation is its inability to always produce accurate or meaningful results. This is because it learns from existing data and doesn’t understand context or common sense in the way humans do. Humans play a crucial role in overseeing and guiding generative AI systems to ensure they produce useful and appropriate outputs. Without human supervision, these systems can generate nonsensical or even harmful content. Another factor is your risk appetite. Innovation of any kind comes with some element of risk and it’s important to understand where you are now and where you’d like to get to in the future. Are you innovating because you want to, or because you fear you must in order to survive? It’s certainly a challenging time to own a business and understanding the risks of pressing ahead or doing nothing can help you to formulate your own plan.
What is coming up next for us?
We have been working in this area with governing bodies including presenting to regional chartered accountants; ICAEW members and working with university academics, generally being at the forefront of the changes in the accounting industry.
Closer to home, we are always reviewing the market and discussing with third-party applications the latest changes and advancements to aid small businesses.
If you would like to discuss how we can help you streamline your financial processes or understand how new technologies can benefit your business, please get in touch.
Contact Ad Valorem Group on 01908 219100, email enquiries@advaloremgroup.uk or visit the advaloremgroup.uk
Senior Manager
Ad Valorem Group
