Unlock the power of AI
As AI and automation continue to gain traction in the accounting industry, it’s essential to understand how these technologies can be effectively applied to make practical and tangible differences to your practice. At FYI, we view AI not as a distant, complex concept but as a powerful tool that, when implemented correctly, can revolutionise the way accountants work. In our recent webinar, we delved deep into these topics, demonstrating real-world applications. The full recording is available at the bottom of this page.
Transforming Skepticism into Opportunity
AI refers to the capability of machines to mimic intelligent human behaviour. It ranges from simple rule-based systems to advanced machine learning and generative models that can create content from scratch.
AI is often seen as a game-changer, but its success relies on how effectively it’s used. This requires precise inputs and detailed context—elements that can be challenging due to time, resources, or training constraints, sometimes leading to mixed results. Integrating AI into a practice, particularly in accounting, involves careful planning and consideration, especially when it comes to data security.
Now, imagine a world where these challenges are not just addressed but overcome. In this world, AI seamlessly and securely integrates into your workflows, automating routine tasks, enhancing data accuracy, and providing actionable insights that drive your practice forward. With the right context and inputs, AI can prepare documents, normalise and clean your data, and even personalise client communication—all while freeing up valuable time for more strategic, high-value activities.
Unlocking the Potential of AI
At FYI, we’re not just imagining this world—we’re building it. We’ve realised that the true potential of AI is unlocked through its practical application. The key lies in the power of automation, the strength of a centralised, high-quality database, and the precision of well-defined custom fields. By ensuring you have a reliable and consistent data foundation, you can bring that data to life with automation steps that trigger AI at the right moment, using the best possible prompts every time.
To put it simply, our approach revolves around capturing the peak performance of your star team members—their best work moments—and embedding that expertise within AI-driven automation. Whenever a specific scenario or use case arises, the automation passes critical context to the AI platform, ensuring that the best possible results are consistently delivered across your entire practice. This means that your team and clients benefit from the same high-quality outcomes, no matter the situation.
The Power of AI and Process Automation in Practice
With this foundation, AI’s capabilities extend far beyond simple automation. When combined with process automation, AI delivers substantial benefits, including:
- Improved Data Quality
- Enhanced data quality by accurately organising and securely storing information from various sources, such as documents, emails, and client activities. This allows for consistent naming conventions across the practice, making it easy to search and retrieve documents. AI plays a role in cleaning, normalising, and categorising data, ensuring everything is easily accessible and accurately filed.
- Improved Practice Efficiency
- Significantly boost efficiency by automating the delegation of tasks. When client queries or requests come in, AI will read, summarise, and assign tasks to the appropriate team members within minutes, reducing the workload on practice leaders and enabling faster response times.
- Improved Insights
- Deeper insights by analysing practice data, enabling automatic work allocation based on capacity, workload, and skills, optimising outputs and enhancing client experience. This approach maximises efficiency and ensures that work is distributed effectively across the team.
Looking Ahead – FYI AI
Building on these foundations, we’re preparing to launch FYI AI—a feature set designed to take these capabilities to the next level. Currently in development, FYI AI is expected to be available by the end of 2024.
In preparation, here are steps you can take today to ensure your practice is ready to take full advantage of FYI AI:
- Implement a Modern Practice Platform
- If you’re not using a modern practice suite that can deliver the type of automation and AI discussed here, it’s crucial to act now to avoid being left behind. Start by building a business case, securing buy-in across your practice, and taking the first steps toward transformation. Our experienced new business managers can assist with this process, providing purpose-built templates, including an ROI calculator and a customisable business case to fit your specific needs.
- Start Experimenting with Generative AI
- If you haven’t already begun experimenting with AI, there’s no better time than now. Daily use of AI can start to demystify the technology and deliver immediate benefits. Consider setting up an account with a tool like ChatGPT and dedicate some time to exploring different use cases. Building this habit will increase your confidence and help you make informed decisions as you integrate AI into your practice.
- Enhance your client database
- To get the most out of AI, it’s crucial to enhance and segment your client list. Quality and consistency in your client data provides the necessary context for AI to operate effectively, allowing it to make more informed decisions and deliver more accurate results. For example, categorising clients into levels such as platinum, gold, silver, and bronze helps AI understand the relative importance of different clients, enabling it to prioritise tasks and tailor responses accordingly. This segmentation ensures that AI processes are not only more efficient but also more aligned with your practice’s priorities, leading to more valuable and relevant outcomes.
If you’re new to FYI, consider booking a session with one of our experienced new business managers. They can provide personalised support to help you take the first step toward transforming your practice with AI and automation.
To learn more about what AI can do for your practice, watch our recent webinar below.