As accountants, we have always had a lot of roles to play in interacting with our clients. Oftentimes we are required to process a lot of information, analyse and interpret it, and then advise our clients. This requires us to exercise different “muscles” including number crunching, precision, and communication.
Historically, we were limited in our ability to do the processing and analysis fast enough to get to the interpreting part, and this oftentimes limited our opportunity to optimize our value-add to our clients.
Enter ChatGPT and other Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools. While some may see these tools as anathema, they should actually be the silver bullet that frees us up to do what adds the most value to our client.
Such value is derived from our enhanced ability to provide analysis and interpretation of information, as well as providing advice and assisting clients with financial planning. These tools have in fact empowered us to become more relevant to our clients.
Automation and Streamlining of Repetitive Processes
There are many smart ways in which we can harness Chat GPT. A good starting point is to think about our regular tasks and identify the repetitive elements therein. If we were to delegate these tasks to another person, what would that delegation process look like?
Granted – ChatGPT and other AI tools need to be taught, just like one would teach an intern. So there is an element of investing that needs to happen. The same way we sometimes say “the best way to do the job right is to do it yourself” when we delegate to other humans, might be how we feel when “delegating” to ChatGpt.
However, patience is important because one of the things about ChatGPT is that the more you use it the better it becomes. So the results in the long term are definitely better.
ChatGPT can streamline our processes by creating chats / prompts, refining the questions till we get the perfect answer, then we save it. It can further be integrated into google sheets or scripts / macros.
We can draft useful documents such as engagement letters, proposals, and amortization tables by using prompts or giving ChatGPT information and instructions. We can also use ChatGPT to categorize expenses, process bank statement transactions or verify accounting data entries.
Some accountants who have early embraced ChatGPT have even gone as far as to create chatbots on their sites to respond to their routine client questions. The best part is that ChatGPT can even write the script for the chatbots, thus taking away the necessity for complex coding.
Enhanced Financial Analysis
The use of artificial intelligence can help us to go deeper into financial analysis, using the data we have at hand, thus improving the quality of our clients’ decision-making processes. AI can identify patterns and trends as well as processing and analysing large amounts of data.
An example could be providing ChatGPT with historical financial information and letting it analyse the information for such trends, correlations and anomalies, as well as predicting future trends and outcomes.
AI can even assess any financial risks using historical data, and go as far as to provide visual charts / graphs, scenario analyises or other representations of such information.
Improvement in Efficiency
The use of Artificial Intelligence can replace human efforts in routine transactions such as report writing, research, or processing large amounts of data. Not only does this free up the accountant to perform value-added tasks, but it also does the tasks much more accurately.
This is not to say that the accountant mindlessly adopts and passes on information processed by AI. There will always be a need to review the outputs from AI, but the benefit is that AI creates a base from which accountants can start and add value.
Enhanced Communication
ChatGPT has powerful features to optimize client engagement. Such features could be useful for relationship building and communication as well as marketing and sales skills.
A simple way in which this can be effected is in drafting correspondence and utilizing AI to determine the appropriate tone and style and re-wording the communication appropriately.
Driving Firm Growth
The use of AI efficiencies and capabilities can be harnessed to drive business growth. Such growth can be achieved through utilizing AI for marketing, recruitment, training and accessing information and tools that enhance business growth.
For example, you can use AI to generate business proposals, key performance indicators and training content. Similarly, AI can be used to generate marketing content.
Examples of Useful AI Tools That Accountants Can Use
CreditYelp
CreditYelp is a tool that can generate amortization schedules based on information fed into it such as terms of loan, loan amount, start date and interest rate.
Tools to Automate Relationship Intelligence
There are several tools available that can help automate relationship intelligence such as Introhive and Affinity. Relationship Intelligence Automation (RIA) systems automatically collect and enter critical data about prospects and customers into Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems.
In markets where there are many available options, customers have the power to be more demanding from their service providers. Such demands include seeking relationships that are more strategic rather than transactional.
This has resulted in in service providers needing to reduce time on the more repetitive and mundane tasks to focus on more strategic tasks and conversations.
Intelligence automation can be used for example in using tools that act as admin assistants to “attend” online meetings, take notes, suggest follow up actions, draft follow up emails and transcribe meetings.
PDF GPT
This is a tool that allows you to talk to voluminous papers / documents using artificial intelligence technology, eg by extracting key information, summarizing it, and providing answers to specific sections of that content.
Lucidchart
This is a an intelligent diagramming application that allows individuals and teams to easily and quickly map out where they are, what’s missing, and what’s next. It also provides designs for anything from brainstorming to project management and is a great way to explain concepts or ideas diagrammatically.
Conclusion
Chat GPT is an ally and not a foe. Used correctly, it is a powerful tool to improve how accountants serve their clients and offer enhanced value. AI is not a proxy for the accountant, and we should not outsource our responsibility to it, but rather see it as a powerful assistant that gives us a competitive edge in fulfilling our roles.
