Beyond automation: How AI can transform the human side of accounting

I was excited to sit down at Xerocon Nashville recently with Ashley Francis, a CPA with almost 25 years of experience, who has become an accounting expert on using artificial intelligence. Based in the US, Ashley is a well-known speaker, teacher and writer in the accounting industry on the value of incorporating generative AI (GenAI) and automation into practices.

Ashley builds prompts and uses AI to automate routine tasks. She’s developed an approach that enhances personal relationships, whether that’s rehearsing difficult conversations or empowering new hires. Here are some highlights from our conversation, where Ashley shares more about her unique approach and how you might apply it to your own practice.

What is the industry like now versus when you started as an accountant?

I’ve been in the industry for 24 years, but I grew up in the accounting world. As a child, my mother worked for a CPA firm. I would come home from school and sit underneath the front desk, and see the amount of work that went into preparing a tax return. What I learnt was that it was actually never about the tax return. It was always about the people who were coming into the office who had concerns, who needed someone on their side that could help and support and comfort them, as well as help them understand and navigate the complex rules and regulations.

It sometimes feels like our profession is a competition of who’s the smartest person in the room, because of the complexity required and the need to keep up with legal changes. But the thing is, the original value proposition of accountancy was to be the person who could look at numbers and interpret them into human language. So I see the way the industry is evolving (such as using technology like GenAI) as bringing us back to our roots. GenAI is just a tool to help us make complex concepts simple, as we continue to engage with our clients and support their business needs.

How are you using AI in your practice?

I use AI a little differently from many other accountants, because my practice is different and tax heavy. AI helps me a lot with building relationships. I find my clients are very distracted; there are so many different things capturing their attention. And if we only touch base with them once a year or once a quarter, we’re not on their mind. I needed to find a way to cut through. 

What I find helpful is to use GenAI to create communications and automate those communications. This helps put myself in my client’s brain space and support them when they’re so distracted. 

Another way I use it is by building prompts to practise difficult conversations. I’ve built several prompts for different scenarios — for example, how to have conversations with challenging clients or prospects. When you’ve finished the exercise, the chatbot tells you what you did well, and what you need to work on. And it’s not just useful professionally — I’ve shared it with friends in personal conflict situations who speak to the prompt and work out how to solve the conflict.

I shared another prompt with a friend for him to use as he practised for a big proposal. He’d never presented that proposal before, and so he practised with the GenAI prompt several times. By the end of it, he felt more comfortable going into that conversation.

It’s about using GenAI to help accountants and bookkeepers get better at the things machines are never going to be really good at, like those human relationships and interactions.

I think one of the things a lot of people in this industry are thinking about is the problem we have with talent and training. You have a really interesting approach to this. Can you tell us how you are using GenAI prompts to help address this problem?

As I mentioned, I’ve been using prompts for relationships and practising those human interactions. Another use case that I think could become even more helpful in the next few years is helping us train new employees. 

We all know that training new employees is important, but it’s also really time-consuming. And we want our new employees to know things they’re not necessarily taught, like critical thinking, time management and project management. Also, fresh graduates who are new to the workforce might have trouble remembering all the accounting rules. 

I find we sometimes say to staff, “We’ll just do what we did last year”. But when you weren’t at the practice last year, then how are you supposed to know what to do?

I created a ‘superstar staff’ prompt with all the important information that a new staff member needs to know. They can ask all their questions without worrying that they are asking too many. With the help of this prompt, new staff members can get up to speed more quickly, becoming more independent and proficient.

GenAI can even help us look at non-traditional pathways into the profession. Think of your administrative staff – is building prompts something that they could upskill in? Here’s a coaching prompt I’ve developed that you can use to help staff learn particular concepts relevant to your practice.

If an accountant wants to move from experimenting and exploring to actually using AI in their practice, what are your recommendations?

I think GenAI is a tool best learned socially. Individually, people tend to throw things at the wall to see what sticks, and that’s not going to gain traction in a practice. In your practice, get together and brainstorm the one thing the team finds most annoying. Use all your efforts and experimentation to solve that problem together, and share your learnings. Then, only once you’ve solved that problem, move onto the next one.

If you’re keen to find out more about Ashley’s approach and how you can implement it in your own practice, check out her blogletter ‘Kitchen Table Automations’, sign up for her GenAI for tax and accounting course, or follow her on LinkedIn.