Gillian Bowen, Host: Hello, my name is Gillian Bowen and this is Small Firm,
Gillian Bowen, Host: Big Impact.
Kayur Patel, CA: If we take that down to what we do as
Kayur Patel, CA: chartered accountants and the way that we help organisations, I
Kayur Patel, CA: think the biggest impact that we need to be thinking
Kayur Patel, CA: about is all around productivity. Humans with AI will replace
Kayur Patel, CA: humans without it. Now, that's not going to happen tomorrow. Um,
Kayur Patel, CA: but I think that's probably the next horizon that we're
Kayur Patel, CA: looking at. And so I think it's extremely important to
Kayur Patel, CA: get across this.
Gillian Bowen, Host: It's the podcast giving Chartered Accountants the up to date
Gillian Bowen, Host: information they need to do their jobs. Each episode, I
Gillian Bowen, Host: share resources, tools and expert advice provided by Chartered Accountants
Gillian Bowen, Host: Australia and New Zealand and a range of people across
Gillian Bowen, Host: our profession. So get following the pod in your favourite
Gillian Bowen, Host: podcast app. Let's start a conversation. Today, we have Kayur Patel CA.
Gillian Bowen, Host: The topic, Artificial intelligence, but specifically tailored to accounting; accounting right
Gillian Bowen, Host: now in 2024. But also what's just around the corner.
Gillian Bowen, Host: Kayur welcome to Small Firm, Big Impact.
Kayur Patel, CA: Thanks for having me Gill.
Gillian Bowen, Host: So regular listeners of the podcast will know I like
Gillian Bowen, Host: to get my guests to take me through their expertise
Gillian Bowen, Host: and why it's relevant here. Why you're on the podcast
Gillian Bowen, Host: with us. Take it away.
Kayur Patel, CA: Yeah. Thanks, Gill. Um, so I've been in this space
Kayur Patel, CA: for quite a while, and I've been very lucky with
Kayur Patel, CA: my career to have roles that have allowed me to
Kayur Patel, CA: explore the cutting edge of technology. Um, so for a
Kayur Patel, CA: day job, I spend my time, um, immersed in the
Kayur Patel, CA: AI space at PwC and helping ourselves and our clients
Kayur Patel, CA: get across AI and what it means for their business. Um,
Kayur Patel, CA: I also lecture in this space at at the University
Kayur Patel, CA: of Auckland as well. Um, and that's really cool because
Kayur Patel, CA: I get to start thinking around how this is going
Kayur Patel, CA: to impact us as a society, our industry and in our future. Um,
Kayur Patel, CA: and also as, as I am relatively involved in the,
Kayur Patel, CA: in the CA space on some local governance committees. And
Kayur Patel, CA: so I get to have conversations with CAs around what
Kayur Patel, CA: in the AI space is really of interest, what the
Kayur Patel, CA: concerns are, why people are excited and how this could
Kayur Patel, CA: impact them. So it's something I'm immersed in a lot of,
Kayur Patel, CA: and it's something I really enjoy doing.
Gillian Bowen, Host: Mmm, okay, this is great. I feel like we've got
Gillian Bowen, Host: the right person for the job here, which is fantastic. Now,
Gillian Bowen, Host: we have talked about AI on this podcast before. You're right, it's
Gillian Bowen, Host: a topic that our members come to us regularly about,
Gillian Bowen, Host: and it was an episode back in season three, and
Gillian Bowen, Host: I just kind of sat down with a member in
Gillian Bowen, Host: a smaller practice and asked how she was using generative AI. Right?
Gillian Bowen, Host: So what she discovered it could do what she thought
Gillian Bowen, Host: might be helpful to practices going forward. It was all
Gillian Bowen, Host: kind of new-ish at this stage and was evolving. And
Gillian Bowen, Host: I mean, gosh, it's still evolving, isn't it? We're all
Gillian Bowen, Host: just kind of testing the waters and it's moving so quickly.
Gillian Bowen, Host: So I thought it was time to again discuss this topic.
Gillian Bowen, Host: And it is something that is impacting accountants and we
Gillian Bowen, Host: can't ignore. And it is complex and an important one,
Gillian Bowen, Host: as you would know. So Kayur and I have decided
Gillian Bowen, Host: that it would benefit our members and our listeners if
Gillian Bowen, Host: we did this in two parts. Right. So this episode
Gillian Bowen, Host: is part one, and the episode straight after this will
Gillian Bowen, Host: be part two. Part one we're going to focus on
Gillian Bowen, Host: what I'm thinking is the what, the why, how, when,
Gillian Bowen, Host: what if sort of discussion, the landscape in 2024 and
Gillian Bowen, Host: then part two will focus on accounting specific use cases
Gillian Bowen, Host: relevant to right now. So make sure you're ready for
Gillian Bowen, Host: the episode that'll follow this, so part two as well.
Gillian Bowen, Host: But let's get cracking. So, Kayur what does AI mean, essentially?
Gillian Bowen, Host: Why does it matter to New Zealand and Australia, to accountants?
Kayur Patel, CA: Yeah. It's, um, it's a good way to start. Maybe we.
Kayur Patel, CA: Maybe we start with why it matters, and then we
Kayur Patel, CA: can go through what it is. So, I mean, it
Kayur Patel, CA: matters for a lot of reasons like this technology could
Kayur Patel, CA: really change the way that society, um, thinks about itself,
Kayur Patel, CA: the way it organizes itself. There's some really high level
Kayur Patel, CA: existential things that this could have an impact on. But
Kayur Patel, CA: if we take that down to what we do as chartered
Kayur Patel, CA: accountants and the way that we help organizations, I think
Kayur Patel, CA: the biggest impact that we need to be thinking about
Kayur Patel, CA: is all around productivity. So, um, I live in New Zealand.
Kayur Patel, CA: New Zealand, we're not a very productive country at all. And
Kayur Patel, CA: and in fact, we're way down at the bottom of
Kayur Patel, CA: the end of that spectrum. And I think Xero, which
Kayur Patel, CA: you'll be aware of in Australia as well, they came
Kayur Patel, CA: out with a report last year to say that if
Kayur Patel, CA: New Zealand was to match the same output as a
Kayur Patel, CA: country like Ireland, similar, similar factors going on in Ireland. Um,
Kayur Patel, CA: every New Zealander would have to work on average 11
Kayur Patel, CA: hours a day more than what they already work. So
Kayur Patel, CA: on top of what they already work. Wow. Um and you
Kayur Patel, CA: guys in Australia are doing better than us, but still
Kayur Patel, CA: not at the top end of the spectrum. You're still
Kayur Patel, CA: kind of in that middle bucket, you know. AI has
Kayur Patel, CA: the ability to change the game when it comes to productivity.
Kayur Patel, CA: And if we make the investment and take the initiative
Kayur Patel, CA: to harness the use cases in the ability for AI to
Kayur Patel, CA: make us far more productive, far more efficient, we can
Kayur Patel, CA: have both of our countries really skyrocketing up that curve.
Kayur Patel, CA: If we don't, we're going to fall further and further behind,
Kayur Patel, CA: because you can bet that the other countries at the
Kayur Patel, CA: top end are going to be doing that as well.
Kayur Patel, CA: And so when I think about what accountants do, we
Kayur Patel, CA: help the backbone of business in Australia and New Zealand,
Kayur Patel, CA: small medium sized business. And I think as advisors it's
Kayur Patel, CA: our job to help our clients, these businesses get across
Kayur Patel, CA: this new technology and understand how to implement in their
Kayur Patel, CA: business in a safe, reliable way to really get up
Kayur Patel, CA: the productivity curve. That'll help them. It'll help us, and
Kayur Patel, CA: then it will help our economies in New Zealand and
Kayur Patel, CA: Australia as well.
Gillian Bowen, Host: So there's two parts there to that for me. So
Gillian Bowen, Host: it's not only you understanding it as a member, as
Gillian Bowen, Host: an accountant to how it can help your individual business,
Gillian Bowen, Host: but then also being able to understand it enough to
Gillian Bowen, Host: do that advisor role to show your clients as to
Gillian Bowen, Host: how it can help them.
Kayur Patel, CA: Yeah, I really think we're quite lucky and privileged in our
Kayur Patel, CA: types of roles we get to do it from both perspectives.
Kayur Patel, CA: And even if I think about the journey that we're
Kayur Patel, CA: going on in our own firm, you know, we are
Kayur Patel, CA: very much of the opinion that we got to do
Kayur Patel, CA: this to ourselves. And we've we've got to go through
Kayur Patel, CA: this journey ourselves. And then we have the ability and
Kayur Patel, CA: the experience to help our clients do that as well.
Kayur Patel, CA: So I think for the listeners of this podcast getting
Kayur Patel, CA: on to some of these AI tools, and we could
Kayur Patel, CA: talk about some examples, but and then we'll, we'll do
Kayur Patel, CA: some specific ones in the next, um, in the next episode,
Kayur Patel, CA: that's going to really help your listeners get across some
Kayur Patel, CA: of these productivity gains for themselves. But I think there's
Kayur Patel, CA: also another piece around here. You know, we've talked about
Kayur Patel, CA: accountants moving from just focusing on compliance to also being
Kayur Patel, CA: those well rounded business advisors. I think this is another
Kayur Patel, CA: arm of that well-rounded business advisor that we should be
Kayur Patel, CA: looking at.
Gillian Bowen, Host: I might tie that into the next question I want to ask
Gillian Bowen, Host: about what exactly generative AI is. And I love the
Gillian Bowen, Host: way now it's known as Gen AI. So spelling that
Gillian Bowen, Host: out in case people haven't heard it or realised it's
Gillian Bowen, Host: already being abbreviated. Um, it. If we discuss what it is,
Gillian Bowen, Host: it'll show that it's more than just a fad, that
Gillian Bowen, Host: it is a real thing.
Kayur Patel, CA: Yeah, absolutely. Um, and I think the easiest way to
Kayur Patel, CA: explain it to people that haven't come across it, um,
Kayur Patel, CA: before is, is that it kind of operates in the
Kayur Patel, CA: same way as our brains do. And in fact, the
Kayur Patel, CA: underlying technology that generative AI has been around for a
Kayur Patel, CA: long time, and it's the study of neural networks, and
Kayur Patel, CA: it's basically trying to mimic the way our brains work. Um,
Kayur Patel, CA: what's happened relatively recent though, and, and ChatGPT kind of
Kayur Patel, CA: made this popular, but there's a lot of others in
Kayur Patel, CA: the same space um, was the ability to also include
Kayur Patel, CA: what we call natural language processing, and that's to get
Kayur Patel, CA: this technology to think like a human, because you can
Kayur Patel, CA: understand the English language or Spanish or Hindi or whatever
Kayur Patel, CA: might be but the way we actually use it is
Kayur Patel, CA: very we don't we don't speak in the most efficient way.
Kayur Patel, CA: We've got colloquialisms, all those types of things. And so
Kayur Patel, CA: what happened recently was this ability to get this awesome technology,
Kayur Patel, CA: which has been improving at a rapid rate, to also
Kayur Patel, CA: understand natural language. And that's been the real game changer. Um,
Kayur Patel, CA: so something like ChatGPT. And again, I know that's just
Kayur Patel, CA: one of them, but it's probably the most well known. Um,
Kayur Patel, CA: it GPT stands for generative pre-trained transformer. And so what
Kayur Patel, CA: it means is that they took these neural networks, these
Kayur Patel, CA: these this piece of technology, and they basically got it
Kayur Patel, CA: to ingest a whole bunch of data and information from
Kayur Patel, CA: the internet. And it just let it loose. And this
Kayur Patel, CA: technology was then able to, as it ingested, start finding patterns and
Kayur Patel, CA: learn how to predict things. And that's really all Gen AI is.
Kayur Patel, CA: It's just a tool that's good at predicting what the
Kayur Patel, CA: next piece of text might be, or what you actually
Kayur Patel, CA: mean when you ask it to do something so that
Kayur Patel, CA: if it reads, for example, an article on Daniel Carter, um,
Kayur Patel, CA: it might predict that the next words are going to
Kayur Patel, CA: be All Black, and it'll then be able to test
Kayur Patel, CA: itself to figure out whether it gets it right or wrong.
Kayur Patel, CA: And it will know or store that in the memory bank,
Kayur Patel, CA: not the actual information, but its ability to predict. Um,
Kayur Patel, CA: and so every time it reads something new, it's predicting
Kayur Patel, CA: every single word and then figuring out whether it gets
Kayur Patel, CA: it right or wrong. And that's how it's able to
Kayur Patel, CA: really improve at such a rapid rate.
Gillian Bowen, Host: So you touched on it briefly, then, um, in the
Gillian Bowen, Host: sense of why accountants should be interested in that. Um, that, that,
Gillian Bowen, Host: that is helpful in the sense of understanding. ChatGPT. But
Gillian Bowen, Host: why does that apply to the profession? What other bits
Gillian Bowen, Host: and bobs should we know about to show why we
Gillian Bowen, Host: should be interested in this space?
Kayur Patel, CA: Yeah. So if I think about what we we would
Kayur Patel, CA: do as a chartered accountant advising businesses, um, you could
Kayur Patel, CA: probably and there's way more nuance in this, but at
Kayur Patel, CA: a high level you could probably separate it, separate out
Kayur Patel, CA: what we do into a couple of different fields. Um,
Kayur Patel, CA: we do some stuff where we build relationships with clients,
Kayur Patel, CA: and we understand their business and we understand them as
Kayur Patel, CA: a person, and we understand the market that they're in,
Kayur Patel, CA: their customers, all of those types of things. And that's
Kayur Patel, CA: really built on human relationships. And then off the back
Kayur Patel, CA: of that understanding, we will then help those businesses with
Kayur Patel, CA: certain tasks. Now it might be accounting and tax preparation.
Kayur Patel, CA: It could be things with applications for research and development grants,
Kayur Patel, CA: whatever that might be. The relationship building and all of
Kayur Patel, CA: those things at the moment requires us to have that
Kayur Patel, CA: human to human connection. But the task of doing the
Kayur Patel, CA: stuff off the back of that, that is all about
Kayur Patel, CA: generating text, generating data, understanding data to then generate more
Kayur Patel, CA: data or text. And the use of AI to do
Kayur Patel, CA: that will allow us, and it was already allowing us
Kayur Patel, CA: to be far more efficient at how we generate the
Kayur Patel, CA: data or the text, or understand what the data might
Kayur Patel, CA: mean to then be able to go back to our
Kayur Patel, CA: client and provide meaningful insights or, or just do what
Kayur Patel, CA: we've always done, but make it more efficient. And that's
Kayur Patel, CA: where the tool, these tools are playing in that space.
Gillian Bowen, Host: So it's like they're an extra set of hands, but
Gillian Bowen, Host: you would need to check their work.
Kayur Patel, CA: Absolutely need to check their work. And your listeners have
Kayur Patel, CA: probably heard around things like hallucinations where you've got, I
Kayur Patel, CA: go on ChatGPT to tell me that a fringe benefit text didn't exist
Kayur Patel, CA: in New Zealand, which is obviously very incorrect. So there's
Kayur Patel, CA: this absolutely a need to check. Um, and it's not perfect, but, um,
Kayur Patel, CA: the rate at which these technologies are improving is very,
Kayur Patel, CA: very quick.
Gillian Bowen, Host: So what could this mean then for the accounting workforce? Um,
Gillian Bowen, Host: and I'm thinking in particular we are talking to small
Gillian Bowen, Host: and medium sized practice members here.
Kayur Patel, CA: Yeah. So I think, um, small practices and medium sized
Kayur Patel, CA: practices that are getting across this right now, what they're
Kayur Patel, CA: finding is that they're able to do the stuff they
Kayur Patel, CA: already doing, but they're doing it a little bit more efficiently, right?
Kayur Patel, CA: So if you get a tool like this to help
Kayur Patel, CA: you draft an email to a client, maybe you have
Kayur Patel, CA: to draft a challenging email around a client wants to reduce
Kayur Patel, CA: fees and you don't want to reduce fees. You've got
Kayur Patel, CA: to put some nuance in there. These tools can help
Kayur Patel, CA: you do that um, quite well and a lot quicker
Kayur Patel, CA: than you used to be able to do it. Maybe
Kayur Patel, CA: if you have to, if you've got Excel spreadsheets that
Kayur Patel, CA: you've got lots of data on and you want to
Kayur Patel, CA: manipulate that data to come out with some graphs or
Kayur Patel, CA: a report or whatever might be, you would do that anyway,
Kayur Patel, CA: but you can get it done faster. You can get
Kayur Patel, CA: it done a bit more quickly. And at the moment,
Kayur Patel, CA: those are where those use cases are helping me generate
Kayur Patel, CA: text or generate visual data visualizations or understand data help
Kayur Patel, CA: me do that quicker than I used to be able
Kayur Patel, CA: to do. At this point in time it's not yet
Kayur Patel, CA: at the level where I would see it saying, okay,
Kayur Patel, CA: I used to need a person to do this, and
Kayur Patel, CA: now I'll take that person out and, and replace it
Kayur Patel, CA: with this either single or multiple tools. It's more that
Kayur Patel, CA: we've got people in there just being more efficient at
Kayur Patel, CA: what they're already doing, and then being able to spend
Kayur Patel, CA: more time at the value add stuff, have those discussions
Kayur Patel, CA: with the clients, build those relationships, all the stuff we
Kayur Patel, CA: want to do we don't have the time to do
Kayur Patel, CA: because we're bogged down and in the data manipulation and
Kayur Patel, CA: the processing.
Gillian Bowen, Host: What happens if you don't get across this info? If
Gillian Bowen, Host: you're just like, I don't have time to get trained
Gillian Bowen, Host: and have time to read, it's not something that's ever
Gillian Bowen, Host: going to impact me.
Kayur Patel, CA: Yeah, well, see, my personal view is that, um, you know,
Kayur Patel, CA: the big next big paradigm shift with AI will be
Kayur Patel, CA: around the fact that humans with AI will replace humans
Kayur Patel, CA: without it. Now, that's not going to happen tomorrow. Um,
Kayur Patel, CA: but I think that's probably the next horizon that we're
Kayur Patel, CA: looking at. And so I think it's extremely important to
Kayur Patel, CA: get across this for two reasons. One, there's some real
Kayur Patel, CA: value that you can get right now. And we're seeing businesses,
Kayur Patel, CA: both accounting firms and um, and, and their clients seeing
Kayur Patel, CA: some real value right now with specific use cases that
Kayur Patel, CA: are very useful. But the second piece is this technology
Kayur Patel, CA: is only getting better and better. And I think your
Kayur Patel, CA: last guest on this topic, um, mentioned the fact that,
Kayur Patel, CA: you know, she's really looking forward to the time when
Kayur Patel, CA: AI is built into the existing tools she's already using.
Kayur Patel, CA: That's not that far from happening. It's happening right now,
Kayur Patel, CA: and it's going to continue to happen. And so if
Kayur Patel, CA: you're using these AI tools now, by the time they're
Kayur Patel, CA: integrated in the stuff you already use or the stuff
Kayur Patel, CA: you want to use, you'll already be across it. It's
Kayur Patel, CA: not going to be as steep a learning curve as it
Kayur Patel, CA: might be when you find that you have to interact
Kayur Patel, CA: with this stuff all the time, day in and day out,
Kayur Patel, CA: you can't escape it because it's just built into everything. Um,
Kayur Patel, CA: and the reason for that, and I think this might
Kayur Patel, CA: be something that people often miss, Gen AI doesn't work
Kayur Patel, CA: unless you know how to use it well, and in fact,
Kayur Patel, CA: it actually is worse if you don't know how to
Kayur Patel, CA: use it well. Like if you just if you ask
Kayur Patel, CA: open ended questions, you don't iterate with it. You're not
Kayur Patel, CA: specific enough with your type of prompting. You don't give
Kayur Patel, CA: it the right persona. It can provide you with a
Kayur Patel, CA: lot of material that is just irrelevant and will take
Kayur Patel, CA: you longer. And so understanding how to use it is important.
Gillian Bowen, Host: I got two questions out of that, the first one
Gillian Bowen, Host: is when you said humans with AI will replace humans
Gillian Bowen, Host: without AI. Do you mean that those businesses or, you know,
Gillian Bowen, Host: sole practitioners who who aren't, those clients who aren't using
Gillian Bowen, Host: it will just fizzle out because they can't keep up?
Gillian Bowen, Host: Is that what you mean essentially?
Kayur Patel, CA: Yeah, I think there will come a time where that
Kayur Patel, CA: is absolutely the case. Um, now, if you ask me
Kayur Patel, CA: to predict a timeline as to where that happened, I
Kayur Patel, CA: don't think there is. There's so many variables as to that.
Gillian Bowen, Host: No.
Kayur Patel, CA: But I do think that, um, you know, in our
Kayur Patel, CA: industry particularly, there is a need right now to have
Kayur Patel, CA: advisors and chartered accountants spending more time on the relationship
Kayur Patel, CA: building and the value add. Every, every accounting firm, every
Kayur Patel, CA: accountant I see, they've been talking about that for years. Um,
Kayur Patel, CA: this is the opportunity for them to be able to
Kayur Patel, CA: do that. And I think the ones that are able
Kayur Patel, CA: to use AI to then do that processing, free them up
Kayur Patel, CA: on the value add, they're going to be the ones
Kayur Patel, CA: that are successful. Um, and therefore they're going to be
Kayur Patel, CA: the ones that are, that are more valuable in the future.
Gillian Bowen, Host: So part two will go into some specific use cases.
Gillian Bowen, Host: But before we get stuck into that, and obviously that
Gillian Bowen, Host: episode's next, there will be people listening along going, okay,
Gillian Bowen, Host: this is great. I do want to get some information.
Gillian Bowen, Host: Where do you start? Where do you find that training
Gillian Bowen, Host: that's relevant to you?
Kayur Patel, CA: Yeah, it's a good question. Um, and it probably depends
Kayur Patel, CA: on where you are on the, on the spectrum of what your,
Kayur Patel, CA: your ability to immerse yourself in this stuff. Um, I
Kayur Patel, CA: think to start with, it's really important to have a
Kayur Patel, CA: base level general understanding of what the what this is,
Kayur Patel, CA: the different options available to you and just how to
Kayur Patel, CA: use it just for text. Um, there's lots of different
Kayur Patel, CA: podcasts out there. There's lots of different YouTube videos out there. Um, and,
Kayur Patel, CA: and maybe we can provide some, um, some links or something like that.
Gillian Bowen, Host: It's a good idea that. Yeah, we'll have a look
Gillian Bowen, Host: at it. Yes. We'll have a look at some useful
Gillian Bowen, Host: things to put in. And normally as well, people who
Gillian Bowen, Host: listen to the podcast will know I love a plug.
Gillian Bowen, Host: I love putting a link in the show notes. So
Gillian Bowen, Host: we'll find some some relevant stuff that you can you
Gillian Bowen, Host: can listen to. We've we've answered our own question. We
Gillian Bowen, Host: will do that. I should have thought of that ahead
Gillian Bowen, Host: of time, but continue as you were.
Kayur Patel, CA: Yeah. I just think that's a really good way. And
Kayur Patel, CA: there's some that I, that I'm quite partial to. And
Kayur Patel, CA: I think it's a really good way to just get
Kayur Patel, CA: up to speed. I think the best thing you can
Kayur Patel, CA: do is just understand how to use a ChatGPT or
Kayur Patel, CA: a Google Bard or a Microsoft Copilot. It doesn't matter which one,
Kayur Patel, CA: but just learn how to understand, how to interact with
Kayur Patel, CA: them in a way that is useful, as opposed to
Kayur Patel, CA: just treating these systems like Google, where you're asking it
Kayur Patel, CA: questions and expecting it to come out with a good
Kayur Patel, CA: email that sounds like you, it's not going to do that
Kayur Patel, CA: unless you know how to use it. So those general
Kayur Patel, CA: things I think are really, really important. And then after that,
Kayur Patel, CA: and what we'll cover in the next episode are some specific, um,
Kayur Patel, CA: some specific use cases. And then of course, it's specific
Kayur Patel, CA: ways that you can get up to speed on those
Kayur Patel, CA: specific use cases. So I think it's probably worth delving
Kayur Patel, CA: into the, the realm of, of data analytics and data visualization.
Kayur Patel, CA: Lots of accountants are helping to prepare board reports or
Kayur Patel, CA: management reports and and all of that data manipulation is
Kayur Patel, CA: quite a good use case. Um, things like drafting, you know,
Kayur Patel, CA: automated client reminders. There are a lot of us that
Kayur Patel, CA: are sending prov-tax reminders or whatever else it might be. Um,
Kayur Patel, CA: you know, there's some there's some real use cases in
Kayur Patel, CA: that space as well. So but for those there's specific
Kayur Patel, CA: places you can go for specific use cases.
Gillian Bowen, Host: Hmm, now you and I are definitely excited about this.
Gillian Bowen, Host: We sound excited about this. Uh, two questions in before
Gillian Bowen, Host: we wrap up and then everyone make sure you're listening to part
Gillian Bowen, Host: two. Are accountants excited enough about this. Are enough of us thinking
Gillian Bowen, Host: about this. And if they're not, how do we get
Gillian Bowen, Host: them excited about it?
Kayur Patel, CA: Yeah, it's a real range. Um, you know, when I
Kayur Patel, CA: go in and speak at conferences, there's there's definitely a
Kayur Patel, CA: group that are super excited, but there's also some that
Kayur Patel, CA: are apprehensive and fair enough. Like, um, I can totally
Kayur Patel, CA: understand how how a change in technology of this magnitude
Kayur Patel, CA: could be something that makes you apprehensive. I think on
Kayur Patel, CA: the whole in our industry, though, this technology is only
Kayur Patel, CA: going to be a good thing. And I know I've
Kayur Patel, CA: seen this probably four times now in this podcast, but
Kayur Patel, CA: like every accountant I have, I have talked to, they
Kayur Patel, CA: really want to spend time doing the fun stuff, the
Kayur Patel, CA: valuable stuff, um, the value add stuff with clients. And
Kayur Patel, CA: this is the best piece of technology that I've ever
Kayur Patel, CA: seen that can help us to spend time out of the
Kayur Patel, CA: weeds and into into that type of work that we
Kayur Patel, CA: really want to do. And it's just about understanding how
Kayur Patel, CA: to use it. And as the technology improves, we're improving
Kayur Patel, CA: our understanding of how to use it. And together we'll
Kayur Patel, CA: get to that level where we can we can really
Kayur Patel, CA: have and we already have a massive impact on on
Kayur Patel, CA: small and medium size business. I really think we do
Kayur Patel, CA: and we can. That's only going to improve. And that
Kayur Patel, CA: makes me really proud of the industry we're in. I
Kayur Patel, CA: think there's very few industries that can have such a
Kayur Patel, CA: direct impact on small, medium sized business. Um, and as
Kayur Patel, CA: you know, that's the backbone of our economy.
Gillian Bowen, Host: And it's also the backbone and point of this podcast. Small, Firm,
Gillian Bowen, Host: Big Impact, I love it. What a way to round
Gillian Bowen, Host: out this episode part one of this AI special. I'm
Gillian Bowen, Host: excited about this discussion. I'm excited for part two of
Gillian Bowen, Host: this AI special so make sure you're following the pod so that
Gillian Bowen, Host: you are ready for it to drop as well. The
Gillian Bowen, Host: next episode will look at what Gen AI is good at,
Gillian Bowen, Host: what it's not good at, how leading accounting functions are responding,
Gillian Bowen, Host: and some specific use cases that we've alluded to in
Gillian Bowen, Host: this episode. And we'll reveal some practical steps you can
Gillian Bowen, Host: do ASAP. That is all we have time for. Have
Gillian Bowen, Host: you checked out the podcast page on the CA ANZ website?
Gillian Bowen, Host: There's plenty of other great content experts, interviews and resources
Gillian Bowen, Host: tailored to you, so I'll put a link to it
Gillian Bowen, Host: in the show notes so it's easy to find. And
Gillian Bowen, Host: of course, you'll see a link to the podcast in
Gillian Bowen, Host: the newsletters you receive from CA ANZ. If you want
Gillian Bowen, Host: to get in touch with the podcast, email podcast@ CharteredAccountantsANZ.com
Gillian Bowen, Host: and follow the pod in your favourite podcast app. Let's
Gillian Bowen, Host: start a conversation. Thank you Kayur Patel, for being my guest
Gillian Bowen, Host: on Small Firm, Big Impact and for coming back for
Gillian Bowen, Host: part two.
Kayur Patel, CA: No worries. See you next time.
Gillian Bowen, Host: Bye bye.