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Evolved Radio Podcast: Interviews with technology experts, industry thought leaders, business leaders and other interesting minds. Exploring the evolution of business and technology.
MSPs and accounting firms
have a lot of shared DNA.
My guest today thinks that accounting is
paving the way for MSPs and AI adoption.
Peter McCarrell has spent over 30
years in public accounting and has been
helping other firms' owners rethink
how they price and deliver their work
as AI takes over the routine stuff.
His view is that accounting is the
canary in the coal mine for professional
services with MSPs next in line.
Today, we're looking at what's
already happening in his industry
and what MSP owners can learn
from it before it reaches them.
Peter, welcome to the
Evolved Radio podcast.
Thank you so much.
It's good to be here
Excellent.
So, uh, I like the description that you
kind of noted for me here is that, uh,
accountants are the canary in the coal
mine for pro- professional services.
I think this is a really
apt description of this.
Do you wanna give us a reading from
the future on the impacts of AI
on prefer- professional services?
Yeah.
So I wanna nuance this,
um, in a particular way.
Uh, think MSP providers are probably
ahead of accountants when it comes to AI.
You guys are the IT specialists.
You've been all over this
for, you know, much earlier.
Most accountants are still slow to change.
Uh, the area where I think we might
be the canary in the coal mine is
on the price compression front.
And I think, you know,
lawyers haven't felt this yet.
In fact, I was just working
with a couple lawyers yesterday.
Um, you know, they aren't seeing the
kinds of things that accountants are
now starting to see, um, that are,
uh, is putting pressure on pricing.
Um, and I suspect that, you know,
MSPs, you know, are better at using
the technology and deploying the
technology, but the compression
hasn't quite hit them yet.
That's
I think you'd be surprised actually.
I've been ranting about this in
the industry, uh, for a while now.
Not to say that you, that you guys
are necessarily ahead of them on
implementation per se, but, uh, I, I
think the industry is strangely lacking
in the sort of ROI cases for AI.
There's a lot of use cases, I think,
internally in very specific cases, but,
uh, I think, um, the, the utilization
of AI certainly for their customers
has, has been strangely lagging.
Ok
so that, that's been a, a
fascination of mine as well.
Um, you know, I, I suppose, I think
people could maybe assume where some of
this stuff shows up for you guys, right?
Like, uh, reconciliation, um, you know,
some of the bookkeeping basics, like maybe
extrapolate, uh, a bit out on what does AI
play a role in for modern accounting and
how is that creating price compression?
Yeah.
let's talk about the technicalities first.
Like where is AI actually
changing the work we do?
And I would say that up
until now, it hasn't.
We… One of the differences between
accountants and, and, you know,
some other knowledge workers is
that we work very much inside tools.
We don't just use the tools,
the tools are the work.
QuickBooks, Xero, you know,
the accounting platforms.
And they have been, um, let's say, on a
shaky start in terms of implementing AI.
And w- yeah, it's really only been the
last few months where we've started to see
these tools really start to out the kinks
of how does AI work inside the product.
We're seeing a lot around the edges of
the product in terms of other tools that
we might use, tax, data gathering tools,
um, you know, uh, other automation tools
that plug into the accounting systems.
They have actually been much more,
more aggressive in, in implementing AI.
But not every accountant is
going to pay extra for an outside
tool to do some of that work.
so, so I would say this, this is where I
think, you know, the accounting industry
as a whole is still a little behind
because we are very reliant on a very
small number of vendors work out what
they want to do with AI before we can get
our hands on it in the, in the, the, the
day-to-day, you know, most of what we do,
you know, is bookkeeping or accounting.
Now, that's not to say there's
not lots of opportunity for AI.
I call… I have this phrase called AI
and the gaps, the gaps between these
systems and, and now that's expanding
with MCPs and things like that, where
now you can now automate between systems.
Okay?
So that's all starting to develop.
But, you know, just in terms of our
core use, today, we're just starting
to s- to scratch the surface of how
does AI get involved in the accounting
process, and the first place that it
gets involved within the tools is in
that coding and reconciliation process.
Now, where will we be 12 months from now?
I'm very convinced that we will be
in a position where, if we've enabled
it, AI sh- will be able to code at
least 80% of your transactions inside
your accounting ledgers, and do so
with an adequate, maybe not ideal,
but an adequate level of accuracy.
Still going to need someone to
monitor it, check it, and do the
things that it can't work out.
There'll still be lots of that.
Uh, but it's going to take a lot of
the transactional work down and, and
my, my forecast is that bookkeepers
are going to become quality control
managers, not transaction processors
I think there's a, a just a
very strong parallel between
this and a help desk, right?
So,
triage process, uh, all of these
things will be automated, but there's
still a very heavy QA process.
I'm curious, like, uh, because
accounting maybe feels higher risk
and, you know, granted the stuff
that you're doing is not, uh, it's
not like it will get dramatically
missed or cause massive issues.
It could if it's really wrong
a lot of the time, but I don't
suspect that's gonna be the case.
Like, the LLMs are very good now, and I
think they'll be quite capable of this.
But, uh, I think psychologically
people may be a little more wary
about AI playing with their books than
they are managing a support ticket.
Do you think there's gonna be internal
resistance to this in the industry or
a resistance from people saying like,
"Oh, no, no, no, I don't want you having
AI playing with my, my accounting"?
Uh, yes, there will be resistance.
I think the resistance, funnily enough,
is actually stronger inside the industry
than it will be from our clients.
Um, it's stronger for inside the
industry because let's be honest, the
accounting industry is an aging industry.
You know, people like me, you
know, gray hair, um, who've been
in this industry for 40 years,
uh, you know, are slow to change.
Now, I, I've met plenty of accountants
older than me who are gung ho on
this stuff, so this… I'm not trying
to, to stereotype anybody here.
But as a whole, we tend to be… We're
conservative, we don't change fast,
and we don't adopt technology fast.
You know, the, the whole
conversation around cloud technology.
I mean, it took 10 years for cloud
adoption to have become normal, it's
only because, you know, companies like
Intuit finally said, "You know what?
We're gonna stop supporting QuickBooks
Desktop." They… The reason they
held on so long is because so many
accountants did not want to move.
That tells you something about the
way our, our, our industry works.
We are
Yeah, even,
adopters
e- even in our industry, we saw
a lot of this, that there was
accountants that refused to use newer
versions, and like certain clients,
they would use a specific version.
Yes.
the, the really old guard.
Yeah, so the, the, the
change does not come quickly
Absolutely.
And look, to be honest here, part
of it is, you know, accountants have
a, have a reputation, which is well
earned, for being cheap buggers, okay?
And we want to save money
on everything we do.
Well, here's the secret that
you, you guys might not know.
QuickBooks Desktop, you didn't have
to pay for every single license.
You were able to run a number of clients.
You paid for the software, and
you could create, in some cases,
as many files as you wanted.
In later years, they
started to limit that.
Um, of course, the moment you
move to cloud, every client pays.
Nothing comes for free.
Well, if you're, if you're a cheap
accountant and you, and you want to
still run, you know, 50 clients for the
price of five, uh, what are you gonna do?
You're not gonna move
to the cloud, you know?
And it, it finally took 10, 10
years, 10 plus years for the, for
the, the industry to say, "Yeah, I
think those days are over. We, we,
we have to change the model." Okay?
Now, AI's gonna move faster
than that, way faster than that.
Um, but there are still gonna
be accountants that don't
want to make the change.
And I remember my dad, I started…
My first accounting job was with
my dad's firm back in New Zealand
and, you know, he sold his practice.
They asked him to stay on to help with
client transition and things like that.
Uh, but the new owners, they were younger,
they wanted new software technologies,
and my dad wasn't a technophobe at
all, but, you know, the pace of change
was just too high and he actually
decided to step out earlier than his
contract allowed, you know, him to.
He had the right to do it, but they
wanted him to stay on for two years, and
he ended up saying, "I just can't handle
all this change. I think my clients are
happy with the transition. I'm gonna step
out now." We saw this happen in COVID.
A lot of accountants shut their
doors and never came back.
And AI is gonna be a bit of a trigger
here as more and more accountants
get to the point of saying, "I can't
keep up, and I don't want to keep up.
I don't want to learn a new technology
at this stage of my career."
So I guess that creates an opportunity.
Again, like there's so many parallels, uh,
with the IT industry, like the, you know,
aging population, bit of a, an opportunity
being created for, uh, for new businesses.
And we're seeing a bit of a
rise, sort of the early edge, I
think, in, in the MSP industry of
like a native AI-based, uh, MSP.
Um, you know, the, like I, like I
said, I've joked about the MSP industry
being, you know, unusually slow to
adopt and, and, uh, get on top of this,
this trend, but there are the people
that are just, you know, they, they're
starting a new MSP because they see the
opportunity of being able to leverage
these things or, uh, consulting in
a n- in a more of an AI native way.
I suppose that's sort of a similar
parallel for your guys' industry
that, uh, you know, this, it's a bit
of a sea change, I suppose, that new
businesses will start as a result
and kind of run up the middle, right?
Absolutely.
Well, that leads me to the,
uh, the four pricing changes.
Now, you alluded to this earlier.
Um, the four, I call it the squeeze.
Um, the first one might not apply to MSPs.
So the first pricing squeeze is that the,
uh, the, the tools that we use day-to-day,
the QuickBooks, the Xeros, the Sages, um,
they are building in AI tools that our
clients can now use, that the consumer
or the business owner can now use.
So all the things that we ask for
for our efficiency have c- are
coming, have come, and they're also
being offered to the business owner.
And the logical question here is,
well, if I, if I'm getting this as
part of my software subscription,
which most accountants pass that charge
directly on to their clients, uh,
or the client pays directly, if I'm
getting that as part of my software
subscription, what am I paying you for?
So that's one area of, of the squeeze,
is that the, the tools that make
us efficient are now accessible by
our clients, and they question the
value of what they're paying for.
next part of the squeeze i- are the new,
uh, tools that are coming in AI native.
So in, in the, uh, accounting world,
we've got QuickBooks, Xero, and Sage.
They are the three big, uh, native
products or, uh, legacy products.
I call them legacy products now.
Um, not applying to us here in Canada,
but in the US, which is most of your
audience, uh, Digits, Kick, Puzzle are
now the up-and-coming software products.
Now, you may have never
I don't think I've ever heard of those
but they are new AI native ledgers,
and they're doing really great things.
They're going well beyond just
auto-coding a transaction or
reconciling the bank account.
They're actually now putting tools in that
deal with reconciling clearing accounts
and, you know, all the other stuff that an
accountant has to do that is beyond basic
coding, which of course most business
owners forget about because to them, once
you've coded something, it's finished, and
the accountant knows that that's not true.
There's a lot more work that
happens downstream from that.
But these AI native tools are
building from the ground up.
They have no technology debt.
They can move incredibly fast
because they're building in
an agentic way an agentic age.
Whereas these legacy platforms, they,
they can't build in an agentic way.
Their, their technology debt is too high.
They are, they are trying to convert
their code and their systems into
something that will work like that,
but these products are massive.
That, that takes time.
So that's the second compression, is
that there are these new offerings coming
out and, you know, Digits, for example,
will offer to not just be your ledger,
but close your books 60 bucks a month.
Cheaper than QuickBooks will, will do it
And so you have to ask that, is, is that
a competitive threat to an accountant?
Absolutely.
People are considering changing services
or saving money, and they hear the story
about this new platform that'll do it
for free or do it for a lower cost.
They go, "Yeah, I'll give that a
try." Usually they end up coming
back, you know, because it's not
all they thought it was gonna be.
They still need the tax work done.
These tools won't do the tax work
necessarily, at least not yet.
Um, you know, so there's still sometimes
there's room for an accountant, but,
you know, it changes the relationship.
The, the, the third pricing
squeeze is perception.
This is going to affect MSPs.
Um, in fact, every knowledge worker.
The perce- And, and one of the things
I say is that perception is reality.
People make decisions based on,
opinion, on feelings and perception
more than they do on facts.
And you could argue with them from a
rational basis as to why their opinion is
wrong, they will still make their decision
based on their opinion and perception.
Okay?
It's, it's very hard to convince
somebody using logic when they've made
up their mind using emotional perception.
Just a basic psychological principle.
So what's happening in the whole
industry, uh, and, and, uh, is that
people perceive that the cost to
do these things is coming down.
Well, it's now cheaper because of AI.
What do you mean you
want to put my price up?
Okay?
I had this conversation
yesterday with a client.
Um, you know, their perception is
that all the stuff can now be done
on a $20 a month subscription.
Now, you and I know that that's not true,
not entirely, but it's partially true.
stuff could be done on a
$20 a month subscription.
Okay?
And so the perception in the
marketplace is that's what I need
And so when my accountant or my
bookkeeper says, "Yeah, we wanna do your
work for $1,000 a month or, or $5,000
a year," we go, "Hang on a second.
That doesn't translate to my $20 a
month subscription." And of course,
it's not just the $20 a month,
that's, that, that's, that's $20
a month that covers not just what
you do, but everything else I do.
You know?
And even if that was $200 a month,
that perce- that perception gap
is causing price compression.
There's a classic story in
the accounting industry.
I think it was KPMG and EY, I forget
which way around the, the, the words go.
But, uh, K- uh, E- Ernst & Young,
one of the big accounting firms,
uh, the accounting firms have…
All the big firms, they have a global
practice, a global head office,
and these global head offices get
audited by one of the other big firms.
Okay?
So we're not talking about the US national
practice or a local office, we're talking
about the, the international head office.
And so they are audited by KPMG.
And so they went to KPMG and they said,
"Uh, AI should be making the audit more
efficient. We demand a price cut." Okay?
This is inside the accounting industry.
Okay?
KPMG said, "Well, but we're not
actually using AI, so we haven't got
the efficiencies you're talking about.
Um, you're really paying for the human
expertise and the judgment and all
this," yeah, all this kind of stuff,
and they used all the rational logic.
And EY said, "We don't care. Cut your
price or we'll find a replacement." And
KPMG ate a 14% price cut for nothing
Just because
Just
the… Hmm
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Okay?
So this is gonna-- this is happening,
um, in the accounting space.
People are starting to push back on
price rises because their perception
is this stuff is now free or cheap.
They don't understand that the cost
of implementing their technology
is incredibly high, you know?
And, and it's not a $20
a month subscription.
In fact, I, I estimate that an average
accounting firm will need to spend between
$500 and $1,000 per month per employee
Just on AI and AI-related tools.
Okay?
Now, is that still cheaper than… Is
that gonna give them more efficiency?
Yes, it will, but it's not free.
And per- and the perception in
the world is this is a marginal
free benefit, is not true.
And, and an accountant couldn't
survive on a $20 a month subscription,
not if they're really using it.
So, so this is the challenge.
That's price compression number three.
And price compression number
four, you alluded to this a
s- a, a couple of minutes ago.
Uh, are, are the rise of new
vendors, new AI native vendors.
People who say, "Not just… I'm not
just writing software, but I'm gonna
do everything. I'm gonna do your tax
return. I'm gonna do, uh, your, your,
your reporting and your advisory stuff,
and I'm gonna come in and I'm gonna
do it for a quarter of the cost of the
last guy, and I'm gonna do it with AI."
And it doesn't matter
whether they can do that.
All that matters is that
they offer to do that.
And we're seeing them come up.
We're seeing these new
AI-native accounting firms.
You alluded to AI-native MSP
providers, not just software, but
providers, and they're automating
the heck out of everything.
Okay?
Now, we had a story in the accounting
world, you know, the last couple of
years of a, of a, a product called
Bench, and it started in Silicon
Valley, actually moved to Vancouver.
Um, and they, they were doing or
offering, you know, bookkeeping.
It was supposed to be automated, but
it turns out they just had a whole
bunch of people in the Philippines
and India for 200 bucks a month.
And they received billions of
dollars of investment to create
this new… And of course, this
is all just, just before AI, okay?
Um, and so, so they, they were
offering to do all, to do the super
cheap, you know, high throughput, uh,
bookkeeping work for a super low price.
They went bankrupt and gave their
clients zero days notice that they closed
Ja, dat was ugly
Yep, their clients woke up one day and
found out that their ledger was locked
and they couldn't access it anymore.
Okay?
Terrible result.
Burnt a whole bunch of
goodwill in the industry.
it proves the point that it doesn't matter
whether they can deliver the service.
only matters that they offer it, that
price point now sticks, and every
accountant was now competing with a
$200 a month bookkeeping opportunity.
Yep.
So again, like the, the
parallels exist here, right?
That, um, like if, if you see this
coming, like how are you planning
your business and, you know, advising
maybe other people in the industry
in, in conferences and conversations?
Uh, what do you do with this, right?
Because I think there's some
similarity in MSPs that people are
like, "Well, you know, I've got, uh,
I've got Claude to a- to f- solve
all of my, uh, my h- my tech support
questions, so what do I need you for?"
Right?
Um, lawyers probably see the same
thing of like, "I don't need to pay
you $1,000 to review this contract.
Claude can do this for me," right?
Um, I, I mean, again, I still struggle
with professional certification and
sort of the nuances of accounting
as to whether or not the tools could
do that all, all for you, and like
you wanna make sure it's right.
You know, there's always the
disclaimer, "AI could be wrong," right?
And you don't necessarily want that when
you're doing, uh, your, your books and
end up that you, you screwed something
up and now you have a giant tax bill.
So the, the ramifications of that
feel maybe slightly more severe than
some of the other circumstances.
You can get yourself into legal hot water,
but, you know, uh, I think like, uh, uh,
the, the, the nuances of that I think
are gonna be a little more detailed.
So, uh, what do you do with this when
your clients may sort of put up a fight
about this or have a misperception
about the level of effort and
qualification required to do this work?
Hmm.
So there's a couple of things that
we as accountants have always sold
but never listed on an invoice.
And, and some of these are, are,
again, we're arguing out of logic, not
arguing out of, you know, emotional
reality, um, or, or perception I
should say, but this is the reality.
Um, and this is how we, we, we have to try
and justify our fee to a certain extent.
The first thing is that someone
has to do quality control.
Even in this new AI world,
someone has to check the machine.
And so it's really important
that the person that does
that knows what they're doing.
They know what good looks like.
They know what bad looks like.
They smell a dead fish, because that's
what happens is, is you have a, you have
a sea of transactions, and buried in
there are a couple of rotting corpses.
You know, someone has to know how to find
those, correct them, and then go, "Yep,
we're happy with these results." most
business owners are unable to do that.
Now, the AI is getting better
at self c- you know, review, but
it's certainly not there today.
In two, three years' time, maybe, maybe
it will be, be better than a human.
I totally concede that point.
But for today, quality control is
one thing we sell that the system
isn't going to deliver for itself.
The next thing that we sell is what I
call the wringable neck, and that's the
idea that there's a name on the file
with a qualification or, or, or, or
a statutory qualification insurance.
If you use Claude to prepare your
tax return, and you file on that
basis, and it turns out that it was
wrong, do you think that Anthropic
is going to send you a check?
Absolutely not.
Absolutely not.
Now, if I prepare your tax return,
and it turns out to be wrong,
you've got multiple avenues to
pursue to recover those costs Okay?
Because I'm required to carry insurance.
a member of a professional organization.
You've got a, you've got a
procedure to go through there.
Whether it works out or not is a
different question, but at least
there, those opportunities are there.
is some accountability.
Okay?
And, and that, we've never
had to price that before.
other th- and, and, and the thing
from our perspective, and this also
affects MSPs, uh, and I was talking
with a, with a couple of lawyers and
accountants about this yesterday, is risk.
In, in the accounting space, one
of the, the, the trends we, we
are seeing, and this is, this has
always been the case, you know,
we, we have a service plan for it.
We call it self-service.
You know, where a client does their
own books in Xero or QuickBooks, and
then they want us to do the tax return.
we won't do a tax return
based on a trial balance.
We just don't do it.
We decline because you, you take
all the risk, you have zero ability
to affect the, the, the numbers.
So, you know, if you, if you
called me and said, "Hey, here's
my QuickBooks trial balance.
Can you do a tax return?" I say,
"No." I, I'm not taking that risk.
So we build in review hours, and
you pay for those review hours.
We review your ledger.
We're looking for problems.
We're gonna clean it up, and if it
needs more than we've budgeted for,
you will pay that extra because
that was your fault, not our fault.
We want clean books before
we start the tax process.
And then we do a workup of every file.
We don't just take the trial
balance and, and, and the
ledger and assume they're right.
We now prove that they're right.
That makes me more expensive than some
other tax shops that will just take
their trial balance and say, "Hey,
that's the client's risk, not ours.
We don't care if the bank
account wasn't balanced.
We don't care if the li-
if the assets don't exist.
We are just going to pump out a
tax return." We won't do that.
And the reason we won't do that
is we are at risk either way.
So if I'm gonna be at risk, I wanna
get paid for the risk or at least
do the work to know that I'm happy
with the level of risk I'm taking.
Ja.
Now, if we move into a world where
AI is doing the work and you're just
paying a professional to file a tax
return at a much cheaper rate because
AI is doing all the a- the aggregation
of data, paying for the risk?
You're assuming it as a professional
But the cl- but the, the
client's no longer paying for it.
They used to pay for it because they paid
for the hours used to do the review, to
do the cleanup, to prepare the return.
Well, if those hours are compressing
They're no longer paying for risk.
So that's a, a big issue on the accounting
space, and there's gonna be a version
of that that applies to MSPs as well
One of the other pieces maybe I'm curious
about is, um, uh, I, I think maybe you
guys f- face a similar issue around how
do people scale into the industry if
all sort of the remedial junior work
is being done by AI agents, right?
And similar, I've been thinking about
this in the MSP industry, is like most
people will start in sort of t- tier
one triage doing password resets and
supporting users with Outlook issues.
And if all of that gets given to
the robots, how do people scale up
to that tier two level and get to,
uh, the work that is more of the QA?
Uh, uh, is it just sort of that you have
to have some book knowledge around these
things to be able to judge whether or not
the AI is doing things properly, or it
does it create a, create the situation
where it kind of removes a rung from the
ladder, and you kinda have to leap up
to get to the first place in having a
job in an accounting firm in the future?
Yeah.
So it definitely does remove
a rung from the ladder.
And, and there is a, a hidden problem,
uh, that while AI might solve or
partially solve our current talent
crisis, in the accounting world we
have a major talent crisis right now.
We just can't get pe- good people.
and I'm sure many industries
have the same thing.
Um, so, so there is a rung that's,
that's been taken out of the ladder.
And, and this is not
gonna … We're not gonna see
this for maybe another five years.
Because in five years' time, we've
stopped hiring juniors, and all of a
sudden we want an experienced person
or we need a, in the accounting
space, we'd say we need a manager.
And we normally grow our own managers.
We haven't been growing our
own managers for five years.
So where are they gonna come from?
And we, we, we will desperately
need them, they won't be there.
Um, so how do we deal with this,
this lost rung, as you put it?
Uh, there's, there's two main strategies
that I've been thinking about.
And, and so obviously education is a
part of that, but we all know that people
come out of school with a lot of book
knowledge, and they're of no practical
use, because they learn by doing, and
that's the step we, we are taking away.
the airline industry has been, has
grappled with this for a very long
time, and they do not let a pilot get
into a live cockpit with passengers
on the plane until they have done
hundreds of hours of simulator training.
have flown that plane full of
passengers a thousand times virtually
before they ever face a live
passenger, on a jet, on a jet anyway.
we need to start to think in the
accounting industry and in the MSP
industry, we have to think about how do
we simulate real work so that when someone
starts to work, they are ready to work.
Book knowledge is not enough.
You have … We have to find a way
to do the reps in order to build
the muscle, and we can't fake that.
We still have to do something to
build the reps. So that's number one.
Number two is I think we have to
redefine what are we looking for.
And quality control, even in,
in MSP land, is going to be a
significant part of what we do.
So we have to retrain around what does
good look like Bookkeepers learnt what
good looks like because they spent years
coding the transactions and getting
feedback from their supervisors about
where- the mistakes they've made.
Well, their job is going to move
to be doing that same work, but
watching the machine instead.
they have to now start to really
understand what good looks like, because
if they don't, don't know what good
looks like, they can't identify bad.
So that's how we l- I look at
it in the accounting space.
We've gotta, we've gotta
talk about simulations.
How do we train without, uh,
you know, putting tax at risk?
Um, and how do we help, uh, train people
to know what good looks like rather
than letting them learn that by osmosis,
which is how they used to learn it
Yeah, this is interesting.
I'd not considered simulation, but,
uh, so I was wondering where you
were going with the, the, the pilots.
But that, that makes a ton of sense.
And, you know, to some degree, I
suppose this is a strange issue of
like, uh, the AIs will sort of remove
that rung, but also provide the,
the sort of the, the, the training
and simulation requirement, right?
Like an AI can build a lot of
these simulations and act as a
customer to, to give coaching
and mentoring to, to scale up.
This would be, I think, you know,
maybe a separate pod-podcast entirely,
but, uh, this I think is, uh,
what you touched on is the future
of education in general, right?
Like a lot of this I think will be
sort of pair-based learning of, uh,
mentorship, and then you kind of exceed
the coach at some point and have human
level intelligence to QA and oversight
these things for, you know, things
that just require nuance, right?
Like robots for now are still
very good at predictable outcomes
and are not terribly creative.
Like they can act like they're creative,
but they're generally kinda crap at it.
Uh, and I think that this will be
sort of an interesting future as
that shifts and it becomes more of
a, "I'll help you up to this level,
and then you get to a level where you
st- actually start to monitor me."
So I think this will be, uh, uh,
this will exist in pretty much
every knowledge-based industry.
And as you said, you guys are kinda
seeing the, the thin edge of the wedge
of this and, but it'll, it'll trickle
down and affect all of us really.
Well, this is fascinating, Peter.
Uh, really appreciate ti- uh, your time.
We'll, um, we'll link to you,
uh, you yourself, your LinkedIn
profile and your, your company,
Fuel Accounting, uh, if anybody
wants to continue the conversation.
Any other sort of parting notes, words
of wisdom, uh, from the front lines
of, of knowledge work in the age of AI?
Yeah.
So I mean, your audience probably works
with, with lots of accountants and,
uh, in, in my AI accountant program,
we actually teach accountants, uh,
how to think about AI and how to
implement AI within their firm, uh,
so that they can… Basically, so
they can survive the next two years.
Because, you know, I'm convinced that
the work will be different in less
than two years from now, substantially
different, and someone that hasn't
adapted to that, uh, will not a good
time with, with, with the industry.
Um, so if any of your listeners
have accountants and, and they,
they are grappling with what
should I be doing with AI?
Uh, yeah, send them, send them to
theaiaccountant.ai and we have something
called the Practice Transformation
Program, where we, we, we, we talk
through all of the issues around AI,
what it's doing to the marketplace.
We talk about that price compression,
uh, and, and then how do they
prepare for a world where the AI
does more and more of the work
And not only the accountants that
work for them, but probably a lot of
their clients are accountants as well,
and sort of this could be kind of
leading them to that conversation of,
Yeah
changing my business, this is
changing your business, so let's
get on top of this," right?
Well, that's great.
Appreciate your time, Peter.
Okay.
Thank you.
It was a pleasure