Driving a competitive edge with AI

AI has dominated headlines in recent years, with research from PwC finding that its sustained growth will drive global GDP 14% higher by 2030 and contribute over $6tr to the economy. This will largely stem from productivity gains in the workplace and the automation of routine tasks, enabling employees to focus more on higher level services and revenuegenerating lines of business...

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Brendan Woods, founder and CEO, AutoEntry

Brendan Woods is founder and CEO of AutoEntry. Originally a software developer in the hedge fund space, he quit his job and started the company to automate data entry for accountants and bookkeepers.

AutoEntry, automates data entry of purchase and sales invoices, receipts, bank statements and more, providing significant time and cost savings. A trusted supplier to over 2,000 accounting firms worldwide, providing them with intelligent solutions for data entry automation.

Research reveals that

over 80% of businesses believe that AI will help them drive a competitive advantage, and that its adoption represents a ‘strategic priority’ for their firm. Technological awareness and trust remain obstacles to overcome for some, but in so doing, how can businesses leverage AI-based applications to drive valuable operating efficiencies and gain a competitive edge?

AI through the ages

AI is the development of software which can work and ‘think’ like humans, and it is an umbrella term for a range of associated technologies including ‘machine learning’ and ‘deep learning’. Whilst the history of AI dates back to antiquity, the term was actually coined in the summer of 1956 during a meeting of academics on the topic, now known as the ‘Dartmouth Conference’.

The following decades saw a boom into areas of research, including natural language processing (NLP) in which ‘Eliza’ was born. This was a computer program developed by MIT in 1964 which could hold conversations with humans, becoming one of our first examples of a chatbot. Another breakthrough came in 1997, when ‘Deep Blue’, a ‘supercomputer’ developed by IBM, beat champion chess player, Garry Kasparov. The computer had somewhat of a competitive advantage, by being able to evaluate up to 200 million positions a second!

Today, chances are you will be using AI on a daily basis, via email spam filtering, Google Search and through virtual assistants on your smartphone or in your home, such as Apple’s ‘Siri’ and Amazon’s ‘Alexa’. Technology which has been made possible in part, by advances in APIs (software which communicates requests between two different points) and algorithms which can both detect patterns within data and react intuitively to insights gleaned from this information. at the stage where we’re living and working alongside robots in everything that we do. However, coupled with rapid advances in software capability and tech giants including Google and Microsoft pledging to devote billions of dollars into AI’s continued research, the next few years will almost certainly herald an exciting new era in technology.

AI driving innovation in business

AI is being applied in innovative ways across all business sectors, from healthcare and agriculture to retail and financial services, as companies seek to transform back office operations and provide superior customer experiences. Some everyday examples include:

Fraud prevention: Banks and credit card providers are adopting AI to fight fraudulent activity such as money laundering, by leveraging deep learning to uncover patterns in data and spot anomalies. Service providers are offering more digital channels than ever before, the scope

of which, presents increased opportunity for threat. AI helps to combat this, by analysing large for early adopters. Rome wasn’t

data sets from these sources in real-time, and spotting red flags the human eye may not notice.

Energy consumption: Energy companies are leveraging AI to make power stations and electric grids operate more efficiently and to reduce consumption in a user’s home. The volume of data amassed from these grids across administrative tasks, such

the country can also be analysed to predict when equipment may fail, in order to prevent power outages.

Personalised shopping: Major retailers are increasingly relying on data analytics to strengthen their relationships with customers and boost revenues. For instance, AI can monitor online behaviours in order to recommend products to shoppers and by flagging instances of ‘cart to re-engage with the buyer regarding the purchase.

Leveraging AI as an accounting firm

As with other industries, AI is disrupting the accountancy sector and offering valuable opportunities built in a day, however the correct application of AI can transform how a firm works, enabling users to differentiate their services and expand their business. Here are some of the headline benefits:

Greater operational efficiency:

AI makes users more productive and profitable by automating routine and time-consuming abandonment’, allowing retailers

as accounts reconciliations, transaction matching or bookkeeping data entry. As well as relieving employees from the burden of long hours of paperwork, firms can both take on more new clients and nurture existing customer relationships with the time saved.

Higher quality data: By leveraging in-built rules and algorithms, AI can process more client data than by hand, whilst also eliminating human error. This stands to have a huge impact on areas such as auditing and risk management, by enabling users to spend less time aggregating data and more time examining trends and insights.

Faster customer support:

With an increasingly saturated market, business owners should put just as much emphasis on retaining customers, as they did in acquiring them. Increasingly, small businesses are making use of chatbots which can be applied to a firm’s website or social media pages to engage with new prospects and respond to queries faster.

Better marketing: Word of mouth referrals are great, but a robust marketing strategy is essential to keep new customers coming through the door. There are now a range of cost effective AI-based marketing tools which can manage marketing outreach. For instance, Buffer, which helps users optimise the visibility of

their social media posts, and and unit price. AutoEntry also

Crayon, which tracks competitor remembers how users categorise activity for a user’s business. expenses, such as the relevant supplier account, nominal account AI in practice: Automating data and tax code without ever creating entry duplicate supplier accounts or posting duplicate invoices in Xero. One of the most effective and AutoEntry even matches invoices to immediate ways accountants purchase orders. and bookkeepers can put AI into practice, is through the elimination AI in the years ahead of manual data entry. AutoEntry, a Xero add on, helps users do exactly AI is growing stronger and broader that, by capturing and analysing in its capabilities, and will automate scanned and photographed bank more tasks both at home and and credit card statements, bills, in the office in the months and invoices, expenses, receipts years ahead. and more, automating Whilst this pace of data entry into a “Powered by AI, change may seem user’s Xero account. Powered by AutoEntry helps users to work daunting, greater understanding into how to apply AI in AI, AutoEntry smarter with its practice represents helps users to broad range of a considerable work smarter features” opportunity for with its broad accountants to improve range of features. For the quality of their instance, AutoEntry captures services and provide greater tax summaries by default and if value to their clients. Ultimately, requested, full line item details it can help accounting firms retire including description, quantity outdated processes and position themselves as indispensable business advisors. In this age of Technology, this approach will increasingly be key in helping firms to maintain customer loyalty and make a name for themselves in the industry.

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