Insights / Point of view
AI in professional services.
AI in professional services should be the mechanism, not the headline. The right use of it is quiet: it runs the routine work in the background so that senior people spend their time on judgment, which is what an owner is paying for in the first place.
AI is a tool, not a selling point. Its value in a professional firm is to take the routine work off senior people so their attention goes where only judgment will do. It changes how the work is done. It does not change who is accountable for the advice.
When AI becomes the pitch, the client loses.
There is a version of this where AI is the whole story: the brochure leads with it, the demo dazzles, and the actual advice is an afterthought. That gets the priority backwards. A tool is only as useful as the judgment it serves.
Let AI run the routine work.
A great deal of professional work is repeatable and high-volume. That is exactly the work AI is good at, and exactly the work that should not consume a senior person's day. See how this shows up in how we operate.
Gathering
Collecting documents, records, and data from many sources is necessary and time-consuming. It is a task, not a judgment, and a good candidate to automate.
Reconciling
Matching figures, checking that records agree, and flagging what does not is exactly the kind of careful, repetitive work software does reliably and at scale.
Drafting
A first version of a document, memo, or report is faster to start from than a blank page. The senior person edits and decides; the tool removes the cold start.
Modelling
Building and updating financial models from clean inputs is structured work. Letting AI handle the mechanics leaves the assumptions and the interpretation to a person.
The same principle runs through our corporate finance work: the machine prepares, the senior person decides.
How AI keeps a senior team affordable.
This is the part that reaches the client. The economics of senior-led work change when the routine is handled efficiently.
Senior time, protected
Spent on judgmentWhen routine work is not eating into senior hours, those hours go to the decisions that need experience. The expensive resource is spent on the part that justifies it.
Priced for the mid-market
Senior, not juniorA firm does not have to staff an engagement with a junior team to keep the fee reasonable. Efficiency on the routine is what lets senior people stay on the file at a price the mid-market can meet.
The human stays accountable
Always a personAI never replaces the human accountable for the advice. Everything it prepares is reviewed and signed off by the senior person responsible, who answers for the result. That line does not move.
The effect is real, and large.
We hold our own performance numbers until we have measured them. Independent research already shows how much routine work AI takes off professional teams.
About 240 hours a year, per professional
Tax, accounting, and legal professionals expect AI to free up roughly 240 hours each per year, close to five working weeks, an estimated $19,000 per person (Thomson Reuters, Future of Professionals 2025).
Most expect a high or transformational impact
79% of tax, audit, and accounting professionals expect AI to have a high or transformational impact on their profession (Thomson Reuters, Future of Professionals 2025).
Adoption is accelerating
Generative AI adoption at tax firms roughly tripled in a year, from 8% to 21%, and more than half of professional firms report measurable return on their AI investment (Thomson Reuters, Generative AI in Professional Services 2025).
The headline is not novelty, it is reallocation: hours moved off routine work and onto judgment. Sources: Thomson Reuters, Future of Professionals and the 2025 Generative AI in Professional Services report.
Frequently asked questions.
How should AI be used in professional services?
As the mechanism, not the headline. AI is well suited to the routine work of gathering, reconciling, drafting, and modelling. Used that way, it frees senior people to spend their time on judgment, which is the part of the work clients are actually paying for.
Does AI replace the advisor?
No. AI never replaces the human accountable for the advice. A tool can prepare and propose, but a senior person decides, signs off, and answers for the result. Accountability cannot be delegated to software.
How does AI keep a senior team affordable?
When routine work is handled efficiently, senior time is not consumed by tasks that do not need it. That is what lets a firm keep senior people on every engagement and still price the work for the mid-market. You can read more about how we are built.
Is AI-prepared work checked by a person?
Always. Anything AI produces is reviewed by the senior person responsible before it goes anywhere. The tool speeds up the preparation; it does not lower the standard or remove the human review.
What kind of work does the firm use AI for?
The repeatable, high-volume tasks: collecting and reconciling data, drafting first versions of documents, and building and updating models. The interpretation, the strategy, and the decisions stay with the senior principal on the engagement.
Talk to the person behind the work.
We use AI to do the routine well so senior people can do the thinking. If you want that combination, tell us where you are. A senior reply within one business day, in writing.