EP458: Spotlight - Karen Ainley - Mastering Automation To Elevate Client Relationships

Spotlight: People will say, oh, AI is going to take over the world. I don't see a world where the profession of accounting is totally taken over by AI. There'll always be that need for human touch and validation, in my opinion, because we do audits and we need to make sure that we get their taxes right. So I would just say, you know, embrace it, think about how it's going to give you that better work-life balance, and then just go for it, give it a try. You're listening to the Spotlight Edition of The Successful Bookkeeper with your host, Louie Prosperi. Listen each week as inspiring guests share their secrets of success to help you increase your confidence, work smarter, and build a business you love. This episode of The Successful Bookkeeper is brought to you by purebookkeeping.com. The proven system to grow your bookkeeping business. Welcome back to the Successful Bookkeeper Podcast. I'm Louie Prosperi. Our guest is the head of accountants business unit at Sage in the UK, Karen Ainley. Welcome to the show. Thanks, Louie, and thanks a lot for having me on the show. I'm excited to be here. We're very happy to have you here, and we are really looking forward to your insights. Uh, what I'd like to start off with is a question about The Practice of Now report. Can you share some of your insights on what that is and why is that becoming important to bookkeepers and accountants today?

Yeah, I mean, Louis, it's a massive time of change in accounting and bookkeeping at the moment. So Sage teamed up with Edelman Data and Intelligence to create this global research report which gives our readers a sneak peek into the practice next door. So we spoke with 1,000 accountants and bookkeepers to find out what they're thinking, how they're feeling, and what they're planning to do through this extraordinary period of change that we're going through. And we all know that change is both challenging and exciting at the same time. So there's a lot of opportunity ahead, but also a lot of trepidation. Yes. So 96% of the audience that we spoke to said that they're really excited about the future of their profession. And with the onset of the digitization of tax globally, heightened client expectations and fast-moving technologies being the main factors for change. So 85% want more opportunities to provide those services. But for me, there were 3 key takeaways from the report. The first one was that accountants and bookkeepers feel like they need to grow their skills and