Accounting

Generative AI accelerating product development, increasing competitive pressure says solutions providers

Published

5 months ago

November 18, 2024

The generative AI revolution, now several years old, has materially accelerated the software development cycle, allowing solutions providers to design, build and release new products faster than before. But this extra efficiency has not served to reduce stress but rather increase it among leaders as the widespread use of these tools has turbocharged already intense competitive pressures.

Coding

Beyond text generation, coding support has been touted as one of the primary use cases for generative AI, with several studies this year finding that software engineers have been more productive (though not necessarily everyone). Overall, there was remarkable uniformity among leaders in just how much faster generative AI has made projects, as everyone when asked this question provided a figure between 10-20%.

However, there was also remarkable uniformity in saying that code generation capabilities were not the primary factor in why generative AI has sped things up. Indeed, there was a general recognition that generative AI, left to its own devices, does not produce quality code. Chris Szymansky, chief technology officer of accounting and auditing platform Fieldguide, spoke for many when discussing the quality of AI coding.

“Certain activities are not as useful yet. Like writing high quality code itself, like the code a senior engineer would write, those tools are not helping with that yet,” said Szymansky.

Rather than writing the code itself, generative AI has instead been an invaluable tool for helping engineers review, analyze and optimize their own code, identifying root causes of bugs and errors, testing and evaluating their work, and making suggestions when they’re stuck, all of which are as important as the coding itself.

“I think this drives speed into the development process, but also more importantly for us, it drives long term quality improvements into our products as well in terms of how they perform at scale,” said Joel Hron, chief technology officer for Thomson Reuters.

This, ultimately, has facilitated the prototyping process. Coming up with new products and quickly making a prototype has become much easier, as has making iterative improvements on it, according to Dan Miller, executive vice president of Sage’s ERP division.

“The greatest benefit of generative AI accelerating our product development is the rapid prototyping of new feature sets to ultimately drive the value for our users. Sage customers have always recognized the tremendous value our platforms have been able to deliver relative to cost, and this product acceleration only supports our ability to deliver the best value. By saving development times, we can gain more and more efficiencies to help our customers grow their business by delivering greater value,” he said.

Non-Coding

However, product development is more than just code. A project is built on not just the technical aspects but myriad other factors like design, user experience, market research and overall business strategy. Generative AI has had a huge impact in these areas, serving to accelerate the overall product development cycle. Leaders cited uses like summarizing progress meetings, drafting reports, and tracking key metrics and milestones. Enrico Palmerino, CEO of accounting automation solutions provider Botkeeper, spoke for many in saying it has also been valuable for analysis and research in seconds that normally would take days. These insights are then employed to improve product design.

“If we have a question and we can’t understand what is going on with our users [it can help]. I just did this in an executive meeting recently: [I asked] what is the biggest problem people are experiencing? And before, it used to be we needed someone who would look at all the tickets coming in. Now you can just ask the AI and it will be like ‘16% is this, 35% is that,'” said Palmerino.

Sage’s Miller, also mentioned analytics as an aid to development, adding that this has greatly facilitated not just prototyping for current products but ideas for future releases as well.

“From a non-code perspective, we can pipeline product development more efficiently using data from user metrics, such as product features that our users are leveraging more than anticipated and what new features they might benefit from in future releases. In other words, generative AI is facilitating market research for us in the most efficient way possible and uncovering user patterns at a rapid pace,” said Miller.

Another major non-code aspect is content development. Brian Diffin, chief technology officer for Wolters Kluwer, noted that their own products have a lot of content which needs to be drafted, edited and curated. Generative AI has significantly sped up this process, allowing them to draft materials much faster.

“Some of our products—let’s say Research for example, where we have editorial people who are finding new legislative content and then curating that content and summarizing it into more digestible language and concepts for our research products—the editors are using generative AI to help them do that and it is saving a lot of time,” said Diffin.

Jayme Fishman, chief strategy and product officer for Avalara, made a similar point, saying that content generation has been vital not only for documenting use cases “because for everything you build you need to document it,” but for content generation as well.

“We don’t have a product that does not rely on content, because we are a compliance solution and everything we do is governed by some law somewhere that needs to be translated to business logic, and using it to help in that definitely helps accelerate our ability to do more with less,” he said.

Time and money

While a project may require fewer labor hours than it did before, this has not necessarily translated into lower development costs. Diffin, from Wolters Kluwer, noted that while projects require fewer labor hours than before, there are still technology costs to consider. For one, generative AI is very compute-intensive, which can lead to higher data fees from cloud providers. It is a challenge, he said, to balance functionality with cost.

“We’re doing a lot of experiments with this, there’s so many approaches on how you implement a generative AI based piece of functionality in the software—we’re evaluating not just the large language models but what their capacities would provide and what is going to be the cost of that feature when we go into production. … We’re seeing some companies right now develop small language models to lower the cost of compute, so we’re doing a lot of experimentation now on what is the best way to release this from a feature perspective and how we can optimize cost,” said Diffin.

Hron, from Thomson Reuters, though, felt that costs, whether in terms of labor hours or technology infrastructure, is beside the point. The benefits of increased efficiency and capacity outweigh these kinds of considerations, and vendors are usually more focused on the product’s quality than the speed at which it is brought to market.

“These things are making it easier than they were before to provide more flexibility on how we deploy our resources across teams, and how we bring people to bear on new problems. I’d emphasize quality in terms of applications—not just shipping things faster but better. I think for us that is as important or even more important than speed,” said Hron.

And at any rate, even if a project does take fewer labor hours, no one is using the extra time to take a vacation. Everyone, instead, puts that saved time into more work, whether that’s adding features and refining the quality of the existing project or starting up a new one entirely.

“We’re a startup company so anything we can do to move faster and be laser focused on our customers, that is where we put our power into. If we can do that X percent times more, that is huge. So that is where we’re putting the time: more R&D, more product, shipping more product, faster dev cycles, happier customers,” said Fieldguide’s Szymansky.

So even if AI is saving people labor, it seems people are working more than ever. Botkeeper’s Palmerino noted that while AI has saved tons of hours in the product development cycle, people—including himself—have even less free time than before.

“What you will see is people going beyond, because they are trying to benchmark the new output expectations. Inherently, we tend to do more. … I’m not seeing work hours come down. They all said AI would mean we work shorter days, but you actually work longer days,” said Palmerino.

Competitive pressures

A large factor in this situation is that generative AI has greatly improved efficiency at many companies, including the competition. Consequently, competitive pressures have increased significantly since the introduction of generative AI, as everyone with these tools is developing products at an accelerated rate to the point where this pace is more or less the new baseline. Hron, from Thomson Reuters, said that as much as he’d like to be sitting on a beach sipping mai tais, the current market environment just doesn’t allow that.

“The interesting dynamic is the degree to which this technology has moved everyone forward in terms of pace, not just Thomson Reuters. The entire market can move faster, and our customers can move faster, and their appetite for more has grown as well. … If anything, I would say it is pushing us to do more, even if we can do each bit a little faster than we were before,” said Hron.

Avalara’s Fishman noted that this space has always had an “innovate or die” dynamic so the types of competitive pressures they’re facing are nothing new, but what is new is their sheer scope and scale. At this point, pretty much everyone is using AI tools, so adopting the technology can seem less about seeking advantage and more about avoiding disadvantage.

“AI really has the promise of making your solutions better, strong, faster. But that is the worst kept secret in the world. You can’t turn on the news or read an article in Accounting Today without reading about AI. Everyone’s awareness creates a dynamic where a choice as to whether or not to use AI is an illusion: there is no choice. You have to, or you will become obsolete,” he said.

Diffin, from Wolters Kluwer, pointed out that beyond incumbent competitors becoming more efficient, AI has also made it easier to launch a startup. With this technology lowering the barrier for entry in this market, there has been an explosion of niche products released at “almost a hypersonic speed because things are now easy to develop.”

“Someone, just a few programmers, can go to Azure, orchestrate a bunch of services, including OpenAI services, with just a bit of business logic and make a solution they can sell into the market,” Diffin said. Though, this may not be all bad. “We’re seeing evidence of that happening quite a bit. And of course we look at those startups as potential acquisition candidates.”

What’s a product anyway?

Botkeeper’s Palmerino noted, though, that as AI becomes increasingly intertwined with software development, the concept of a product release might start to lose its meaning. Right now, AI is still highly focused on specific applications, even if one interacts with these AI using natural language. In the future, he envisioned, AI might become advanced enough that it won’t necessarily need a discrete feature to do what users ask, it will just do it. In such a world respect, talking about a development cycle might not be as relevant to the experience of solutions providers as it is now.

Today, for example, someone might ask an AI built for insights how they can make their company more efficient, and the AI will say it found 12 financial institutions across four clients, all of which are capable of connection. Later, it might not only find those 12 financial institutions, it will prompt the user if they want the AI to connect to them now, and if so will just do it, all without a specific feature or functionality built in. It will just know how to operate the software.

“That is where AI is heading: to do full stack task completion for you, which will make it hard to understand releases. We do true releases where there is an update to the version or a very segmented or defined functionality change, but with the open-endedness of AI and the ability to do full completion of tasks, pieces will mostly be behind the scenes, I don’t think you’ll see or hear about them and, in many cases,” he said.

Accounting

IRS employee union requests emergency relief

Published

2 days ago

April 4, 2025

Business Finance News

The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents workers at the Internal Revenue Service among 37 federal agencies and offices, has asked a federal judge for emergency relief to preserve the union rights of federal employees while NTEU’s legal challenge to President Trump’s executive order stripping unions of collective bargaining rights can be heard in court.

Trump signed an executive order last Thursday removing the requirements from employees at agencies including the Treasury Department that he deemed to have national security missions. On Monday, the NTEU filed a lawsuit to stop the move arguing that Trump’s rationale for protecting national security was just a way to end union protections for federal workers. The administration also wants to prevent the unions from collecting dues automatically withheld from employee paychecks.

NTEU’s request for a preliminary injunction was filed Friday with U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman.

“NTEU seeks emergency relief to protect itself and the workers it represents from this unlawful attempt to eliminate collective bargaining for some two-thirds of the federal workforce,” the request stated.

The NTEU contended that the Trump administration’s executive order claims that allowing workers to join a union was a threat to national security were absurd.

“We all know this has nothing to do with national security and that the true goal here is to make it easier to fire federal employees across government,” said NTEU national president Doreen Greenwald in a statement Friday. “Just five days after declaring the administration would no longer honor our contract with Health and Human Services, thousands of brilliant civil servants who work tirelessly to improve public health were let go for spurious reasons and little recourse to fight back.”

The union pointed out that Congress declared 47 years ago that collective bargaining in the federal sector was in the public’s interest by giving employees a voice in the workplace and allowing labor and management to work together. It acknowledged there is a narrow exemption in the law for groups of employees whose work directly impacts national security, but argued that Trump’s executive order is blatant retaliation against federal sector unions and ignores the laws passed by Congress creating the agencies.

In agencies where a reduction-in-force has been announced, NTEU’s contracts provide time for employees to respond to a RIF notice and explore alternatives to mitigate the impact of the layoffs.

Earlier this week, after two court rulings in California and Maryland, the IRS’s acting commissioner, Melanie Krause, announced the IRS would be bringing back approximately 7,000 probationary employees who had been fired and then put on paid administrative leave.

A bipartisan bill has been introduced in Congress to preserve collective bargaining rights for federal employees. The Protect America’s Workforce Act (H.R. 2550), sponsored by Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pennsylvania, would overturn Trump’s executive order stripping collective bargaining rights from hundreds of thousands of federal workers at multiple agencies. Separately, eight House Republicans and every House and Senate Democrat have sent letters to the White House condemning the executive order.

Accounting

Estate planning for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expiration

Published

2 days ago

April 4, 2025

Business Finance News

The political calculus involved with the details of estate planning next year and beyond may be distracting financial advisors and clients from a larger, simpler conversation, one expert says.

On the off chance that the federal estate-tax exemption levels of $13.99 million for individuals (and double for couples) revert to half those amounts when Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provisions expire in 2026, only 0.2% of households would face potential duties upon transfer of assets, according to Ben Rizzuto, a wealth strategist with Janus Henderson Investors‘ Specialist Consulting Group. He predicted that most financial advisors and high net worth clients, such as those he works with and others across the industry, will see no changes.

With few other revenue-raising provisions available to President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers, they’re not likely to shield all estates from payments to Uncle Sam — as much as they might like to play undertaker to the “Death of the Death Tax,” Rizzuto said, using the label for estate taxes adopted by critics favoring bills like the “Death Tax Repeal Act.” Lawmakers’ decisions on future exemptions from the taxes (and when they make those decisions) remain out of advisors’ control. Meanwhile, they must remind clients that estate planning is much more than having a will and avoiding taxes, Rizzuto said.

“For financial advisors and clients, I would expect for many of them not to have to worry about federal estate taxes next year,” he said in an interview. “Even though they may not have to worry about it, there are still a lot of good conversations to be had.”

The 1%

Trust tools that reduce the value of the assets that will transfer to spouses or other beneficiaries upon a client’s death, combined with the available statistics about the shrinking share of estates subject to taxes, could bring some peace of mind to clients. The 2017 tax law itself pushed down estate tax liability as a percentage of gross domestic product to a quarter of its 2001 level, according to an analysis by the “Budget Model” of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Just two years after the law’s passage, the number of taxable estates had plummeted to 1,275 — or 1% of the number at the beginning of the century.

At the same time, advisors could raise any number of questions with clients about their estates that involve varying degrees of expertise and collaboration with outside professionals. And many surveys have found that clients are expecting them to do so. For example, at least 70% out of a group of 10,000 adults contacted in January by WeAreTalker (formerly OnePoll) on behalf of online legal information service Trust & Will said advisors should offer estate planning. In addition, 40% of the group said they would switch to an advisor who provided that service.

“We’re seeing a fundamental shift in client expectations,” Trust & Will CEO Cody Barbo said in a statement. “The findings are clear. Advisors who fail to integrate estate planning into their practice aren’t just missing an opportunity; they are facing a threat to their client base as wealth transfers to younger generations over the next two decades.”

Get back to the planning basics

In that context, advisors and their clients should steer clear of trying to make sense of a complicated, ever-changing flow of news from Capitol Hill as Trump and the GOP pursue major tax legislation with a year-end deadline, Rizzuto said. If clients truly could be on the hook for estate taxes, a grantor retained annuity trust, a spousal lifetime access trust or gifting strategies may eliminate the possibility. One method involved with the latter could set them up in the future to receive stock that is “highly appreciated with lower basis,” Rizzuto noted, citing the example of equities that have gained a lot of value that a client could give to their parents.

“Why not gift them upstream?” Rizzuto said. “My father holds it. I tell him, ‘Dad, you have to do these things: Live for another 12 months, make sure you don’t sell, make sure that you update your will or your instructions to gift it back to me when you die.’ That’s another idea that we’ve been talking about with advisors.”

From another perspective, these possible paths forward may beckon to clients this year, if they are tuning into Beltway news about the progress of the tax legislation, he said. To bypass the risk of client perceptions that their advisor isn’t doing any tax planning at all, Washington’s complex maneuvering around the future rules is, “if nothing else,” a “great opportunity for advisors to bring this up at a very high level,” Rizzuto said.

“Advisors will really need to go back to basics and have some foundational conversations with clients,” he said, suggesting their goals with taxes as one key point of discussion. “‘What is it that we actually control within your financial and tax plan?’ When it comes right down to it, it’s really just incomes and deductions.”

Accounting

Developing future leaders in accounting: the new imperative in an AI and automation driven era

Published

3 days ago

April 4, 2025

Business Finance News

As technology continues to automate routine tasks, the role of finance professionals is evolving, demanding deeper capabilities in critical thinking, communication and business acumen.

Many of PrimeGlobal’s North American firms are focused on cultivating these skills in their future leaders. Carla McCall, managing partner at AAFCPAs, Randy Nail, CEO of HoganTaylor, and Grassi managing partner Louis Grassi shared their views with PrimeGlobal CEO Steve Heathcote on the need for future leaders to balance technological proficiency with human-centered skills to thrive.

AI is transforming the sector by streamlining workflows, automating data analysis and reducing manual processes. However, rather than replacing accountants, AI is reshaping their roles, enabling them to focus on higher-value tasks. In the words of Louis Grassi, AI can be seen as a strategic partner, freeing accountants from routine tasks, enabling deeper engagement with clients, more thoughtful analysis, and ultimately better decision-making.

Nail emphasized the importance of embracing AI, warning that those who fail to adapt risk being replaced by professionals who leverage the technology more effectively. HoganTaylor’s “innovation sprint” generated over 100 ideas for AI integration, underscoring why a proactive approach to adopting new technologies is so necessary and valuable.

McCall advocates for an educational shift that equips professionals with the skills to interpret AI-generated insights. She stressed that accounting curricula of the future must evolve to incorporate advanced technology training, ensuring future accountants are well-versed in AI tools and data analytics. Moreover, simulation-based learning is becoming increasingly crucial as traditional methods of education become obsolete in the face of automation.

Talent development and leadership growth

As AI reshapes the profession, firms must rethink how they develop and nurture their future leaders. To attract and retain top talent, firms need to prioritize personalized development plans that align with individual career goals.

HoganTaylor’s approach to talent development integrates technical expertise with leadership and communication training. These initiatives ensure professionals are not only proficient in accounting principles but also equipped to lead teams and navigate complex client interactions.

Nail underscored the growing importance of writing and presentation skills, as AI will handle routine tasks, leaving professionals to focus on higher-level analytical and decision-making responsibilities.

Soft skills are the success skills

While technical proficiency remains vital, future leaders must also cultivate critical thinking, communication and adaptability — skills McCall refers to as the “success skills.” McCall highlights the necessity of business acumen and analytical communication, essential for interpreting data, advising clients and making strategic decisions.

Recognizing teamwork and collaboration remain crucial in the hybrid work environment, McCall explained in detail how AAFCPA fosters collaboration through structured remote engagement strategies such as “intentional office time,” alcove sessions and stand-up meetings. Similarly, HoganTaylor supports remote teams by offering training for career advisors to ensure effective mentorship and engagement in a dispersed workforce.

McCall emphasized why global experience can be valuable in leadership development. Exposure to diverse markets and accounting practices enhances professionals’ adaptability and broadens their perspectives, preparing them for leadership roles in an increasingly interconnected world.

Grassi reminded us that an often-overlooked leadership skill is curiosity. In his view the most effective leaders of tomorrow will be inherently curious — not just about emerging technologies but about clients, market shifts and global trends. Encouraging curiosity and continuous learning within our firms will distinguish the true industry leaders from those simply reacting to change.

A balanced future

What’s clear from speaking to our leaders is PrimeGlobal’s role in fostering trust, community and knowledge sharing. McCall recommended member-driven panels to discuss AI implementation and automation strategies and share best practice. Nail, on the other hand, valued PrimeGlobal’s focus on addressing critical industry issues and encouraged continuous evolution to meet professionals’ changing needs.

The future of leadership in the accountancy profession hinges on a balanced approach, leveraging AI to enhance efficiency while cultivating essential human skills that technology cannot replicate, which Grassi highlights skills including leadership and building client trust.

As McCall and Nail advocate, the next generation of accountants must be agile thinkers, skilled communicators and strategic decision-makers. Firms that invest in these competencies will not only stay competitive but will also shape the future of the industry by developing well-rounded leaders prepared for the challenges ahead.

By investing in both AI capabilities and essential human skills, firms can not only future proof their leadership but also shape a resilient and forward-thinking profession ready to meet the challenges of the future.

As Grassi concluded, while technical skills provide the foundation, leadership in accounting increasingly demands emotional intelligence, empathy and adaptability. AI will change how we perform our work, but human connection, trust and nuanced judgment are irreplaceable. Investing in these human-centric skills today is critical for firms aiming to build resilient leaders of tomorrow. To remain relevant and thrive, professionals must prioritize developing strong success skills that will define the leaders of tomorrow.