Unless you’ve been living under a rock (which may well be the case during tax season), you’ve likely been hearing a lot about AI lately. Tools like ChatGPT have put Artificial Intelligence into the hands of the public, driving both excitement and trepidation. What can AI do? Who is it for? Is it even safe?
As an accountant, you may be wondering how and if you should consider leveraging AI for your accounting tasks. While there are risks to using AI in accounting, there are also plenty of low-risk and creative ways you can use AI to simplify your day-to-day tasks.
In this blog post, we’ll explore some tips and best practices for using AI for accountants, as well as when not to use AI in your accounting practice.
AI for Accountants: Tips and Best Practices
Use AI for… Customer Support?
One great use of AI for accountants is using it to help speed up certain customer support tasks. We all know the feeling of spending too much time responding to a client’s email or providing guidance on a frequently asked question. With AI, you can ask for help in writing these responses. While you need to be careful to not include any confidential or client personal information, AI can provide a great head start on crafting an email for you to refine.
Try asking: I need to respond to an email from a client who is upset that they haven’t received their documents yet. Can you help me write a response to reassure the client that we are working on it, and that they’ll have it soon?
Use AI for… Marketing Support!
Here’s a safe way to use AI for accountants– put it to use as a marketing tool! Tools like ChatGPT are excellent at common marketing tasks like generating content ideas, creating buyer personas, conducting competitor research, and more. There are so many ways you can get creative and specific in your marketing requests.
Try asking: Can you generate some content ideas for our accounting blog? We specialize in tax accounting for governmental and nonprofit organizations.
Use AI for… SEO
SEO, or search optimization, provides another great way to use AI for accountants. You can use AI to do things like conduct SEO keyword research, optimize website content, create meta descriptions, and more. While you’ll still need a high-level SEO strategy for your website, AI can make executing on that strategy easier than ever by helping out with its many aspects.
Try asking: What keywords or phrases might someone search if they’re looking for an accounting practice in Ohio?
Use AI for… Content Creation
This one goes hand-in-hand with marketing support, but content creation is a big enough category that we wanted to separate the two. As mentioned above, tools like ChatGPT are fantastic at generating content ideas. Not only that, it can produce the content, too!
Now, be forewarned– it’s much better at generating ideas than producing the content itself. This blog post, for example, was written by a human. When we asked ChatGPT for ideas on how to use AI for accountants, it provided exactly what accounting should never use AI for. So human expertise and common sense are still needed!
However, you can use AI to get a head start on tasks like writing a blog post or website page– just make sure you review closely and edit yourself. You can also use AI for simpler content creation tasks such as writing social media captions, email newsletters, or ad copy.
Again, it’s important to note that AI-generated content should always be reviewed by a human before publishing. While AI can help generate content quickly and efficiently, it’s still significant to ensure that the content aligns with your brand’s messaging and doesn’t include any errors, inconsistencies, or just plain wrong statements.
Try asking: Write me a blog post about the importance of not waiting until the last minute to file taxes, from the perspective of an accountant.
Security Concerns: AI for Accountants
While AI can be a powerful tool for accountants, it’s essential to remember that there are some risks associated with its use. For example, accountants should be careful about sharing their clients’ financial information with AI tools, as this could potentially compromise the security and privacy of that information. Additionally, accountants should ensure that any AI tools they use are secure and comply with data protection regulations.
Learn more about navigating the risks of AI in accounting.
Blending AI and Accountant Practice Management
AI for accountants can open up a world of exciting tools and support, but it’s important to use it responsibly and safely. By leveraging AI-powered tools for tasks like research, customer support, marketing support, SEO, and content creation, you can put AI to use for your firm without major security risks.
For all those tasks that you shouldn’t trust to AI– like organizing client information, streamlining your workflow, and producing detailed reports– a practice management platform like TPS Cloud Axis is the way to go. Our platform is designed exclusively for accountants, so you can trust that it has all specific tools you need in a safe and secure environment.