Earlier this week, Former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt took to the podcast waves to warn graduates away from accountancy, claiming artificial intelligence is about to render our profession obsolete. As Managing Partner of HaysMac, one of the UK’s top 30 accountancy firms, I strongly disagree. Accountancy isn’t dying, it’s evolving.
I’ve worked in accountancy for 25 years and have seen first-hand how emerging technologies have reshaped and redefined our profession. To me, AI isn’t a threat, it’s a revolutionary tool.
The fear around change is understandable. Research shows that 52% of professionals are worried about AI’s workplace impact, with 32% believing it could reduce their job opportunities. However, the narratives around the ‘death’ of careers, spread by influential voices like Jeremy Hunt and Elon Musk, are unhelpful at a time when businesses should be leaning in to much needed growth and innovation, thinking about how technology and evolution of the skillsets within their teams will boost productivity.
Even within our own firm, I’ve seen these narratives affect colleagues who are anxious about AI potentially taking their jobs, particularly in entry-level roles which have traditionally been dominated by administrative tasks.
The reality is far more nuanced and exciting.
With AI, the administrative tasks that once took hours can now be completed in minutes. This doesn’t make employees redundant – it frees up their time to develop critical skills, engage more meaningfully with clients, and drive real strategic value.
The government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan, released earlier this year, captured the opportunities of AI to enhance growth and productivity and create tangible benefits clearly. By using AI assistants to handle repetitive tasks, we can free up to 20% of an employee’s time for more complex and higher-value work.
At HaysMac, we’re keeping on our toes by constantly testing new AI technologies. We’ve already seen remarkable transformations across many departments – from tax teams handling annual returns and our Business Support team managing accounts, to big data analysis for audit and digital marketing.
Our approach to AI is fluid but is shaped by two core questions. Firstly, what will amplify the technical and efficiency in our service delivery to clients? Secondly, what will improve the overall experience of our team at HaysMac? Our adoption of AI is not just improving efficiency, it’s bolstering our entire offering to clients.
The key word here is bolstering, not replacing. The flaw in Hunt’s argument is that he underplays the human dimension of our jobs. The art of building relationships and trust with clients is not something ChatGPT can replicate. Emotional intelligence closes million-pound deals. Collaborative strategic thinking drives the most innovative problem-solving.
Our clients stick with us because of the relationships we build with them, understanding their business, direction of travel and knowledge of their sector or market. AI tools should help us deepen that knowledge and hence increase the value and connectivity we have with our clients and their businesses.
By 2030, 70% of skills used in most jobs will change, with AI emerging as a critical catalyst. But this doesn’t mean human skills are becoming less important; quite the opposite. Skills that traditionally took our graduates a decade to develop, such as presenting to boards, using data to talk through key risk areas of a business, winning new business, developing a network and leading client relationships, will now be expedited.
It’s disappointing to hear the view that medicine or IT would be better bets for aspiring graduates. Instead of doomsaying, we need to be getting young people really excited about accountancy as a career path. Not only does it expose young professionals to a wide range of sectors, but it also provides them with hugely valuable skills and qualifications. No other profession equips young professionals to understand business at its core so comprehensively. Throughout the training period, we are privileged enough to have insight into the key operational and strategic areas of a business, observe different management styles and see how different boards operate and their effectiveness.
As a training firm, recruiting graduates isn’t just essential to our success, it’s our lifeblood. In fact, I’m proud to say that numerous partners at HaysMac, including myself, have grown from graduate recruits to leadership positions. We invest enormous time and resources into developing our young talent and that will not change.
With the incorporation of AI into workstreams, our young professionals will still need to learn traditional core skills but now they’ll have more time to engage with clients, network, and think creatively. To me, this represents an exciting future for young professionals who can adapt, learn, and leverage technology to advance their development.
Accountancy isn’t dying. In fact, it’s never been more alive.
