The Association for Accounting Marketing’s (AAM) 2023 Emerge virtual conference last week focused on how accounting firms can harness the power of AI to maintain a competitive edge. Here is a sample of some of the quotes we heard from the experts:
Jonah Nadeau, senior marketer at IPA 100 and Best of the Best firm Armanino
- “Conservatively, I think we can all agree that it maybe would save you at least 15 minutes a day – that’s five hours of saved time in a month for 20 bucks. I don’t think there’s a single partner at any CPA firm who would not say that’s a good deal.” – on the ROI of GPT-4, the paid, improved version of ChatGPT.
- “Accounting firms need to position themselves as the Netflix of tomorrow, not the Blockbuster of the past.”
Octavio (OJ) Laos, senior manager for Armanino’s Ideaticians team
- “We’ve got to realize this is table stakes. These are things that have to happen in order for us to remain competitive and in the game.” – on the possibility of AI-savvy clients moving to another firm.
- “I can’t do that.” – on the four words that will be eliminated by using AI.
- “It’s also going to make it harder to stand out, quite frankly. If you thought you were smarter than your peers, well guess what? There’s a tool, and they can get there too. You’re more organized? Yeah, not anymore, right?” – on the ‘downsides’ of AI.
Raissa Evans, senior marketing manager at IPA 100 firm Weaver
- “Add a discussion of AI best practices to your weekly meetings. It’s more interesting than a status meeting anyway and you can get into some of the fun parts of ways that people are helping the team and each other. And, and if you don’t have a team, get a peer group.” – on ways to include AI into daily workflow processes.
- “We talk about human versus AI, but what you really need to be thinking about is human with AI. It’s a much more powerful concept.”
- “It hesitates to take a point of view. It doesn’t do humor well and it doesn’t do empathy at all.” – on the limitations of AI in creating content.
Paul Roetzer, CEO of the Marketing AI Institute
- “I would consider another company to go work for, honestly. I just feel so strongly that the future is marketer plus machine.” – his response to a question from a marketer whose firm is barring use of AI.
- “This is the dumbest form of AI you will ever encounter in human history, so it’s only going to get more powerful from here.” – on the speed with which AI will improve.
- “Step one is to focus on education and training. Everything starts within an organization with understanding.”
