AI Efficiency for Accounting | Volume 1 | Edition 13 | by Marcie D Terman
The easy question to ask when considering the use of AI in your business is: “How much money could automation save me?”
A far better question is: “How can we use AI to handle repetitive work, so our people can apply their talents to grow revenue and sharpen our competitive advantage?”
Cutting costs is relatively straightforward. Creating new revenue streams requires a bit more imagination.
Consider what recently happened at international retailer IKEA.
IKEA: The €13 Million Saving Was Just the Tip of the Iceberg
IKEA introduced an AI chatbot called Billie to handle routine customer enquiries (named after their ubiquitous bookcase — I had two Billies in my first apartment back in Brooklyn!). Implemented between 2021 and 2023, Billie resolved 3.2 million interactions — approximately 47% of incoming enquiries — saving the firm nearly €13 million.
Impressive, yes. But IKEA didn’t stop with cost reductions.
Instead of letting customer-service agents go, IKEA’s largest retail franchisee, Ingka Group, retrained all 8,500 employees in remote interior design, digital sales, and higher-touch customer support. Rather than explaining why there were three screws left over after assembling a cabinet, those staff members helped customers plan rooms, choose furnishings, and make purchasing decisions without visiting a store.
IKEA expanded its retail channels and built an entirely new commercial engine using the expertise of people already deeply versed in the culture and products of the business.
By FY2022, its remote-sales operation was generating €1.3 billion annually.
€13 million saved, and €1.3 billion gained in new revenue.
The AI saved millions; reimagining how to deploy their human talent unlocked billions. That’s the difference between using AI simply to make your current operation cheaper, and using it to turn your practice into a market leader.
What Could Your Accountancy Practice Do Differently with AI?
Accountancy practices employ skilled professionals with valuable financial knowledge, commercial acumen, and deep client trust. Yet much of their time disappears into reconciling documents, preparing routine reports, cross-checking information, and coordinating across disconnected systems.
Intelligent automation significantly reduces that administrative burden. But doing the same work faster is only a fraction of the opportunity.
- What if your staff accountants had more capacity to help clients make better strategic business decisions?
- What if senior practitioners could focus on developing a high-value fractional CFO practice?
- Could your team provide specialist advisory services, identify cash flow pitfalls earlier for premium clients, or deliver a level of personal attention that competitors simply cannot match?
What ideas might emerge if you asked your team directly: What do our clients need that we could deliver if routine overhead were taken off our plates?
Finding the repetitive bottlenecks is step one. Unlocking billable commercial capacity is where the true growth happens.
Could AI Also Change How You Win New Clients?
AI makes entirely new approaches to business development economically viable that previously were out of reach.
Imagine inviting carefully selected prospects to receive a bespoke, high-value assessment of a key area of their business — something so relevant and actionable that they readily welcome a meeting to review the findings. This builds immediate goodwill and authority, significantly increasing your win rate.
Before the availability of intelligent process automation, preparing individual diagnostic reports upfront drove client acquisition costs (CAC) through the roof, making the strategy prohibitively expensive. Today, modern automated research and report-generation workflows flip those economics.
Your team is still essential to review and validate the findings and lead the client relationship. But putting this capability in place now gives your practice a distinctive advantage while very few competitors are doing it.
Think Beyond Efficiency
At DATAFORT, we work with businesses to identify quick wins through intelligent process automation that yield measurable, near-immediate results. Our strategy is to tackle operational bottlenecks in sequence, demonstrating a clear return on investment before moving on to the next challenge. This framework, combined with enterprise-grade layered security and modern development technologies, gives our clients a distinct edge in their markets.
The most interesting question isn’t just what AI can automate. It’s what your practice could accomplish if traditional capacity constraints were removed. Our experienced engineers and consultants will work alongside you to identify where processes are broken and where AI can unlock new performance.
- What new advisory offerings could you launch?
- What commercial opportunities could your people pursue?
- How could you win business that currently goes elsewhere?
Those questions are well worth exploring.
Take the Next Step
👉 Book a 30-minute introductory conversation with DATAFORT to explore the first automation opportunities that can unlock capacity and revenue in your practice.
We also invite you to join the DATAFORT management team live at 11:00 AM GMT on the 11th of November.
