New technology from progressive generative AI firm C.P.A.AI has been put to the test this year. In January, their AI Busy Season Bot was launched to an audience of CPAs eager to get their hands on the advanced technology.
Local CPA firm Watts, Taber and Fiske had been searching for innovative solutions to the staffing crisis that caused them to
Benefits
WTF managing partner Bill Billings said of their early investment in the technology, “The BS-Bot achieved more than we could have asked for: high accuracy and timeliness on requested technical tasks, no complaints about the ‘off’ chicken from the catered dinner last Friday, and flawless, natural-sounding client communication.”
Along with technical research, the bot was tasked with responding to absurd and tedious client inquiries, alleviating the need for professionals to work with frustrating clients. Automating repetitive tasks such as “email” resulted in human staff meeting their busy-season charge hour goals while working only 25 total hours per week.
While the BS-Bot wasn’t perfect, and occasionally gave out incorrect research information to staff and clients, the firm found the error rate to be less than last busy season, which employed only humans. As a silver lining, the firm’s cannabis practice benefited from AI hallucinations, being 100% on-brand for the type of client experience valued by this niche audience.
Watts, Taber and Fiske is allowing the bot to take April 2 off in celebration of it completing a full busy-season workload by April 1, two weeks before all other professionals. The remaining staff were required to pick up the pieces of clients submitting information past the requested March internal deadline. While doing so, they lamented their role as mere mortals while dining on the catered chicken buffet, again, in the office kitchen.
Design
Recognizing that CPAs aren’t always best suited to create stunning graphic designs, the bot was asked to create a new logo for the firm. It’s hard to argue the impressive result that was achieved here in just minutes.
However, the BS-Bot refused to add “CPAs” on to the logo in a revision request, leaving this task to the professionals at WTF. Following a heated internal debate the font Comic Sans was used to finalize the logo by the firm’s intern.
Future of AI
Looking ahead, Billings noted he’s begun experimenting with using the BS-Bot for CPA firm management issues. Rather than having spirited debates with fellow partners, leading to no particular conclusion or next steps, he is now relying on AI to answer questions such as “What should our partner income allocations be?” and “Who should we fire next?” Initial experimentation with allowing the bot to oversee client acceptance procedures has led to an influx of 2,300 new individual 1040 clients with total annual fees of $250 per client.
Given the success found this year, partners at WTF have decided they will no longer be looking for new college recruits to demonstrate judgment or analysis, as the BS-Bot will also begin overseeing these tasks. Existing staff reported in a survey that they were relieved to no longer be on the hook having to apply or practice professional judgment while having less than 25 years of experience.
At press time, sensitive client data distributed by the BS-Bot had only been utilized by three offshore organizations as part of the interest in targeting wealthy US companies and taxpayers for urgent payments needed for foreign princes
This post was written in celebration of April Fool’s Day.
