The View from up here

Artificial Intelligence (AI), Tech and the UK Tax Market

I was very unsettled last week when one of my clients (a partner at a Top 20 firm) mentioned in passing that their firm were cutting the number of hires at graduate and school leaver level as a direct result of AI. The firm had come to the opinion that AI would soon be taking over the traditional tax work that would be given to trainees. The Tax Team were trying to work out how to hire enough staff to be able to train future managers and senior managers while effectively taking out a junior level of hire.

This came on the back of hearing that the Association of Tax Technicians and the Chartered Institute of Taxation have once again been looking at the way they set exams to restrict cheating by students using ChatGPT and other programmes to write exam answers. One option may be to return to traditional exam halls and paper scripts. The Association and the Institute themselves use a tech app to see if students are plagiarising answers. They use tech to check if ChatGPT is being use – rather like using a thief to catch a thief.

AI is infiltrating every area of professional life, from Co-Pilot which can take your meeting notes for you, to the Capital Allowances AI tools that can prepare the first draft of a Capital Allowances claim.

In May 2024 Tolley’s survey of 400 tax professionals found:

‘’that two-thirds of UK tax practitioners are regularly using generative AI or are planning to do so soon. The survey of over 400 UK tax practitioners found that 10% use generative AI every day. Their top priorities are for researching tax matters (91%) and drafting tax documents (87%)’’ *

In recruitment we have seen the advance of technology encroach on us for years – ATS – Applicant tracking Software which receives applications via clients’ websites, ‘reads’ CV’s and does the first ‘sift’ turning down applicants who might, for example, not have the right to work in the UK and need visa sponsorship.

Ray Amara a scientist and futurist came up with’’ We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run’’ which Bill Gates then refined as ‘’ We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction.’’

The latest thing I have been researching are apps which link to LinkedIn and use AI to draft messages and linking into contacts. I’ve decided whilst apps like Lemlist, Dripify and Elar are very clever; what sets my business apart is personal thought-out contact and indeed content. I’m beginning to wonder if I am becoming a dinosaur as I don’t use ChatGPT to write blogs or adverts and I always notice when HR teams use ChatGPT to write job adverts and job specs. I’m also being inundated with firms saying they will process and format CV’s for pennies using AI. However, I have used AI to sort through data to analyse responses to a survey – and thought it was a brilliant way of making data sets clearer. I also use tech like Xero and Dext for my own accounts.

It makes me wonder what parts of the job for tax folk and tax recruitment folk will still remain in 10 years time. I think we all hoped technology would take way the boring jobs and leave us time for the intellectual and fulfilling ones, but now AI can paint, translate languages, write poetry and prose. Yet no one has invented technology which can clean toilets!

So I asked my sister Jemima Hargreaves a high end jeweller based in Stockholm (see www.hargreavesstockholm.com) if AI and tech was impacting her work. What she said made me realize what the ideal model should be, she used CAD to change her hand-drawn designs into files, which can then be 3 D printed in wax so that when parts of jewellery are cast – the best most accurate casts can be made (most jewellery is partly cast and has been since about 4th millennium BC BC). Casts are then polished hand-set with stones and may be further engraved. So, the technology doesn’t take away the creative process but it can make a more accurate wax blank. She said that some designers use AI to design too, but she sells herself on her own individual style and a level of service She said:

‘’We live in a world of convenience and immediacy. This tends to be on the more affordable end (although not exclusively). However, there is a high-end experience where a few luxury companies refuse to compromise on quality and experience. This is why companies such as Hermes continue to have such a strong place in the market. The experience is unbeatable. They provide a level of luxury and personal contact that is rarely seen today. As a result they have an exceptionally loyal client base and remain the epitome of aspirational product.

In my world it becomes divided. The truly exceptional brands offer personal service. They offer a human to talk to, they engage with their clients on a personal level. That is true luxury in the modern age if you ask me. 

So what your brand is doing is offering a tailor made, bespoke, high end level produce/service. Yes AI could mine LinkedIn for you but then you would be losing the essence of your personal brand. I could use a bot to reply to Instagram but my clients want to tell me about their traumas, their stories, the things that matter to them. They want to be heard and acknowledged. That creates a connection and loyalty that would be hard to replicate.

As I said on the phone, there are businesses that are all algorithm based. They tend to be male led. I think the strength of both of our businesses is the human element.

AI has a place but perhaps not in the core of what makes our businesses unique.’’

I think Tax folk can learn from this – use AI to collate data by all means but then give that data your own polish and set it with your own thoughts and ideas, don’t let it write your opinion for you. Plus people like to talk to real people – if you ever tried to book a car into a service using a chatbot or solve a local council issue with a chatbot you will know how much quicker it would be to talk to a ‘real’ person.

‘How Generative AI is Transforming Tax Practice’ – July 2024 Tax Advisor

Georgiana Head

Director | Georgiana Head Tax Recruitment

0113 418 0767 | 07957 842 402

georgiana@ghrtax.com