In May, 600 of our customers attended our Fast Forward event to connect with us and with each other, learning and sharing thoughts and ideas. It was also a great opportunity to discuss new technologies like AI and highlight our innovative Silverfin Assistant.
New technology and especially AI were the talk of the town, and not only because our Silverfin Assistant came to life in funky blue suits!
It was remarkable how the same question kept popping up: what will be the impact of AI on our profession and what will our job look like in 5 years? Before answering that, let us take a step back and look at the bigger picture.
Improving accounting compliance with technology
If we look at Silverfin, it has always been our goal to smooth your compliance process by removing any obstacles and setting you up for more value-added conversations with your clients. It starts with the connected experience in the cloud. Through standardising your workflow and getting valuable insights across your client portfolio you have the time and tools to be a trusted advisor. This requires some impressive technology behind the scenes of Silverfin.
Our product runs on a global cloud infrastructure with continuous testing and deployment, meaning we can provide multiple software releases per day (with no impact on our users of course!). Amongst other features in the background of Silverfin is our custom accounting development language, Silverfin Liquid which powers all our accounting logic and is even available for our users.
But why am I telling you this? You won’t find these details on our website (except our engineering blog 😉 or on your invoice, because we don’t sell cloud computing or any other technology! What we sell is the product experience, the value that we create by applying it to accountancy and to your practice.
AI at Silverfin automates rather than replaces
And the same applies to AI. We don’t sell AI, but we do sell our Silverfin Assistant and mapping solution powered by AI. Because it uniquely brings value where no other technology can do.It’s important to understand that Silverfin AI, particularly in our Silverfin Assistant, enhances user capabilities without fully automating processes, ensuring professionals remain integral. We feel it’s critical to have the end user remain in control and this means we want to have accurate AI outcomes whilst also focussing on a fluent and intuitive user experience. The question we ask ourselves is not how good our AI models are (although they are top notch), but how well it can assist our users.
Silverfin AI has been used in data mapping for years, but now Silverfin Assistant is available as a module in Belgium, the Netherlands, and the UK.
The Future of Accounting with Silverfin AI
So to return to the question, what will AI bring to accounting in 5 years? Well, I can say that accounting practices today are clearly not the same as 5 or 10 years ago, and I’m certain they will keep on changing at the same rapid pace. What’s also clear is no single accounting firm can keep up with all the technological change and pace of innovation by themselves, not even the very largest ones. It will be up to technology providers, such as Silverfin, to take responsibility in ensuring that advances in innovation and technology can be integrated into their platforms and products.
I can’t say for sure what that future will look like, but it seems likely that a clear dichotomy will arise between those service providers that utilise and embrace AI versus those that don’t.
For that very reason, we feel it’s our duty to not only keep on integrating AI in our products, but as well explore any new forms of technology and verify the value they could bring to our users. For example, last month we created a proof of concept to automatically generate advisory talking points with large language models based on live reports in Silverfin. Our testing clients were clearly impressed and we are continuing our research with these emerging technologies. At the same, we make sure that our AI products are up to date and tailored to specific markets, like with our upcoming launch of the Silverfin Assistant in the UK.
These are exciting times indeed! I don’t know where exactly this will bring us, but it’s clear that any future will heavily involve AI and I can confidently say that at Silverfin, we are a frontrunner in that race.
