EXCLUSIVE: Moore Kingston Smith to roll out Chat GPT usage

UK accounting firm Moore Kingston Smith has commenced a firm-wide initiative to explore and implement the use of Chat GPT across all service lines, according to Becky Shields, partner and head of the firm’s data analytics and AI team.

Speaking to Accountancy Age, Shields confirmed that the mid-market firm has recently produced its first suite of documents to aid the rollout, including a usage policy, training guide, suggested use cases, and a wider strategy document on future development and additional skills needed.

Though currently in an exploratory phase, the firm expects to find long-term applications for the technology across each of the firm’s service lines, she says.

“I absolutely think there is an expectation that it will be used in all of our service lines. There’s lots of areas it can be useful in, such as substantiating technical analysis and designing audit programmes.”

But Shields also believes that the large language model technology will prove useful in a much more general sense, as a time-saving and productivity mechanism in various clerical and administrative tasks.

“People are using it in a technical way, but then I think the admin points are just as important because professional services as a whole is struggling with productivity, and there’s a whole lot of admin that plays into that. I think a lot of people are finding comfort in being helped to draft things and use the correct professional language.”

Internal infrastructure ‘vital’

The initiative’s preliminary stage, Shields explains, was the creation of a bespoke-made software platform designed to enable the monitoring of usage stats on a real-time basis. In practice, this blocks Chat GPT from all browsers and routes users in via the application, with all activity subsequently appearing in a central analytics dashboard.

While the added visibility helps with any security concerns that may arise, she says, monitoring usage patterns has allowed Moore Kingston Smith to form an internal committee of the most prolific Chat GPT users, with a view to strategising further on the roll-out. The total number of regular users amounted to roughly 10% of the firm’s workforce.

“The idea of this group is to help people explore how they might want to use it in their jobs. Because obviously, we’ve got a complex business with multiple services lines, so hopefully it will help people understand when and how it should be used.

“So that’s the strategy – understand how people are using it, then educate them on how they can better use it or get more efficiency out of it.”

Shields adds that another key component of the strategy is establishing more sophisticated data cataloguing processes in order to prepare for “a future of AI”. Critical to this is the acquisition of appropriate talent, she says.

“We’ve created a wider document on our AI strategy to map out the short- and long-term needs. A big part of that is hiring a number of developers for different parts of our business, and increasingly now, we tend to put more weight on having machine learning skills or other aspects of AI programming.

“Obviously the AI is only as good as the data is organised, so there’s roles in there in relation to that.”

AI’s growing influence

Moore Kingston Smith’s Chat GPT initiative comes at a time when the prevalence of AI as a service delivery tool in accounting is growing rapidly. Most recently, the US branch of Big Four firm PwC announced that it will invest $1bn over the next three years to expand its use of AI technology – including large language models such as Chat GPT – among its tax, accounting, audit and advisory teams.

Announced today, the investment programme features an “industry-leading relationship” with Microsoft, and will primarily target menial, administrative tasks with a view of unlocking the full potential of the workforce’s technical skillsets.

“We are at a tipping point in business and society where AI will revolutionise how we work, live and interact at scale,” said Mohamed Kande, vice chair, US consulting solutions co-leader and global advisory leader, PwC.

“PwC has long been a pioneer in responsible AI and this latest investment and collaboration with Microsoft will help our people and clients realize the augmented productivity and new growth opportunities associated with generative AI, doing so in a responsible way while driving the right results.”