The AI-Driven Firm Replay
The AI & Automation Hour
for Accounting Firms.
On 30 April we ran the room through what AI is actually doing inside accounting practices today. 153 of you told us in the pre-webinar survey that you don’t know where to start. You can watch the recording of this webinar below.
Introducing:
The AI & Automation Masterclass
Built for the Busy Partners and Senior Accountants Who Needs Results, Not a Library of Videos.
- A concept that matters (not a theory lecture — a usable idea).
- Des to build something live on screen inside your industry context.
- You leave with a specific task to complete before the next session.
- You receive the prompts, templates, and resources to make it happen.
The last day to secure your spot on the masterclass is Friday 21 November.
“The AI Masterclass gave us structure, clarity, and real examples of how to get started with automation — without overwhelm.”
Five problems are stopping 9 out of 10 firms moving on AI. We’re tackling them on air!
Below are the actual blockers, in firms’ own words, ranked by how often they came up. Each one comes with the exact reframe we’re running on the webinar — and the exact part of the masterclass that solves it.
“I don’t know where to start.” (28% of all firms · the #1 blocker)
This is the single most common thing partners said in our survey — more than a quarter of the room. It is not a knowledge problem. It is a decision problem. Every webinar, vendor, podcast and LinkedIn post is shouting at you to ‘adopt AI’ — but nobody’s told you which task in YOUR firm to point it at first.
On the webinar we walk through the exact ‘Monday morning starting point’ for a 6–15-person firm. Not 40 ideas. Three. The three workflows where AI pays back fastest in a practice — chosen from the 153-firm survey, not from theory. You leave the session with a starting point you could brief on Monday.
“I don’t have the time to figure it out.” (26% · the #2 blocker)
This is the partner objection nobody wants to say out loud. You read the articles. You bookmarked the YouTube videos. The Udemy course is still sitting in your inbox unopened. It’s not that you don’t want this — it’s that there’s never a Tuesday afternoon where ‘figure out AI from scratch’ is the most urgent thing on your desk.
So we flip it. The webinar gives you the structured shortlist a self-paced library never will — three working demos, the exact stack we’d pick, and the rollout sequence we’d choose. Not ‘here are 60 tools, good luck.’ ‘Here are the three that earn back the time, in this order.’
“I’m not sure what’s worth investing in.” (20% · the #3 blocker)
Copilot or ChatGPT or Claude? Or all three? What about the Xero integrations, the practice-management bolt-ons, the audit AI tools, the bookkeeping data-extraction stack? Pick wrong and you’ve burned the budget AND the political capital with the partners.
On the webinar we run live working demos in the actual tools — and tell you, on the record, which ones we’d spend on first if we were running a 10-person Irish or UK practice in 2026. Including the free option that gets most firms 70% of the way to the win.
“GDPR / data security / client information.” (16% mentioned this unprompted)
Partner instinct is right: client data into a public chatbot is not OK. But ‘therefore AI is off the table’ is the wrong conclusion — and most of the room knows it. The actual answer is more granular: which tools, on which tier, with which data, in which jurisdiction.
We cover the practical shortlist on the webinar — the EU-hosted options, the enterprise tiers, the categories of client data that should never go into a public model, and a sensible posture you can talk through with your team. Practical, not theoretical.
“My team won’t adopt it.” (7% as #1 blocker, 12% mentioned in open answers)
The reason most teams resist AI is not that they hate change. It’s that they’re asked to adopt 5 tools at once with no plan, no wins, and no time. Nobody pushes back on a tool that just made their Friday afternoon shorter.
On the webinar we share the rollout sequence we’d use in a 6–15-person firm — one workflow at a time, partner-led, with a visible win in the first two weeks before we ask anyone to change a habit.
Sound familiar? Good. This webinar was built for you.
Built for Where You Actually Are
Most AI programmes pitch a single level. Either they start with “what is a prompt?” and bore everyone who’s beyond that. Or they dive into agentic workflows and lose the room inside ten minutes.
This programme is different. Every participant arrives through one of three doors:
The door you came in:
You Sound Like:
What You Need:
🟢 How do I start?
“I’ve played with ChatGPT a couple of times but there’s no proper use of AI in our firm yet. We don’t even have an AI policy.”
A foundation, a framework, and the confidence to begin properly.
🟡 How do I catch up?
“I’ve been using AI tools for a while but I’m not getting the results I expected. Something is missing. I feel behind.”
The gaps identified, filled fast, and a daily habit that creates compounding results.
How do I go further?
How do I go further?“I use AI every day. I want agents, automations, team rollout, the deeper architecture. I need the advanced track.”
Advanced applications, team strategy, and the architecture for firm-wide transformation.
How the three strands work
Before Session 1, every participant completes The AI Readiness Assessment — a short diagnostic that places you in one of the three strands:
🟢 Beginner 🟡 Intermediate 🔴 Advanced
The 7 live sessions are attended by everyone together. The content is structured, so each level finds relevance without the others being bored or left behind.
The supplemental material each week is tiered. Every session comes with three resource packs — Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced — so you go deeper at exactly the level that moves you forward.
Every weekly task has three versions. A beginner knows exactly what their version of the task looks like. An advanced user never waits for content that’s below where they are.
You’re met where you are. You’re moved to where you need to be.
What Runs Through Every Session
- The Daily AI Habit
Every session builds and reinforces a daily AI practice. Not a big project. Not a course to complete. A 15-minute daily habit that compounds over 7 weeks into a sustainable, natural way of working. By Week 7, you don’t need to “remember to use AI.” It’s just how you work.
- The AI-Driven Leader
AI as a thinking partner, not just a task tool. Each week includes a short “leader’s lens” segment, how to use AI for strategic thinking, decision preparation, team communication, and leadership clarity. Not just to draft emails faster. These two threads are what turn AI from a tool your firm uses into the way your firm works.
3 live working demos. Built from the wins your peers said they’d ‘wave a magic wand’ for.
Demo 01 — The client-chase agent
Target: client comms / chasing for records / onboarding admin (19% of firms said this is their #1 ‘magic-wand’ win). We walk through an agent that drafts the chase email, escalates to phone-script, logs the touch in your CRM, and quietly stops chasing the moment the records arrive. Built on tools you already pay for.
“Tools to make it easier for clients to send us information in a timely manner. Time lost waiting for incomplete records.” — Blainagh Troy, O’Shea Accountants
Demo 02 — The working-papers / tax-letter assistant
Target: audit working papers, VAT/tax returns, SA302 letters, accounts production (over 25% of survey respondents asked for some flavour of this). We demonstrate a workflow that drafts the client-facing tax letter from the source documents, in the firm’s house style, in under 6 minutes — and what the partner sign-off looks like at the end.
“Tomorrow IF you could make a prompt to explain to a client their TAX RETURN UK SA302 tax situation.” — Douglas Cully, Coastal Tax
Demo 03 — The data-extraction / bookkeeping pipeline
Target: data entry, document data input, bookkeeping (10% of firms named this). We show a pipeline pulling data from supplier PDFs into a clean trial balance — what it gets right, what it gets wrong, and the human-in-the-loop checkpoints that keep accuracy where partners need it.
This webinar is NOT a general AI overview or a technology showcase. It is purpose-built for accounting firms in Ireland and the UK, using real firm examples, practical tools, and a clear path you can begin following immediately.
Why "I’ll do a course" and "I’ll get a consultant in" both quietly fail.
In the survey, 27% of firms said their preferred way to move forward is a self-paced video library. Another 23% said they’d bring a consultant into the firm. Two-thirds of you, between those two options. Both are the wrong shape — and we’ll show you why on the webinar.
Why a single consultant is too much, too fast, too expensive
A good AI consultant for a 10-person firm runs €/£5,000 to €/£15,000+ for a tight scope. They land, they build something specific, they leave. Your team didn’t learn the muscle. The next workflow comes around six months later and you’re re-hiring. Useful at the right moment — wrong shape for ‘we’re trying to make our firm AI-native.’
The missing middle — and what we’ve built into it
Structured. Hands-on. Peer-led. Partner-pace. 7 weeks. The same outcomes a consultant gives you, with your own hands on the wheel — at a fraction of the cost. We’ll show what’s in the box at the end of the webinar, with every line item visible. (50% of you told us in the survey you ‘need to see what’s included before pricing it’ — message received. The webinar is where you see it.)
75 minutes. 5 blocks. No fluff.
The mirror
Where the 153-firm survey landed. The maturity score. The blockers. Why nobody in this room is actually behind.
The cost of inaction
What firms moving 12 months ago are doing now. The gap between the 7% who feel ahead and the 93% who don’t. The honest numbers.
The 3 live demos
that firms like yours in Ireland and the UK are already using to save 10+ hours per week — without becoming technology experts.
The reframe
Why self-paced libraries gather dust and consultants are the wrong shape. The missing middle for a 6–15-person practice.
Live Q&A
The questions you bring + the highest-frequency questions from the 30 April session. Direct, on the record.
Don’t miss your opportunity to lead the change
before it leads you.
What People Are Saying About the Masterclass
“Within weeks of applying Des’s price strategies, we saw a noticeable increase in revenue without losing any good clients. Game-changer!”
– Alex, Multi-Partner Firm Owner
“I used to dread fee discussions. Now, I confidently charge what we deserve, and our clients respect us all the more for it.”
– Mary, Sole Practitioner