Leveraging AI for Business Growth: A Practical Guide for Accounting Firms

For firm leaders navigating changing client expectations, talent shortages and the pressure to deliver faster insights, artificial intelligence (AI) presents a critical opportunity. It can help firms scale services without proportionally increasing head­count, freeing professionals to focus on higher-value advisory work.

Below are some specific ways that AI can be strategically applied to improve operations, client service and decision-making — along with real-world examples and prompts tailored for accounting firms.

Efficiency and Automation

From onboarding new clients to processing payroll reports, AI can standardize and streamline tasks that take up valuable staff time.

• Use case: Implementing AI-driven invoice management cuts processing time while increasing accuracy. Tools like HubSpot AI (hubspot.com/products/artificial-intelligence) or Xero’s AI features (xero.com/accountant-book­keeper-guides/ai-in-accounting/) can auto-categorize expenses and trigger workflows.

   

• Prompt: “Based on our current onboarding checklist, generate an automated workflow that includes document collection, follow-up reminders and task assignments using our CRM.”

Enhanced Client Engagement

Clients today expect fast, tailored responses and proactive guidance. AI can help your firm deliver on that expectation, whether it’s through AI chatbots that answer FAQs or sentiment analysis tools that identify at-risk clients.

• Use case: A firm using AI to route customer support inquiries based on urgency and topic reduced response time by 60%, improving customer satisfaction and increasing advisory upsells.

   

• Prompt: “Create a quarterly client engagement summary using sentiment data from reviews and client emails. Highlight top concerns and possible solutions.” Tip: you will need to also upload the sentiment data and/or client reviews in a .csv format.

Smarter Decision-Making  

Whether it’s forecasting cash flow or assessing risk, AI helps firms move from reactive to proactive. According to McKinsey Digital (mckinsey.com), firms that base strategic decisions on real-time data outperform those using lagging indicators.

• Use case: A firm serving construction clients used AI-powered tools to forecast seasonal labor costs and adjust budgeting services, reducing financial surprises.

   

• Prompt: “Using our Q2 financials, identify areas where cost reduction strategies could be applied for our top five client segments.” Tip: you will need to upload the supporting file in a .csv format.

 Growth-Focused Marketing

AI can amplify your firm’s marketing without requiring a dedicated team. Whether you’re updating old blog content, generating social media calendars or analyzing SEO gaps, AI saves time and improves relevance.

• Use case: A small firm used Jasper AI (jasper.ai) and ChatGPT (chatgpt.com) to repurpose webinar transcripts into 12 months of blog and newsletter content that was automatically optimized for SEO.

   

• Prompt: “Create a 90-day content plan targeting law firm clients interested in tax advisory. Include LinkedIn post ideas, blog topics and CTA recommendations.”

Building an AI Integration Plan

Before diving into tools, firm leaders need a strategy. A clear roadmap ensures AI investments align with business goals, minimize disruption and generate measur­able ROI. Without a plan, AI adoption can stall due to staff pushback, unclear metrics or tool overload.

• Steps to get started:
  1. Assess internal processes. Where are the bottlenecks or high-effort, low-value tasks?
  2. Start with a pilot. Choose one use case (e.g., marketing automation or cash flow forecasting).
  3. Train your team. Build basic AI literacy and encourage experimentation.
  4. Measure results. Track time saved, error reductions or client engagement improvements.
•  Prompt: "Draft a one-page AI integration plan for our firm [insert firm URL], including initial use cases, team training needs and success metrics.”

For accounting firms, AI is not about replacing staff, it’s about enabling better service and smarter growth. The firms that win will be those that treat AI as a business strategy, not just a tech experiment.

Next step: Pick one area of your firm — billing, marketing or client reporting — and try a pilot. Use an AI tool, measure the results and iterate. 

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Becky Livingston Becky Livingston is the founder and CEO of Penheel Marketing and can be reached at becky@penheel.com. More content by Becky Livingston: How to Build a Referral Program That Actually Works Good Uses of AI for CPAs Enhancing Efficient Client Engagement with AI