Government 'helping' in Tech and Business... useful, or not?

[00:00:00] The UK Government has unveiled its AI Opportunities Action Plan. I think it's reasonable to say that we have fallen a little bit behind on AI. We're going as a country all out, just to see if our all out is good enough. ICAEW's Esther Malauer notes that while AI offers tremendous growth potential, the plans must address risks such as bias, accuracy and copyright concerns. So for accountants and accounting tech companies, the big question is going to remain the same. How will AI influence the way you manage client data?

[00:00:28] The Prime Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, James Murray, was talking about making tax digital. One of the announcements that he made was that he recently broke the deal with Sage to provide a free MTD product. Now, it's not news that they have a free product, but it's interesting that the Government are announcing they have secured that ongoing. And the reason I think this is interesting is that the US Government secured TurboTax to provide free software.

[00:00:52] Over time, TurboTax then really pushed hard their paid software, pushing the free software so far into the background, people were unaware it even existed. It was just creating a lot of controversy. Zero has been named a winner in the Cloud Awards for best cloud payment finance and billing solutions. Silverfin had recently announced their integration into DocuSign. Caseware, we have appointed David Marcus as a new CEO. Marcus who joined after five years at Intuit, leading their international division.

[00:01:21] Accounts of Key have acquired expense in. I think it's been a very tactical acquisition. It's not the first time that we've seen a strategic acquisition of this nature of an expense software company. Today, we're missing one person from our prime goal named Mr. John Toon, the international accountant of history. If he's not already broken a leg, I'm sure he's at least breaking someone's spirit somewhere. Hello and welcome to today's DigiTours in a Cruel World episode. If you haven't joined us before, welcome. Welcome to the podcast.

[00:01:51] We cover the latest in accounting technology news and all the latest news that affects accountants in the UK and sometimes in international territories as well, such as Europe and North America. If you haven't covered our back catalogue of episodes before, then don't worry, you're joining us for the first time. You can listen in to the app news and then feel free to join our community as well, where we connect you with other like-minded accountants who are looking at the same sorts of problems that could work for your firm.

[00:02:20] We are usually in a bit of a triangle, but today we're missing one person from our triangle named Mr. John Toon, the international accountant of mystery. But I do have Ryan Pearcy with me. Ryan, how are you? I like the way it was. We have the man of mystery and we've got Ryan Pearcy. I'm good, thanks. Digital Transformer. That is Ryan Pearcy. How are you? Thank you. I like that one. I'm very good indeed.

[00:02:50] I'm buzzing from the launch of my new business and really enjoying the world of being a solopreneur, I think is what I'd be classed as. And what is your new business? It is helping accountants and their clients with digital transformation journeys. So what I've been doing for, God, 10 years now, but doing it on my own. And it's scary and exciting at the same time. And I've been very fortunate to win a lot of work, which adds a new level of stress to try and deliver on that while scared everything else aligned.

[00:03:20] But no, I do feel I do feel a bit lonely and without our third wheel. I'm not really lonely. I think that he does act quite a lot. And he's probably wreaking havoc alongside the many financial leaders that are in the space who are game changers. They are market makers and our shape shifters and John Toon is armed and dangerous with a microphone.

[00:03:45] So I'm sure that we're going to go on to some really great insights from the back of Finance Takes the Peace, which was formerly Flinders Takes the Peace. So since the exit of Flinders last year and the merger that they had, it has rebranded. And I think that there's quite a lot of good insights that usually come off the back of our trip. So if he's not already broken a leg, I'm sure he's at least breaking someone's spirit somewhere.

[00:04:08] But aside from that, why don't we cover some act news and then let the fine people learn about what's going on in the accounting tech space. Sounds good. Okay. In this week's act news, the UK government has unveiled its AI Opportunities Action Plan, which is aiming to boost economic growth by accelerating AI adoption. Key measures include AI growth zones to speed up infrastructure development,

[00:04:36] an increase in public computing capacity and a national data library to unlock the value of public data for AI development. The UK is the third largest market for AI. And while the UK has led the charge in many forms of new technology, I think it's reasonable to say that we have fallen a little bit behind on AI. Most of the markets, yeah, we have notable companies come here.

[00:05:00] And I think that's what's covered in the government's or push to then reform and bring education and awareness to this. But at the same time, we don't have a structured approach to how we're going to manage these tools. And for accountants in particular, the most relevant asset may be the AI assurance tools, which are being developed to ensure AI systems are effective and trustworthy.

[00:05:24] And that's one of the concerns I see that comes from accountants the most is how do you do the diligence and time to check that this is the right type of tool for you? It does take a lot of legwork and, you know, there's not really much guidance around at the moment. So with the expansion of AI safety initiatives, the government plans to reinvest in tools that will assess the reliability and safety of the AI and also integrating those AI tools into business practices.

[00:05:49] The plan also focuses on AI skills development. So closing the skills gap, targeted training initiatives that can create new opportunities for accountants to rescale and apply AI into their practices. And one bit of feedback that came from ICAEW is Esther Malauer. Now it's that while AI offers tremendous growth potential, the plans must address risks such as bias accuracy and copyright concerns to build trust for wide scale adoptions. So for accountants and accounting tech companies, I think the big question is going to remain the same.

[00:06:19] How is a I or will AI influence the way you manage client data compliance and what role will it play? Will AI assurance play maintaining the practices, ethical standards? Perhaps one question that you can consider for yourself in your venture, but also I think this is one that will be a big one for the rest of the year in terms of how we keep a good handle on the best use of the AI to manage client data and compliance.

[00:06:46] Definitely. And we were fortunate enough to have Billy McLaughlin from 2020 join us on the Digital Digest last week to dive into some of the details behind the announcement from the government. So if you've not checked that episode out, please do so. Billy had read for pretty much all of the background information for what I could tell and talked about where the funding was going, etc. So yeah, it was a really good insight to know. Is there a lot of funding going into it, Ryan, though, from your understanding of what you covered with Billy?

[00:07:16] A lot of it is private side and it looks from the top now. We go, oh, yes, a lot of money. But then the context pretty put around it was actually from an AI perspective. This is a tiny drop in the ocean compared to the investment that's going into AI. So it may not make a difference, but the structures that should lead to more innovation was the more exciting part.

[00:07:36] Yeah. So we're the third biggest market, I guess, for consuming AI, but definitely not in terms of expense into reinvesting into AI. Dubai, if I'm not mistaken, pledged one billion last year to be the number one on the stage when it comes to tech and AI. So for a scannery to think, isn't it? How far we'll fall behind if they deploy one billion or anything less than that.

[00:08:04] Yeah. And to be honest, I'm not even sure we have that money in the UK at the moment. That's the problem. We've got no money to do anything with. But it's creating the right structure to encourage the private investment, isn't it? And that's what we hope to achieve. Whether, you know, the announcements will enable that, we'll have to see. But I think the big positive was the independent research, I think, put forward like 50 proposals and every single one of those has been enacted. So it's not like we're, you know, we're cutting back anywhere.

[00:08:32] We're going as a country all out just to see if our all out is good enough. I got something else from the government, a small bit, but I thought quite interesting, is that the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, Water Title, James Murray, was talking about making tax digital, HMRC's custom service there was as well.

[00:08:52] But one of the announcements that he made was that he recently broke the deal with Sage to provide a free MTD product, which was, I guess, enabling confidence to be brought into the project ahead of the 2026 launch. Now, we're aware that Sage have their free product. Now, we've talked about this on the show nearly a year ago, I think. So it's not news that they have a free product. But it's interesting that the government are announcing or HMRC are announcing that they have secured that ongoing.

[00:09:20] And the reason I think this is interesting is that if we compare this to what happened in the US with TurboTax, where the US government secured TurboTax to provide a free software, what evolved over time is that TurboTax then really pushed hard their paid software, kind of making the free software or pushing it so far into the background, people were unaware it even existed, which is creating a lot of controversy. Now, we're not saying that Sage are doing that.

[00:09:45] But by having an independent system that you're kind of pushing or advertising to consumers early on does run a risk that you're playing into their hands. So, yeah, I mean, we're not seeing anything from Sage to say they would do anything like that. But it's interesting parallels. Tricky, tricky. And pivoting a little bit away from Sage, another big name, Xero.

[00:10:05] And not much to say on this one other than it's a bit of a congratulations to Xero who have been named a winner in the 2024 to 2025 Cloud Awards for best cloud payment, finance and leading solution. I think that's a huge congrats, but super confused by this because I just didn't think cloud was a thing anymore. We're in 2025 and it sort of feels like we've moved so far beyond that.

[00:10:34] I just, you know, cloud, AI, next gen. Anyway, congrats. Well done, Xero. Sounds like a great award. I just say, yeah, best payment, finance or billing solution. Drop the cloud. That's good enough. Yeah, I mean, look, they've got, I think when I looked at this, there's the cloud awards. Then linked to that is the SAS awards. They wonder why they didn't win the SAS one. Maybe they just didn't enter that one. But you think Xero probably more focused on SAS than cloud because cloud can be a much broader topic. There's so many SAS.

[00:11:04] There's, you know, it's too big a category. That's why. So is cloud. All right. Well, let's, let's focus on something that's been a positive relief. So Silverfin have recently announced their integration into DocuSign to enable anyone that's been working in Silverfin Crane accounts to send a document out for signature in a secure way. And lots of programs integrate into various different signing systems. But this has been a gap that Silverfin have had for a while.

[00:11:33] And they're now closing that loop and I guess more cementing their system as they move towards towards more practice management styles. They build up the platforms. Now, they don't really have, I guess, a lot of practice management tools, but bringing in secondaries is maybe a step towards that. Well, it's very true.

[00:11:50] Does that put them more akin to being like a one, you know, in the way that Sage extended, I guess, with GoProposal and then being able to bring in more in terms of signatory, checking back, verifying certain things around the contracts that has been documented and linked and billing schedules, etc. Is there something like that that is evolving within Silverfin by adding this?

[00:12:18] I wouldn't compare it to the GoProposal one because GoProposal does have, I guess, the way you can kind of approve documents, but purely on the proposal side and focus more on engagement. Whereas this is more back end. So the other side of it. But what I would say is that, and it was not acquisition. Just make it clear they've not acquired DocuSign. They have integrated deep with it, but it's more just a little bolt on that. I think it starts bringing the platform of people more sticky in the platform.

[00:12:44] So the more little tools they integrate in just adds that weight for clients not to look elsewhere, how to replace or take documents from one area into another. Okay, totes. And then I've got something different from Caseware. Caseware is a global leader in cloud and AI driven solutions for audit assurance and financial reporting. And they have appointed David Marcus as a new CEO.

[00:13:08] Marcus, who joins after five years at Intuit leading their international division, brings a lot from his previous roles. He's also been at Google, Bell Canada, Rolls Royce. So he's got quite a diverse and different background in sort of technology and business management. So Marcus is stepping into a pivotal moment for Caseware, which has established itself as an innovator with its dynamic audit solution. And the AIDA, AI digital assistant.

[00:13:37] Is that right, Ryan? Would you call it AIDA? Yeah, that's how I call it. So his experience at Intuit and a company that's focused on automating financial tools and empowering small businesses with technology online as well with Caseware's mission to transform audit and accounting practices with cloud and AI technologies. I guess this is something that could be a great synergy for them and take them to like a global stage, as he has done with most of his other companies that he's been part of.

[00:14:04] So he feels like he's quite a good fit for what Caseware is trying to do in its next phase of growth, focusing on automation, gross reach and efficiency in the audit and accounting industry. Yeah, I think any time a new CEO comes in, the business pivots slightly. We've seen it with Xero. They went from, I guess, a loft investment, then consolidating and making it profitable. Now it sounds like Caseware are looking for a big push globally into their fallacy, how to nudge that aspiration.

[00:14:35] Yeah, you're right. It's probably going to be something that he has got a shift ahead of him. When it comes to Caseware in terms of where its growth ambition was, it sort of doesn't feel the same as like where Xero was or where a Dext was. So it does feel like more of a towards motivated, like the really clear of like how they're going to bring which types of technologies they're going to bring in to the stack.

[00:15:01] Whereas I think where you had something like in a Dext or a Xero scenario, there was so many things happening on different fronts that they didn't know who they were to each individual market. This feels much cleaner in terms of how the vision is painted and the ideal customer profile, the targets that they're going into, which markets they're going into. Super clear. So I wonder if it's just actually more akin to put just rocket fuel in the engine rather than, you know, trying to consolidate.

[00:15:31] Agreed. I think that's exactly how I define it. And Caseware have not, I guess, not grown as fast as they'd want to, but they've got a clear go to market in their approach. So yeah, exactly adding the rocket fuel and hopefully just the right person to deliver on that. I've got something from AccountsIQ. AccountsIQ have acquired ExpenseIn. Now, if you've not heard of ExpenseIn, this is a not premium expense management software, but not one of the bottom level.

[00:15:59] It's not the cheapest, it's not the most expensive, but it's got quite a lot of tools. And there's a lot of mid-tier finance solutions that look to work with ExpenseIn. So I think there's been a very tactical acquisition by AccountsIQ here. And if we go back to 2024, they took on a lot of new investments. So a lot of money in the pot to go out, buy some software, develop it, push it forward. And this is a very strategic acquisition.

[00:16:26] So I guess to put some numbers around this, ExpenseIn has been around for a while. It was found in 2015 and already covers 40 countries. Now, by bringing that into 175,000 users, there is a lot of potential upsetting that can occur here. So I would expect a deeper integration than what they've currently got.

[00:16:49] And by unifying the platforms, hopefully this will modernize some of what become, not stale, but static AccountsIQ development over the years before they took on investment. Yeah, I think that's a very good point. Not that they're in good company. So this is not the first time that we've seen an acquisition or strategic acquisition of this nature of an expense software company. So we had, last year we had Access acquire Lightyear in a similar vein, Modular, who also did the same with Nook.

[00:17:19] And maybe to a larger extent, you could probably say the same thing about Iris and Next. So there was some, again, synergy in the movement of these pieces together. So I wonder who's going to be next. Who do you want to take a bet on? Who else is independent enough to be acquired? I don't know. Maybe Sahara? Are they still independent nowadays? Everyone's being acquired, so I have to keep track of it. Some more consolations, I reckon, on the horizon. Anyway, it was good to see and echo your sentiments.

[00:17:50] Thanks for joining us on today's episode. We hope you enjoyed it. If you've got any feedback, please do get in touch. Reach out to us via LinkedIn or via our website, Digital Disruptors. And also on our Slack channel, if you're not already a member of it, please do join us so that we can keep you abreast of the latest community events that we'll be running this year. Thanks again, catch you on the next one. No problem at all with all the collaborators? Thank you.