Voice-Enabled Artificial Intelligence is Here, and it Means Business for Accounting Firms

Imagine that you had the ability to instantly remember every accounting textbook, research, white paper, webcast, tax court ruling, conversation, every client interaction and engagement, and everything else you’ve read or seen over your career, and then instantly apply it to your firm or client accounting and business data, as well as client conversations and histories. That is what AI does with machine learning, and when added to your practice it will become an immensely valuable tool for analysis, forecasting and consultative advice. And once it knows the right way to do these things, the AI system can automatically perform many recurring tasks, such as bank reconciliations, invoicing and client reminders.

Now, imagine that you didn’t have to be anywhere near your computer to have access to all of that valuable information and insight. Wherever you are, you can simply ask your phone or other device.

This week’s launch of the BQE Core Intelligence AI system (http://bqe.com/core-ai) has dramatically changed the technology landscape in a real-world way for accounting firms and other professional services businesses by giving them those functions, and even more. BQE Core is a business management system that integrates business accounting, billing, project management, document management, scheduling and many other functions.

Over the past several years, AI has been the subject of numerous articles and some smaller advancements, but until now it has not been available as a ready-to-implement product or service for accounting and other professional service firms. With the addition of the AI system at no extra cost to its users, BQE Core is the first business accounting and management system to include voice-based AI with natural language processing. This means even mid-sized and smaller firms can gain the powerful advantages that integrated AI offers.

[Read an ebook to see how voice-activated AI can help your firm.]

The AI system works with mobile phones, tablets, smart devices like Google Home and Amazon Echo, cars with Google Assistant, and also with computers. Users simply speak with their natural language to ask the business management system about their company financials, the status of projects, where bottlenecks may be occurring, who the most productive and profitable employees are, the status of invoices and bills, and many other business data points.

“Not only does BQE Core track all your project and financial data, the AI features act like a genius assistant that helps you gain new insights into your business,” said Doug Sleeter, founder of the Sleeter Group and a thought leader in the accounting space.

This advancement frees professionals even more from the confines of their office, allowing them to converse with their business management system while commuting, meeting with clients, or wherever they may be. At the heart of the Core Intelligence system is BQE’s machine learning intelligence, which was developed by the company and allows the system to continually learn and improve on the data it can provide. It also can automate many tasks, including billing, payables, scheduling, employee timekeeping, HR functions, mileage and expense tracking.

The new voice-activated artificial intelligence is more than just an extension of KPI dashboards, though, it’s really a digital financial advisor and personal assistant to professionals.

Core Intelligence, Your Personal Business Analyst – BQE Core

“Think of this tech as being your business analyst or business partner who is extremely knowledgeable about the company file and data,” said Shafat Qazi, founder and CEO of BQE Software. The company’s Core program is the first business accounting and management system that includes natural language voice-activated AI functionality, and at no extra cost. He added that, when developing the Core AI system, they focused on having the system figure out the intent of what a user is wanting, and then having the AI respond in a more intelligent, and more human-like way.

For instance, with BQE’s Core Intelligence AI, users can simply ask, “Core, what is the profitability on Client X or Project Y.” Or, “tell me which clients are best at paying on time.” Or, “which of my employees is most productive.” Or, “what is employee Smith’s effective billing rate?”

“The key is having a natural conversation, in the same way you would speak to a staff member or a financial advisor, in a natural way, and not having to learn specific phraseology,” said Qazi. “And then having the system respond with intelligent answers, without feeling like you’re talking to a machine.

“Whether an accounting firm with multiple business clients, or a small business owner, you can ask Core a question about what liabilities you have, how are you doing in this quarter versus last quarter, what your current AP and AR statuses are, or virtually anything else,” Qazi added. “Things that you wouldn’t easily figure out, it can figure them out for you, instead of you having to get into the software and run reports or check out various dashboards. It’s just a quicker way to get the information you need to make the decisions you need to make.”

The system includes voice biometric recognition security features that are safer than passwords or even fingerprints, according to security experts (https://biometrictoday.com/voice-biometrics-in-banking-future/). These security filters restrict users to only data they are authorized to access.

“This is something that companies like Intuit and Sage and Xero and others that have large R&D budgets should have done,” said Qazi. “But AI requires brand new thinking, and what those larger companies tried to do was more of converting voice into text, and really just creating chat, which is 10 year-old technology.”

Learn more at http://bqe.com/core-ai.