How smart AI integration is reshaping business performance

Garreth Hanley:
This is With Interest, a business finance and accounting news podcast, brought to you by CPA Australia.

Gavan Ord:
Welcome to CPA Australia's With Interest. I'm Gavan Ord, business policy advisor at CPA Australia, and today we are looking at how digital leaders use AI to drive growth. Our guest today is Kyelie Baxter. Kyelie is the managing director of IQ Accountants on the Gold Coast in Australia. She has over 25 years experience helping SME clients. In her spare time, she's also a member of CPA Australia's Digital Transformation Centre of Excellence and the Queensland Divisional Council.

Welcome to With Interest, Kyelie. Great to have you with us.

Kyelie Baxter:
Thanks, Gavan. It's great to be here.

Gavan Ord:
Each year, CPA Australia surveys members about the technology they use in the workplace and how these tools are shaping business outcomes. Unsurprisingly, AI has surged to become one of the most used business technologies. In 2025, 89% of respondents said their business used AI, up from 69% in 2024, and 55% in 2023. Yet despite this momentum, only 16% of respondents report that AI is widely integrated across their operations.

Most businesses still use AI irregularly, often relying on free or off-the-shelf tools like ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot. To me, this suggests there is considerable potential to expand AI across business functions.

Kyelie, our survey findings indicate that more profitable businesses tend to embed AI more deeply across their operations. In your view, what sets these digital leaders apart? Is it their culture, access to resources, leadership mindset, or is there something else?

Kyelie Baxter:
I think it's probably a combination of all, but if I had to pick one, it probably comes back to that mindset. The businesses that are genuinely digital leaders, and it's regardless of their size or even their resources, are probably the ones that stay curious. They ask questions, they're willing to explore new tools, and they don't shut ideas down just because they feel uncomfortable or unfamiliar.

I think it's that whole, just because we've always done it that way, we continue doing it, that attitude doesn't fly anymore. And the real digital leaders are the ones that while they understand tech enough to know what's possible, they also know what's realistic. They know when it's time to bring in a third party instead of trying to be the expert in everything. So it's not about leaders doing that technical implementation work.

It's just about having curiosity and openness and also that humility to say, "Let's try this" or, "Let's get some help." So I think it's the mindset is what actually moves businesses forward.

Gavan Ord:
So in the mindset, it's curiosity, is it also a willingness to take a risk to use a technology and if it's not working to kill it off quickly?

Kyelie Baxter:
Yeah, I think it is that ability to be agile. We're in this phase where AI is, look, I'm going to say it's relatively new, but it's probably the implementation that is new. AI isn't necessarily new, automation certainly isn't. But it's the willingness to try, fail and/or succeed. You have to fail fast these days.

Gavan Ord:
So from your experience, how are you, or your businesses you work with, using technology to drive efficiency, innovation, and growth? Do you have any standout examples that come to mind about when businesses do it well?

Kyelie Baxter:
Yeah, I do. I think there's been a lot of interest in it, but certainly in my firm, so public practice, accounting firm, we're using technology. The way I explain it is to remove the noise. We use an app called Fireflies. It summarises our meetings and our telephone calls so that we can stay fully present when we're communicating with clients. That in itself has been a game changer.

Copilot, of course, helps us clean up documents or build presentations, dashboards in minutes. We're Slack users, and we've implemented the AI in Slack, and it keeps our team not only connected, but also aligned, which is really important when we all work so flexibly. I think individually, those tools are not extraordinary by any means, but together they really transform how smoothly and efficiently we run.

So the team overall has more capacity and clients get better conversations and just better service generally because we're not bogged down in things that are taking up our time, but don't necessarily require expertise.

The thing that we're really seeing from a client point of view is that when they're seeing us do things, they're really keen to try it themselves. So once they automate even one or two processes, so it could be job costing or approvals or even just storing the invoices properly, the whole business feels lighter feeling, so they feel like they're getting more clarity and then that's where the growth comes from.

Gavan Ord:
And just on that, quite often speaking to practitioners, they're just curious about how did you go around selecting that technology? So how did your practice go around selecting those different forms of AI and automation?

Kyelie Baxter:
So I think the first thing that I did was I looked at what is available within the tech stack that we already use. So let's not reinvent the wheel. Let's just see what's available to us. I also tried to pinpoint what our pain points were. It's a mouthful, isn't it? Pinpoint the pain point.

So for example, we are Loom users. So Loom is an application where it will record your screen and a little video of yourself, and then you can share it with people. So we use it internally for training, and we also use it with clients for training purposes. And the AI within Loom actually creates SOPs in minutes. It not only does transcripts, but it basically does all of these things. That would've taken us 30 to 40 minutes previously. So we implemented AI using the tech stack that we already had.

Then it's about making sure that we are solving a problem, because the thing about digitization in general is it can be lots of shiny new things and it's really easy to get distracted, and it's really easy to spend a lot of money without seeing much ROI on it. So I made sure that we were solving a problem.

So a recent thing that I have been playing with is Lovable. And it's great for people like me that don't necessarily know how to code, but I know exactly what I want. I know what problem I want it to solve, and you can just actually speak to it and it will create an application to assist you.

Gavan Ord:
Yeah, thanks, Kyelie. I think that's some great tips there for listeners. Look at your existing tech stack. What are your pain points? What are you trying to solve? And look at the ROI. I think they're really good points to consider when using AI. And avoid that shiny-itis, which we've spoken about before in the DT CoE. Just avoid that shiny-itis.

Kyelie Baxter:
I think it's important to also remember that just because it's working for somebody else doesn't mean it will work for you and your firm. All of our firms and our businesses run completely differently. So I even look at it when I'm rolling out a piece of tech to a finance team for one of our clients. The finance team in client A is so different to the finance team in client B, and you need to understand where they're at in their digitization journey, what their needs are, where there is resistance.

Potentially that might be cost resistance, it might be director or owner resistance, it might be staff resistance. You really need to find the perfect fit for you and your team, not just what somebody else is doing.

Gavan Ord:
Now moving tact a bit. So one of the concerns raised in our survey is the risk of over-dependence on AI and reduced human oversight. How do you recommend organisations strike that right balance between using AI, leveraging AI, and maintaining that critical human judgement, that critical professional judgement?

Kyelie Baxter:
Yeah, this is the big question, right? I think we need to remember that AI isn't doing our job for us. It's not the accountant, it's not the advisor, and it's definitely not the final decision-maker. What AI is it's the best work helper we've ever had. It's our assistant, it's our work bestie, but it's still us doing the work.

So all those core skills that we've built over the years and developed and studied for our judgement, professional skepticism, context, knowing what's material, even having empathy, communicating properly, being able to interpret what the numbers mean and explain them to someone in a way that makes sense to that person, and of course making ethical decisions.

AI can support all of that, but it can't replace any of it. And that's why having an AI policy is essential because without clear guardrails, people start assuming AI can do the job for them, and it just can't. Every single thing, in my opinion, still needs a human review at this stage where we're at.

In my firm, our policy sets really, really strict boundaries around client data approved tools, mandatory oversight. So I think it's about using AI but using it as our work partner. It's the human judgement that is what gives us that output, meaning, and safety.

Gavan Ord:
Yeah, it's our work buddy. I think you're right, but it's also, as you said, it can't replace that human judgement . And also you don't want staff just using AI to give you work. Why would you pay someone if AI can just do it for them?

Kyelie Baxter:
Yeah, I think we need to value ourselves more.

Gavan Ord:
Exactly. This is sort of an extension to that question. So what shifts are you seeing in how organisations manage their people due to AI?

Kyelie Baxter:
For me, this is a really important topic and I feel quite passionately about it because there has been this undertone or conversation that's saying AI is replacing the grunt work. It's replacing the juniors. We don't need to pay people for that repetitious work anymore. But for me, without junior staff, we don't then get intermediate staff who turn into senior staff, who turn into managers, who turn into partners. You still can't skip those fundamentals. It's like expecting a primary school student to write essays before they've learned the alphabet.

So what I'm seeing is that junior pathway varies massively between businesses now, and it doesn't even matter what industry you're in. Obviously I run an accounting firm, but it's the same in other industries. Some people are still trying to give juniors the old style manual tasks, but that work might not exist anymore because the tools do it. It doesn't mean, in my opinion, that those junior staff are less valuable.

I think if anything, they have more opportunity because somebody that is in their early career who can build a dashboard or use AI to prepare insights can step immediately into some sort of advisory style conversation far earlier. They can easily be ahead of somebody else that might have two or three years experience on day one, simply because they know how to present information clearly. So the fundamentals still need to be taught.

And we talked about them before. It's the judgement, it's the communication, it's generally understanding how businesses work. You can't fast-forward that, but the work that early career accountants start on is different, and the firm's embracing that I think will be the ones that build very strong future leaders. We just can't ignore that because we've already got a resourcing issue in our industry, so we can't just not grow from the bottom up.

Gavan Ord:
I totally agree with what you said. For firms that are deciding not to take on junior accountants, they're creating this pipeline issue in two or three years when they're looking around and going, "Where's somebody to do this?" Well, you haven't been investing in junior entry level graduates to take them in and grow them. So you've got to keep investing in your people from junior accountants through to senior accountants.

Kyelie Baxter:
I think we have a responsibility to the profession to do that.

Gavan Ord:
Yeah, I agree. And turning the question around a bit, so how should aspiring accountants prepare for the future? What skills do you believe will be essential?

Kyelie Baxter:
I think part of it's about attitude. Technology is the new normal. It's not optional anymore. You don't have to be a coder, but you do need to be comfortable using tools, experimenting, learning quickly. It's about the ability to adapt.

One of the skills that I talk a lot about is being an AI spotter, someone who looks at a process and naturally asks, "Could AI help here? Or what role is AI already playing here?" That mindset is incredibly valuable, and it is already reshaping roles. So the human skills are obviously just as important; critical thinking, making sense of the data, explaining things.

But the accountants who thrive are the ones that combine that tech confidence with that strong human connection and judgement. So they really need to know that technology isn't the future. It's here, it's now, it's normal. And even if you go into a firm or a business that might not be using it, it doesn't mean it doesn't have a place.

Gavan Ord:
Yeah, I sort of look at it as why aren't you using AI? To me, that's sort of the question that justify why you're not using AI rather than does AI fit? Why aren't you using AI for a particular process?

Kyelie Baxter:
Yeah, I think that's fair.

Gavan Ord:
Now, for those businesses that have yet to use AI or only use it intermittently, what practical steps do you recommend they can take to accelerate the AI adoption?

Kyelie Baxter:
I think the reason that people aren't using it or using it intermittently apart from being concerned about privacy or risk is because they don't understand how it works. So in that way, the way to overcome it is to start small. Ask yourself what is the biggest pain point in the business and just pick one and make it something easy, something repetitive, or time-consuming that you have thought a hundred times, there must be an easier way than this. And then find a solution and test a tool that solves it.

The worst thing you could do is try and overhaul everything at once. You really need to make sure your data is in order for AI to work. You have to be in a digital environment. You need to train your team and at least put some light governance around it. And then it's really just about celebrating those early wins. Don't have too high expectations. Any improvement is a good improvement, and then your team will build confidence as well.

And most importantly, just don't wait for that perfect system. Momentum comes from trying one thing at a time. There is not one piece of tech that is perfectly right for your business and is going to solve all of your problems. You're going to have to build it like you've built your tech stack in the first place.

Gavan Ord:
And do you see some businesses over-invest in AI?

Kyelie Baxter:
Mm-hmm. I think we all do that sometimes. It can be one extreme to the other, and that's how subscriptions budget can run out. You could end up with five different pieces of tech that actually solve the same problem, but five different people in your business like each one. You really still need to make sure that we're getting that return on investment.

Gavan Ord:
Well, thank you, Kyelie, for sharing such insightful perspectives on AI and its growing impact both within your business and across the broader accounting profession. Thanks, Kyelie, for joining us today.

Kyelie Baxter:
Thanks, Gavan.

Gavan Ord:
For those keen to learn more, be sure to check the show notes for links to the full report on the business technology survey and the live stream recording of the panel discussion on the findings. And don't forget to subscribe to With Interest and share this episode with your colleagues and friends in the business community. Until next time, thanks for listening.

Garreth Hanley:
You've been listening to With Interest, a CPA Australia podcast. To find out more about our other podcasts and CPA Australia, check the show notes for this episode. And we hope you can join us again for another episode of With Interest.