I want to be upfront about something: for a while, my approach to AI was essentially to ignore it.

My reasoning, which felt logical at the time: the technology is changing so fast that investing time in learning any particular tool is almost pointless. By the time you’ve got comfortable with it, something else has emerged. So why bother?

I’ve had to revise that position.

“You actually need to be learning and adapting. Yes, it will change. But that mindset keeps you ahead — and focuses you on things that will genuinely improve your business.”

The Real Risk of Waiting

Here’s the thing I missed in my earlier reasoning. The risk isn’t that you’ll learn a tool that becomes obsolete. The risk is that while you’re waiting for things to stabilise, other businesses are already iterating — finding efficiencies, improving their processes, freeing up their people to do higher-value work.

That compounding advantage is real. And it widens the longer you wait.

I now think the question for business owners isn’t ‘which AI tool should I adopt?’ — that’s a secondary question. The primary question is: have I developed the habit of asking how technology can improve the way I work?

That mindset is durable. The specific tools will change. The habit of continuous improvement won’t.

What This Looks Like Practically

For me, the commitment has been to spend roughly an hour a day exploring what’s possible. Some of that is reading. Some of it is experimenting with tools directly — testing what works, what doesn’t, and what the genuine use cases are for an accounting firm.

What I’ve found is that the value isn’t usually in the headline applications. It’s in the mundane ones. The tasks that eat up time in every business — drafting communications, summarising information, processing repetitive data — are often exactly where these tools perform best.

And when those tasks get faster, there’s more capacity for the work that actually requires human judgement.

A Note on Privacy

I should add a practical caveat here, because it’s one we’re actively working through at Outside Accounting: AI adoption needs to be done thoughtfully, particularly when client data is involved.

Many of these platforms store information overseas. New Zealand’s updated privacy legislation has implications for how businesses can use client data with third-party tools. Before expanding your use of AI, it’s worth ensuring your privacy policy reflects this — and that your team has clear guidelines on what’s appropriate.

Getting that framework right isn’t a reason to delay starting. It’s just a reason to start deliberately.