When you’re building with AI, where does experimentation end and responsibility begin?

I’m all for exploring AI. Too much of accounting is shaped by ‘because that’s how we’ve done it before’, and playing around with AI is one way for firms to break free from legacy thinking and dusty, broken workflows.

But an AI experiment stops being ‘just a bit of fun’ as soon as it touches confidential data, produces client-facing work, or becomes part of a repeatable process. At that point, firms should treat it as an operational system - complete with appropriate security, review, monitoring, and ownership. 

This ‘responsible use’ of AI is crucial to protect the firm’s reputation.