Luke Allen & Jack Hammett
On 11 March, Stannards and Pemba Capital Partners hosted the inaugural NSW Future of Accounting dinner at Grana Privato in Sydney.
This brought together a curated group of NSW-based accounting, tax and advisory firm leaders for a lively conversation on the forces reshaping the accounting industry and what the firms of 2030 (and beyond) will look like.
The discussion was moderated by Peter Angelini (MD of Stannards) with a panel of experts:
Christine Foggiato, Founder of Riverside Recruitment, a specialist accounting and advisory recruitment firm.
Dawid Naudé, Founder & CEO of Pathfindr, one of the most exciting AI consultancies in Australia, who works with professional services firms moving from AI experimentation to implementation.
Rob Pillans, Founder of Planet Consulting and former accounting CEO, who coaches and advises high-performing independent accounting and advisory firms.
What stood out on the night
1. Will AI be an extinction event for the accounting sector? (Answer: No)
As you might expect, AI was a lively topic. The general view was that accountants and advisors need to be aware, willing to explore and ready.
AI won’t replace accountants, but it will reduce time spent on low-value production tasks, or repetitive compliance tasks, allowing advisors to focus on advisory, client service, and relationship-driven outcomes.
Dawid was of the view that offshore outsourcing in the accounting industry will be redundant by the end of the year given the speed of new AI releases and increasing scope of AI use cases. Others believed there would be a balance between adopting the latest AI releases and having “human in the loop” (potentially offshore) to validate and check work.
It is clear AI will impact the accountant of the futures’ workflow with plenty of efficiency gains, enhanced audit quality and deeper data analysis. Nevertheless, the future of accounting will see continued need for high-quality advice, well-informed judgement and deeper client relationships – AI will enhance this, not replace it.
2. How does one “invest” in AI? Should you build your own AI tools?
Everyone is looking at different options – some using ChatGPT or Claude to build internal tools, others using third party AI-enabled point solutions and some waiting to see it all play out.
Peter spoke about Stannards, who have their own in-house CTO and AI expert, have built their own tax tool (Tax Law Assistant) which the tax team use internally as a second source of rapid research on tax regulations, as well as tools to enhance and speed up financial statement analysis.
Whatever AI approach taken, firms need to have the right guardrails, governance, and training.
3. Graduates are still the future (and a competitive advantage)
A recurring insight was the importance of building capability through early-career talent. Graduates are arriving with stronger technical literacy and digital fluency than ever before, and when developed well, they can become the trusted advisors of tomorrow.
The panel spoke to the importance of holistic training to include psychology, negotiation skills and sales to ensure juniors are finessing AI-proof business development skills.
Christine had some practical advice on attracting the best talent including detailed job descriptions, marketing the type of clients and work on LinkedIn and how to “build a best in class” employee value proposition. Rob similarly spoke to the importance of “getting the story right” when presenting your firm to potential hires, as you would with clients.
The key message wasn’t simply “hire more grads”, it was to invest deliberately, provide clarity, and build modern career development pathways that match the changing nature of the work.
Looking ahead
“We wanted to host an intimate event to give practical insights and real life examples to accounting leaders, and a forum for everyone to share lessons and thoughts on building the accounting and advisory firms of the future..
We look forward to hosting the next one!”
Peter Angelini, Managing Director, Stannards
We will be hosting similar events in Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne in the coming months. If you work in the accounting and advisory industry and would like to be invited, please reach out to Luke Allen (luke@pemba.com.au).
