Technology & Innovation

AI: Why accountants visited the Sage AI Roadshows 2026

The profession is at a crossroads. Here’s how accountants found their path forward via key events in Bristol, Manchester, and London.

Published 6 February, 20264 min read Share

There’s a conversation happening in many accounting practices across the UK.

It’s happening over morning coffees, in partner meetings, and in the quiet moments between client calls:

“What do we do about AI?”

With Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax launching in just a few months, affecting 864,000 sole traders and landlords in its first phase alone, in these conversations you might also find a realisation being shared:

“I don’t think we can avoid AI any longer.”

And this is what we discuss in this blog, as follows:

3 types of practice, a shared challenge

The maths of MTD for Income Tax’s quarterly update and digital tax return workload is simple: one annual client interaction becomes five, each with its own data gathering requirements, deadline, and potential penalty.

It’s less about when you engage with AI, but whether you’ll do so on your terms—or be forced to react when you’re overwhelmed in a few months’ time.

Among other things at the Sage AI Roadshows, supported by AccountingWEB, the results of joint research were revealed. It’s helped create three broad archetypes, as follows. Which best fits with you and your practice?

Strategic Adopters

These represent roughly 40% of practices. These firms have moved beyond simply sourcing and applying AI tools. They’re building systems. Isolated experiments have evolved into firm-wide implementations, automating the likes of client onboarding, document intake, and compliance workflows.

For these Strategic Adopters, the challenge is around optimisation: how do they scale what’s working, maintain data governance, and ensure their team keeps pace with the technology?

The danger for this group is complacency. Being ahead today doesn’t guarantee staying ahead tomorrow.

Cautious Observers

These make up another 40%. They see the potential of AI. They’ve perhaps experimented with tools like ChatGPT for drafting emails or summarising documents. But they haven’t made the leap to systematic adoption.

Their concerns are legitimate and revolve around reliability, accuracy, security, and professional standards. They want to know that AI won’t embarrass them in front of clients or create compliance risks.

What they need isn’t to hear yet more hype about AI’s possibilities. They need practical guidance on safe experimentation, clear use cases, and honest conversations about limitations.

Digital Traditionalists

These comprise the remaining practitioners. These people have seen technology trends come and go and they’re not opposed to change. They’re simply unconvinced that this particular change is necessary or beneficial for their practice.

Many run successful, established firms built on relationships and expertise. AI leaves them feeling ambivalent—it potentially threatens what they’ve built but it might also enhance it.

For this group, the starting point must be stress reduction and workload management, not transformation. They need to see AI as a tool that supports their existing strengths, not one that renders them obsolete.

Your invitation to act

Reading about AI adoption is no substitute for experiencing it.

But what if you can’t wait?

The immediate path forward looks different depending on where you’re starting from, but certain principles apply universally.

Strategic Adopters: Your next frontier is systematic data governance and cross-practice integration. Individual AI wins are valuable, but firm-wide systems that maintain consistency, security, and quality control are what separate sustainable advantage from scattered experiments. Focus on creating operating models that scale, not just tools that work.

Cautious Observers: Your priority should be identifying two or three high-value, low-risk use cases where AI can deliver immediate benefits without threatening professional standards.

Email drafting via AI assistants like Sage Copilot, call summarisation, and working paper preparation are natural starting points. Establish clear guidelines for your team about appropriate use, then expand from there. The key is moving from passive observation to active experimentation within defined boundaries.

Digital Traditionalists: Start with pain points. What administrative tasks consume disproportionate time? What repetitive work could be streamlined without changing your fundamental approach to client service?

AI tools can handle routine communications, manage task scheduling, and create templates that preserve your voice and standards while reducing your workload. The goal isn’t transformation—it’s making each week feel lighter.

Final thoughts

Let’s be direct: attending an AI workshop is a professional necessity for anyone serious about their practice’s future.

The accounting profession has always adapted to change—from paper ledgers to spreadsheets, from desktop software to cloud computing. Each transition separated those who evolved from those who were left behind.

AI represents the most significant shift since the digitisation of records, but the timeline for adaptation is compressed. What took a decade with previous technologies has taken maybe a year or two with AI.

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