Challenges with Implementing AI for Attorney Bookkeeping

I thought we would tackle this week the really challenges with implementing AI as a bookkeeper in a bookkeeping firm or as a bookkeeper helping a client implement some better practices with AI. And this is a topic— AI has been such a hot topic this year, probably because it's being used in so many different ways and there's so many different AI platforms coming out. There's There's Deepseek, there's ChatGPT, there's Genesis with Google. There's just so many available out there. Perplexity is another one that I, I really like Perplexity. And we actually use you.com, Y-O-U, like, hey, you, and it has a whole bunch of AI in it, and it costs the same amount as buying just ChatGPT. So it was really a good value there. But as you start to use artificial intelligence in your practice, I heard a great quote, and it said, How are you going to implement this in your practice? And some people say, I'm not going to bother it. I'm going to be done with my job, working my working career by the time this thing really takes off. And I think that that's the wrong position to take as a bookkeeper, even no matter what age you are. You want to be that bookkeeper or bookkeeping firm that is forward-thinking. You don't want to be that person that sits back and— I remember when the cloud came out and there were people like, I'm not going to touch that cloud. I'm going to stay away from the cloud. Or when the internet even started. Those are the things that I can remember that were kind of controversial when they first came out, and there was a lot of misses when it came out to, you know, trial and error. And I think sometimes that we tend to stay back from it and let it kind of roll out. But in this case, I think it's best to start using it and implementing it. We have our staff implementing it because we want them to be comfortable with it. And it's really a trial and error. You kind of have to play with it to really understand it. And the power— there's power behind it. So with artificial intelligence, it's going to— it's really going to transform a lot of industries, countless industries. It might wipe out jobs, it might enhance jobs. It might just shift the way we do our work. And so knowing that is gonna be the case, why not get into it at the very beginning of it to really understand it and, and really hone your skills when it comes to that. So some things, and this is really about the challenges. So some things you should really think about challenge-wise that you really want to consider before diving in and consider how you're going to work in these programs securely. So that's my first, first real challenge is data security. And as we go forward into this, you're gonna see that there's gonna be ways that people can manipulate data and make it look like me giving this video when it's not really me doing it. I'm not, you know, somebody can take my image and my voice and redo that. So there's a lot there that you wanna make sure that that you have your company and your firm set up for success. If you're using free software, know that they're using you as much as you're using them. So you want to be in a software that you're paying for. We looked into the You program, you know, Sarah and I kind of implemented it ourselves and we looked into it with our team. And really the only way to get that security is with the enterprise version of it, which is what we're going to be using. But truly, AI and bookkeeping does does raise some valid concerns, and it could be an open door for potential data risks. So you have to make sure data breaches— you have to make sure that everybody who's involved in this knows the same bumper guards we put around everything and that they really stick to how the encryption is happening, what they're putting into the data. Is the data being used as regenerative? Is it reading your data? You want to make sure that if you're using client data, you don't want that ever being— that's pristine. You don't want that used for anything else. Mm-hmm. You don't— certainly don't want to have that exposure. The next thing you're going to run into as a barrier or a challenge is clients that are resistant to change or staff people that are resistant to change. The legal profession is often steeped in tradition, and many attorneys and their bookkeepers are just comfortable with a certain method. They're comfortable with their desktop product. They're comfortable with timeslips. They're comfortable with these products that are so antiquated and they're comfortable doing all these multiple steps because they really don't understand that they could save a lot of time and have a lot of things done for them. And I think that that's a barrier they have to overcome. And you really have to take a proactive approach to it, demonstrate the ability that it can have and the things that you are able to do with AI so that you can help get them to buy into using it. I think sometimes they read or they hear things and they just automatically put a wall up. Mm-hmm. Because people don't like to change as a general rule. You have to have that passion for it that you want to move forward into the future. And I think sometimes that's a barrier that you'll find that if you can get them to understand, there'll be— as soon as you add that technology piece, there's less errors, there's gonna save you time, and it's just a shift in perspective. And if you can teach them that, I think that's gonna help a lot. For some practices, smaller practices, they might find that that is an initial cost. Like I said, don't use free. It's not, it's not worth it. But if you start to use upfront tools like the AI that's in Clio, for example, it's not inexpensive and it might not have everything you want it to have right now, but it's going to save time. And I always try to tell my attorneys like, look, you start to use these tools, how much time is it going to save you? Is it going to save you enough time to pay for it? And it's truly the fact that when you start to use these tools, if you're looking and seeking documents and the AI picks it up like that and you're saving that time outta your day that now you can do something billable, it's, that's hands down worth it. Yeah. I'm gonna tell you that it's worth having the software. So you might wanna consider that when you're looking at software, that if there's an AI piece to it, look at the cost, but then look at the, the bounce from it. What's the benefit? Are you gonna save time? And it— maybe you can implement it in a smaller— in smaller chunks, or do you start to look at it? Definitely ask if they can reduce the price. If you're buying it from someone that's got it inside their product, anybody that's got the AI, you might find that if you're adding that on, it's worth the value to do it. If it's, you know, just starting to be used and you're on the cutting-edge side of that, maybe you can get that for a lesser cost. Find AI that can maybe integrate with your existing systems. Many law firms rely on that legacy software and it doesn't connect to anything. And it's time to really move forward with a system that does work, future-ready. It's something you can implement in the firm that you can grow into, that you're not going to grow out of. Always look at that first because it's expensive to move to a different product. And really conduct a thorough assessment of the current tools and maybe where there might be weaknesses, where there might be weaknesses with technology or where there might be weaknesses with data security and start to really look at what can we do to help really prioritize AI as a solution. Because you want to be that accounting person or attorney that's forward-thinking, that's implementing it because you're going to be left in the dust if you're not by somebody that is using AI, that has thought about it and has started to use it and put it in their practice. I think sometimes AI can be complex. So lack of expertise is definitely another area you want to look into. Make sure you give the time to your staff to learn how to do this, how to leverage these tools, how to use the, um, have a proper understanding of how they work and use them to the fullest. Uh, we're implementing, uh, a new practice management tool at our firm, and I think that we're trying to take that in small steps, but it's gonna be a big project for us, but it's gonna help us modernize our workflow even better than the one we were using before. We outgrew that one, and it's gonna be a heavy lift, but it's supposed to be done in 6 to 8 weeks. And hopefully on the other side of that, we're going to be sitting back saying, this was great. I wish we did it sooner. So sometimes you have to bridge the gap and empower the staff to use the products. Use, try it out, play with it, and let them get comfortable with it so you can start to— maybe they'll start to think of ways to use it that you didn't even think of. So I think sometimes implementing AI as a bookkeeper can come with challenges. It can come with cost. It's— but it's far from insurmountable. And law firms can tackle the issues of data security as they start to implement it. They can— you can see that resistance to change. That's been with almost every law firm. Some of the older law firms is really hard to, to work through. Actually had a client the other day that wasn't even a law firm, but it was one of my legacy clients, and I asked how they were doing their, their time cards, and they said, oh, you know, the paper punch cards. And I was like, oh, wow, you've got to be kidding me. So there's still people out there that are doing manual, like the machine where you stick the card in from back in the '80s or the '90s. So there's a way to Maybe add that piece to it that you weren't even thinking of. That's just something small. It's a baby step to getting more of the software implemented in the firm. Start to think about that as you start to walk yourself forward into the future. Legal industry is evolving. It evolves very slowly, and sometimes it adapts pretty quickly. And with AI, you just want to be part of that. You don't want to be standing in the, in the background looking in and saying, gosh, I wish I had started looking at that earlier. So see you all next week. We're going to stay on the AI topic and move on to something different than this one. But I thought this was a good one for you to really start to think about the challenges first. Bye, everybody. Bye.