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The AI revolution isn't coming — it's already here, and it's moving faster than anyone imagined.
According to a 2024 McKinsey report, industries like professional services are racing to adopt AI, transforming workflows, streamlining processes and shaking up how services are delivered. This includes my home turf of law, where billing by the hour has been a cornerstone for decades. But it's not just the legal world feeling the shake-up. CPAs, engineers, consultants — anyone whose livelihood depends on the billable hour — are facing the same seismic shift.
The question isn't whether AI will disrupt your business; it's how you'll adapt before it does. Ready to future-proof your company? Here are three strategies to make AI your greatest asset instead of your biggest threat.
Related: AI Slop is Everywhere We Look — Here's How Businesses Can Avoid the AI Slop Cycle
1. Stop selling your time
The hourly rate model has been the gold standard for advisers and consultants for decades. It's simple: the more hours you work, the more you earn. This traditional approach, however, is increasingly becoming outdated in the face of rapid technological advancements.
AI tools can now perform tasks in minutes that used to take hours, effectively decoupling the value of work from the time spent on it. This shift challenges the very foundation of the hourly rate model–making it less reflective of the true value professionals bring. Your hard-earned experience and expertise cannot be reduced to hours logged. The value lies in your quality and strategic thinking–not always in the clock ticking away on your desk.
The solution? Shift to flat rates or success fees. Doing so allows you to leverage AI technologies to drive efficiencies without cutting your profits. Transitioning to a new pricing model requires a clear understanding of your historical data. Analyze past transactions to determine a fair price for your services, considering the actual value delivered rather than the hours logged. If precise data isn't available, start with estimates and refine through an iterative trial-and-error process.
Getting clients on board with this new model involves highlighting the predictability and transparency it offers. Clients will appreciate knowing exactly what they'll pay upfront, avoiding the dreaded black hole of escalating fees. This shift is a powerful selling point in today's volatile economic environment, where businesses are looking to manage costs more effectively and avoid unexpected expenses.
This shift away from hourly rates is not just about adapting to AI; it's about rethinking how professional services are valued and delivered. Moving away from the traditional hourly billing model allows you to offer more innovative and client-focused solutions, leading to greater client loyalty and long-term business success.
Related: JPMorgan Says Its AI Cashflow Tool Cut Human Work Almost 90%
2. Stop burning precious time on admin matters
Administrative tasks are the kryptonite of productivity. Every professional knows the frustration of being buried under paperwork, emails and other non-billable tasks. These activities are essential but eat into your most valuable resource: time.
Generative AI and other advanced technologies can rescue you from admin purgatory. Why manually schedule appointments, draft documents or respond to basic client inquiries when AI can handle it in a fraction of the time? Here are some concrete examples of how AI can save you admin time and improve efficiency:
Automated Scheduling: AI-powered tools like Calendly, Microsoft Bookings or Clara can automate meeting scheduling and appointments, handling rescheduling requests and cancellations without requiring manual input.
Document Drafting and Management: AI tools like Grammarly, Jasper and OpenAI's GPT-4o can assist in drafting documents, generating initial drafts based on your inputs and helping with editing and proofreading. They can also point you to where you need to focus your time and energy. Take a look at the 100% adoption rate of Moderna's lawyers with Chat GPT and other generative AI tools. The future is now.
Email Management: AI assistants such as Google's Smart Reply and Microsoft's Cortana can help manage your email inbox, providing relevant replies to emails, sorting emails into categories and more.
Bookkeeping and Financial Management: Accounting software like QuickBooks and Xero have now been infused with AI – allowing you to automate various bookkeeping tasks, such as categorizing expenses, reconciling bank transactions and generating financial reports. AI can also assist in forecasting and budgeting, providing insights based on historical data and trends, which helps in making informed financial decisions without spending hours crunching numbers.
Client Communication: AI chatbots and virtual assistants, such as Drift, Intercom and Zendesk, can handle basic client inquiries and support requests. These tools can respond instantly to frequently asked questions, schedule follow-up appointments and even escalate more complex issues to human agents when necessary. This reduces the volume of routine inquiries that need to be handled manually, freeing up time for more critical tasks.
Data Entry and Analysis: AI-powered tools like UiPath and Automation Anywhere can automate repetitive data entry tasks. These tools use robotic process automation (RPA) to extract data from various sources, input it into your systems and ensure accuracy. Additionally, AI analytics platforms like Tableau and Power BI can analyze large datasets, generate insights and create visual reports, reducing the time spent on manual data analysis.
The key to successfully implementing these AI tools is to train yourself and your team to use them effectively. You and your team will need to understand the capabilities of each tool, integrate them into your workflows and continually refine your processes. It's also crucial to keep a human in the loop for fact-checking and quality assurance, ensuring that the outputs generated by AI meet your standards and requirements.
Countless online resources can help you become proficient in AI. Platforms like Coursera and Udacity offer courses tailored to different levels of expertise. YouTube is also a treasure trove of tutorials — I recently spent a holiday weekend immersing myself in prompt engineering through various YouTube videos. By investing time in learning these tools, you can unlock their full potential and significantly improve your productivity.
Adopting AI tools will save you countless hours and allow you to redirect your energy towards revenue-generating activities, client acquisition, or simply spending more time with your family. Embrace these technologies and watch as your administrative burdens diminish.
Related: The Top 5 AI Tools That Can Revolutionize Your Workflow
3. Supercharge your employees
Large organizations often face the challenge of managing a growing workforce. However, many tasks currently handled by employees can be augmented by AI. Start by conducting a comprehensive audit of your operations to identify areas where AI can be implemented. Doing so can help you streamline processes and think strategically about your workforce. For example, this audit can reduce the need for future new hires, effectively managing growth without the accompanying increase in overhead. Supercharging your current employees with AI also helps to redefine job roles and enables employees to focus on higher-value tasks and strategic initiatives.
Protecting client information is crucial with any technology. Compliance with all applicable ethics rules is paramount. Many industry-specific programs are being developed to ensure that client information is not fed back into the system, and large-language models are continually evolving to enhance data security. Your clients rely on you to protect their information, so it's essential to carefully vet any program you use and ensure it meets the highest data security and privacy standards.
Integrating AI into your operations can also help create a culture of continuous improvement and innovation. Employees who see the benefits of AI in reducing their workload and enhancing their capabilities are more likely to embrace these technologies. This acceptance can lead to a more dynamic, forward-thinking organization that continuously seeks new ways to improve and innovate.
The key to not being "eaten alive" by AI lies in proactive adaptation. Embrace the tools available, rethink your business models, and streamline your operations. Remember: the future belongs to those who are willing to innovate and evolve.
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