Automation and the personal touch
Automation touches almost every part of our lives today, be that personal or business. And during the pandemic it has perhaps become more obvious, if that even needs mentioning.
Twelve months ago, who would have thought that almost every business meeting or client interaction would be conducted via video call? Christmas parties and after-work drinks would be virtual. Church services via video link. Concerts - livestreaming. Shopping - online (these days I see more Royal Mail and DPD vans on my local streets than cars). Our children and teachers spend 9am-3pm on Teams doing online schooling five days a week.
In many ways this has been a blessing, allowing us to get on with our lives, personal and business, as much as we can in these unsettling times. Although spare a thought for those hundreds of thousands of workers that can’t work from home, whose restaurants, airlines, travel companies or events businesses can’t continue at this point in time. One can’t help but wonder how societies would have dealt with this pandemic had it occurred 25 years ago. I wonder if wholesale lockdowns would have been possible in an age that wasn’t as globally connected and when the internet was only in its infancy?
On the other hand, all this interconnectedness and living so extensively in a computer-dominant digital world is rather disturbing to me. It doesn’t take much critical thought to be concerned about the implications of this for mental and physical health and wellbeing, never mind the future of our retail sector for example. Spare a thought for those (e.g. the elderly or those living in poorer countries) who haven’t adapted as easily to the digital world we find ourselves in, or those who can’t afford a super-speed internet connection, laptop or high-spec phone.
One thing that worries me a lot is the thought of living in a world where we seldom interact with real people face-to-face. I sincerely hope that when this is all over, we do go back to a society where people meet up, touch each other, play together, learn together, work together. At the risk of appearing sentimental and perhaps melodramatic, I fear for a world where the so-called ‘new normal’ does indeed become ‘the normal’.
All this musing leads me to the main point of my article. Our world is becoming increasingly automated. One can bank online, shop online, watch concerts and even music festivals online. We chat online, socialise online, conduct meetings online. Now we work online, hire online, dismiss online. Every time I go into a bank or post office (pre-Covid) I am encouraged by staff to use the machines to deposit money or send my post off. It might be a slight exaggeration, but in a typical week, I could quite easily see myself being able to go about most of my daily life without having to talk to a single person. Now I am not saying that every person would choose to live like this, but it is disturbing, at least to me, that we live in a world where this is becoming increasingly possible.
Which brings me to accountants and the advice we give and relationships we build with our clients. Automation and the digitalisation of our industry continues apace. Most types of taxes are submitted and paid online these days and the next phase of Making Tax Digital will accelerate this process even more. Cloud Accounting enables us to process and analyse transactions in real-time. Block chain and other developing technologies are likely to significantly change the ways audits are conducted. And with the use of video calls, advisor and client can ‘meet’ anytime they wish, without ever coming into contact face-to-face, should they so wish. Don’t get me wrong - many of these changes will result in improvements, efficiency and could make a significant positive improvement to businesses, including accountancy practices.
What really interests me is how successfully we can start, build and nurture business and client relationships in the way set out in the above paragraph. I suspect that in the longer-term, the answer will be: yes we can, to an extent. I also suspect that most accountants and their clients would prefer a mix of face-to-face and online interaction.
The one thing that remains true, I believe, is that regardless of what the future holds, clients will want to do business with an accountant that is or has the potential to be their trusted advisor. Whilst automation will undoubtedly change the way we do business, and is in the process of shaking up the accounting sector, along with many other sectors, people need the human touch, even if part of that is encountered online. Robots and automation only go so far. Empathy, understanding, humor, kindness and professional service and advice cannot, in my opinion, be fully realised, expressed and provided by automatons. To my mind, the personal touch will hopefully never fall out of favour.