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The Firm presents AI in Practice Summit, powered by Access Evo

Session notes · Wed 11 & Thu 12 November 2026

What worked, what’s next: the notes.

A quick read, the full notes and the actions for your firm, for every one of the 19 sessions. Or skip the reading and ask.

  • Chad Davis
  • David Boyar
  • Stan Corner
  • Andrew Noble
  • Darren Hosiosky
  • Gus McLennan

33 speakers, 19 sessions Firm owners, practitioners and the people building their tools

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    Day one · Wednesday 11 November What worked in 2026
    1. 9:00am Notes live AI Year in Review Chad Davis ran through about 220 of the year's AI releases to show how far things moved in ten months. His point: you don't need to adopt them all, just know what exists, then test what fits your firm alongside peers who have tried it. Chad Davis Chad Davis · LiveCA and AutomationTown.io AI strategyTools & appsData & securityBookkeeping
    2. 10:00am Notes live The Great AI Con: Paying for AI trained on Reddit and TikTok to help you with a BAS David Boyar's view is that flat-rate AI won't last: general AI rereads everything on every request, that cost will be passed on as tokens, and firms will need to treat AI as a cost of goods sold tracked per client and per job. David Boyar David Boyar · The Access Group AI strategyPricing & onboardingData & security
    3. 11:00am Notes live The Future of ATO Data + AI: Securely Connecting with ChatGPT, Copilot and Claude Stan Corner showed Claude reading a practice's ATO and practice management data through an MCP connector to Omble, to build a practice health check, a list of clients at risk of ATO debt action and a client meeting pack. He said the practice controls who can connect, and choosing a paid AI tool and setting the governance is the practice's job. Stan Corner Stan Corner · Business Automation Works Data & securityTax & complianceTools & apps
    4. 12:00pm Notes live When AI Gets Tax Wrong: Guardrails for Complex Tax Reasoning General AI recalls tax law from memory, quietly fills in missing facts like residency and leaves no trail. Andrew Noble and three practitioners showed the alternative: rules written as code that give the same answer every time, ask for missing facts and refuse cases they don't cover. Andrew Noble Andrew Noble · LodgeiT Labs Tax & complianceAI strategy
    5. 1:00pm Notes live AI App Speed Dating: See 6 new AI Apps for accountants and bookkeepers Six vendors had eight minutes each to show what their app does. Most went after the admin around compliance work: collecting client documents, preparing work papers, verifying clients under the AML/CTF reforms, and getting returns signed and paid. Darren Hosiosky Gus McLennan Corinne Smith James Rose Nathan Harper Matthew Taylor Darren Hosiosky, Gus McLennan, Corinne Smith, James Rose, Nathan Harper, Matthew Taylor Tools & appsTax & compliance
    6. 2:00pm Notes live Inside the Numbers: What FY26 Really Looked Like for 250+ Firms Dashboard Insights' FY26 benchmarking report found Australian firms grew revenue about 6% with 3% fewer staff, through productivity and a jump in recoverability from 87% to 91% rather than price rises. Firms that said AI was changing how they work showed no material performance edge in FY26, though Ryan Richardson said there are early signs of change. Ryan Richardson Ryan Richardson · Dashboard Insights AI strategyPricing & onboarding
    7. 3:00pm Notes live Teach your team how to use AI productively and securely (Panel Discussion) Start with one small, repetitive job, give the team one approved tool and a safe place to play, and keep client data out of the AI with a redaction tool that runs before the AI ever sees a file. Beau Gaudron Gus McLennan James Rose Travis Bacon Beau Gaudron, Gus McLennan, James Rose, Travis Bacon Team & adoptionData & security
    8. 4:00pm Notes live Why you're losing the AI battle Amy Holdsworth said AI won't fix an integration problem: it speeds up whatever it sits on, good or bad. Map your processes, clean and connect your data and apps, and only then add AI where the process is clean and the value is clear. Amy Holdsworth Amy Holdsworth · Clarity Street AI strategyTools & appsTeam & adoption
    9. 5:00pm Notes live I hired my first AI assistant, here's what I learned and mistakes you can avoid Natalie Lennon showed how Viktor, an AI agent in her firm's Slack, pulls reports across many Xero files, reviews Karbon work and drafts her emails, which she said gives her about six hours back a week. She said to start with small, repeatable jobs, test in a direct message before the team sees it, and spot-check everything. Natalie Lennon Natalie Lennon · Two Sides Accounting Tools & appsTeam & adoptionData & security
    10. 6:00pm Notes live Is it safe? AI, client data and a simple plan for your firm Billie Mcloughlin said "is AI safe?" is too broad: what matters is the plan you're on, the settings and how well your team is trained. Her plan is to hold a meeting to agree tools and client data, run a training session, then hand out a guide and policy. Billie Mcloughlin Billie Mcloughlin · AIccountancy Data & securityTeam & adoption
    Day two · Thursday 12 November What to plan for in 2027
    1. 9:00am Notes live The Intelligent Firm: Setting the foundation for 2027 Trent McLaren argued that firms lose knowledge in scattered inboxes, calls and texts, and that the foundation for 2027 is capturing every conversation into a shared second brain the firm's AI can work from, while people keep the judgment, relationships and sign-off. Trent McLaren Trent McLaren · Vinyl & The Firm AI strategyTeam & adoption
    2. 10:00am Notes live Pricing & onboarding with AI: easy for you and your clients Ethan Cooney and Ben Walker showed AI drafting proposals from a meeting transcript or a short prompt through Ignition and its MCP, with a person still checking the scope and setting the final fee. Both said the starting point is recording every client meeting. Ethan Cooney Ben Walker Ethan Cooney · Ignition Ben Walker · Inspire Accountants Pricing & onboardingTools & apps
    3. 11:00am Notes live AI-Assisted Bookkeeping: Making the bookkeeper irreplaceable Bookkeepers Kelly Marshall and Niamh Campbell showed how they connect Claude to Dext, Karbon and Ignition to send themselves weekly exception reports, clear client inboxes and build package proposals in minutes. Their advice was to start small, tell the AI who you are and how your business works, and check its output the way you would a team member's. Glenn Castle KM NC Glenn Castle, Kelly Marshall, Niamh Campbell BookkeepingTools & appsData & security
    4. 12:00pm Notes live XPM Claude Connector: Build Your Own Dashboards, No More Exports Kevin Garber showed Claude reading XPM and Xero through LogicGlue's MCP connector to build live practice dashboards, compare billed hours with invoicing, and draft journals, invoices and timesheets. He said not all MCP connectors are equal, write access is off until you switch it on, and the AI can only see what your Xero and XPM permissions allow. Kevin Garber Kevin Garber · LogicGlue Tools & appsData & security
    5. 1:00pm Notes live the value chAIn - what will it look like when AI is processing payments Pete Horder and Jillian Chi said AI agents will soon start purchases on clients' behalf, adding speed, volume and new billing models like per-outcome pricing. Pete said the clients who cope are those with clean charts of accounts and rule-based integrations that don't need rebuilding when the pricing changes. Pete Horder Jillian Chi Pete Horder · SubSync Jillian Chi · Stripe PaymentsBookkeeping
    6. 2:00pm Notes live 'AI native' is a lie: here's how I'm actually transforming my accounting practice with GenAI. (live demo) Dave Sellick said generative AI is probabilistic, optimised to look correct rather than be correct, so it shouldn't run mission-critical accounting work on its own. His approach is to lead it as a co-pilot and use it to build deterministic tools, such as code, formulas and API connections, that run the same way every time. Dave Sellick Dave Sellick · Sidgrove AI strategyTools & appsData & security
    7. 3:00pm Notes live Where to start with AI: Lessons from the industry (Panel Discussion) Start small and start now: the panel began with emails, PDFs and templates, and the firms going furthest standardised early with shared skills, firm-wide instructions and data kept out of the AI before connecting it to their systems. Gus McLennan James Rose Denise Twigger Reuben Bergola Andy Teece Gus McLennan, James Rose, Denise Twigger, Reuben Bergola, Andy Teece AI strategyTeam & adoption
    8. 4:00pm Notes live Tax Research: When the junior stops asking the partner: What your team learns in 2027 When a junior can get a polished, cited answer in seconds, judgment is what goes missing. The TaxGuru team said juniors still need to learn to spot the missing facts and check the source, and partners should spend their time challenging the reasoning. Michael Jeffriess Maureen Gabriel Grant Abbott Michael Jeffriess, Maureen Gabriel, Grant Abbott Tax & complianceTeam & adoption
    9. 5:00pm Replay up Your client's sh*t work. Is the next big opportunity for AI. Every monthly catchup, your client moans about staying late doing the same bloody thing. Open the spreadsheet. Copy the numbers. Click into the accounting system. Paste. Recode. Repeat. Their software stores the records, but they're still doing the grunt work. Join Sterling co-founder Nik Wakelin to see how AI can take on that monthly grind, and how helping clients fix it becomes the advisory work you've always wanted to do. Nik Wakelin Nik Wakelin · Sterling BookkeepingAI strategy
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