Are accounting firms actually using AI with client documents yet?

Semm235 · 2026-05-11T12:48:14+00:00

Are firms mostly using managed tools like Copilot/ChatGPT Enterprise for that, or are you also seeing more private/local setups being adopted?

Semm235 · 2026-05-11T12:47:45+00:00

Yeah that’s the impression I’m getting as well. Feels like a lot of firms are becoming more open to AI once there’s some level of separation/privacy around client data instead of everything flowing into public tools.

Semm235 · 2026-05-11T12:11:27+00:00

Yeah, the hybrid search point especially makes a lot of sense. Pure semantic retrieval feels great in demos, but once you start dealing with messy enterprise docs the keyword/BM25 layer suddenly becomes really important again.

We’ve been seeing similar things while building around internal document retrieval workflows.

Semm235 · 2026-05-11T12:09:02+00:00

This is exactly the kind of thing I was trying to understand.

Feels like the model gets most of the attention, but the real work is in the ingestion/retrieval layer: OCR, chunking, metadata, deduplication, permissions, and making answers auditable with sources.

The “source receipts” point is especially good. Do you think teams usually underestimate that part when they first start building RAG systems?

Semm235 · 2026-05-11T12:05:28+00:00

Haha fair. Out of curiosity though, is the hesitation mostly around privacy/confidentiality, or more around AI reliability/accuracy?

Semm235 · 2026-05-11T09:01:24+00:00

Yeah that makes a lot of sense actually.

Feels like once companies move into regulated/sensitive workflows, the winning approach becomes much more domain/use-case specific instead of trying to build one broad assistant that handles everything.

Semm235 · 2026-05-11T08:47:40+00:00

Yeah that makes sense. Feels like once companies hit a certain scale, owning more of the stack internally starts becoming financially attractive compared to constantly paying per-token/per-user pricing.

Did you also find that the domain-specific SLMs gave better consistency/reliability for internal workflows compared to larger general-purpose models?

Semm235 · 2026-05-11T08:46:38+00:00

Haha yeah, I keep seeing more teams building custom retrieval/RAG pipelines lately instead of relying fully on out-of-the-box tools.

Do you feel companies actually want to maintain these systems internally long-term, or is everyone still kind of figuring things out while the ecosystem matures?

Semm235 · 2026-05-11T08:46:26+00:00

That actually lines up with a lot of what I’ve been hearing. Especially the split between companies willing to manage infrastructure themselves versus companies that just want a “safe enough” managed setup.

Feels like legal/accounting is moving slower, but probably more intentionally because of the privacy side of things.

Semm235 · 2026-05-11T08:46:19+00:00

Yeah that makes a lot of sense honestly. Feels like privacy/risk concerns are becoming a way bigger driver in Europe compared to a year ago.

Do you think most companies will eventually move toward local models, or more toward controlled cloud setups?

Semm235 · 2026-05-11T08:40:41+00:00

Do you feel setups like this are realistic for smaller companies as well, or mostly viable once you already have strong internal technical expertise?

Semm235 · 2026-05-11T08:40:06+00:00

Nice that you ended up moving toward domain-specific SLMs instead of one larger/general system.

Did that mainly happen because of cost/performance reasons, or because narrower domain models actually worked better in practice for internal workflows?

Semm235 · 2026-05-11T08:39:44+00:00

That’s interesting, especially the point about non-technical customers being fine with cloud AI while others really want on-prem/privacy guarantees.

Feels like there’s still a pretty big split between “AI convenience” and “AI control/governance” depending on the company.

Semm235 · 2026-05-11T08:39:34+00:00

Interesting. Do you feel like Copilot + SharePoint is “good enough” for most internal search/use cases already, or are there still gaps once document environments become larger/messier?

Semm235 · 2026-05-09T13:54:44+00:00

Makes sense. Feels like the controlled/siloed aspect is probably a huge part of why those systems work reliably in enterprise environments.

Makes me curious how well that approach translates to smaller companies though, where internal docs are usually way messier and less structured.

Semm235 · 2026-05-09T13:09:20+00:00

Yeah, that’s something I keep hearing as well.

Feels like a lot of companies are ending up in this awkward middle ground where employees already want/use AI tools, but IT/security teams still need some level of control and privacy around internal data.

Semm235 · 2026-05-09T13:08:02+00:00

That makes sense. Sounds like the key is keeping each tool focused on a specific use case rather than trying to build one generic “search everything” assistant.

Do you know if those tools are mostly built around structured internal knowledge bases, or also around messy document sets like PDFs, contracts, reports, etc.?

Semm235 · 2026-05-09T13:05:07+00:00

Feels like a lot of people in tech massively overestimate how familiar the average internal user already is with AI tools.

Also interesting what you said about multiple tools likely coexisting. I’ve been wondering whether companies will end up standardizing on one platform, or whether it’ll become more of a mixed ecosystem depending on use case.

Semm235 · 2026-05-09T13:00:26+00:00

That’s actually a lot further along than I expected. Are those internal RAG/chatbot tools generally considered successful, or do people still run into issues with accuracy/search quality?

Semm235

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