Luca is now live! Discover in Artificial intelligence (AI) is now ubiquitous, including in the accounting profession. The number of practical applications in the sector is growing rapidly. For example, there is now Luca, a tool that makes professional technical information more accessible to accountants.
By: Marc Schweppe, https://www.accountant.nl
Arthur Jager, Nick Venhuizen, and Lucas Castelo know each other from their years at Baker Tilly, as lead digital transformation, audit manager, and data engineer, respectively. Through their startup Blocks, the three are now working on practical tools for the accounting profession.
Together, they have developed Luca in the past period, the first specific search engine for accountants, named after Luca Pacioli, the founder of double-entry bookkeeping. “Accountants need to absorb, analyze, and process more and more knowledge,” says Jager. “But teams want to be able to search more easily and need digital support for time-consuming activities.”
The tool helps to increase the quality of accounting work by making information more accessible, particularly when it comes to professional technical information, laws and regulations, case law, and more. According to the Blocks trio, the tool now offers real added value in audit and compilation practice.
Pilot
This is also evident from the feedback from accounting and consulting firm Vermetten, with whom Blocks has entered into a collaboration for the development of Luca. Both auditors and accountants in the compilation practice now use the tool. It concerns a pilot group of approximately twenty testers. “The firm reports that Luca helps to be more involved with content than before,” says Venhuizen. “The tool helps to get answers to professional technical questions faster and supports recordings to save time. It also contributes to a higher-quality conversation with seniors, because junior accountants are better prepared in terms of content by sparring with Luca.”
‘AI should not only become a means for higher productivity, but serve as a lever for higher quality.’
During the pilot, pre-set criteria were met, and the firm therefore wants to extend the collaboration. On average, the saving per employee using the tool is several hours per month, although it is still too early to name that number of hours per file exactly. “Instead of just hammering on
No hallucinations
Luca is now in a phase where office-specific content and other documentation can also be added to the knowledge base. The tool can thus support accountants in their recordings, including professional technical memos. The three do emphasize that Luca is not made to independently add information or make decisions, something that many people have some fear of when it comes to AI applications.
Jager acknowledges that there is still some apprehension about the application of AI in the sector. “AI is still reasonably unpopular, but we are very critical when it comes to data sovereignty, about how data is processed and where. We also provide information about this to our clients. Accountants quickly look at the risks; that is the nature of the beast, although it does differ per office.”
‘Developing something too quickly is a pitfall, it must also land with users.’
Blocks itself conceived Luca from experience gained in the sector, it is its own product, the three emphasize. “Other parties mainly focus on consultancy around AI. We simply started building,” says Jager. “Accountants are actively involved in the development, we do not want to unilaterally determine how good ‘good enough’ is. There are also offices that try to develop tools themselves, but reliability is often an issue. We see that AI sometimes invents laws and regulations.
“Luca should ultimately be usable for every office, depending on the knowledge that the office wants to make accessible. Collaborations with other offices are now also starting. The intention is that offices use the tool via a SaaS subscription (software as a service) and regularly receive new versions of Luca due to the rapid developments.
Pitfall
Simply pushing an AI tool into an office is not the intention, Venhuizen indicates. The three sometimes have discussions with offices about the added value of AI, because there are incorrect expectations. “You should not start a collaboration that is doomed to fail. Developing something too quickly is a pitfall, it must also land with users. So we do not offer a tool without an accompanying workshop with users. As an accountant, you must learn to deal with AI and be able to determine where you do and do not apply it.”
The trio is convinced that Luca now really works in practice. At a large office, the tool was unleashed on a complex case. “A single chat with Luca already saved the accountant almost two hours of preparation and elaboration there,” Jager concludes.
Marc Schweppe is editor-in-chief of Accountant and Accountant.nl.
