Podchaser Logo
Home
Samantha Bowling | MindBridge: Making AI Accessible to Small Accounting Firms

Samantha Bowling | MindBridge: Making AI Accessible to Small Accounting Firms

Released Monday, 29th April 2019
Good episode? Give it some love!
Samantha Bowling | MindBridge: Making AI Accessible to Small Accounting Firms

Samantha Bowling | MindBridge: Making AI Accessible to Small Accounting Firms

Samantha Bowling | MindBridge: Making AI Accessible to Small Accounting Firms

Samantha Bowling | MindBridge: Making AI Accessible to Small Accounting Firms

Monday, 29th April 2019
Good episode? Give it some love!
Rate Episode

My guest today is Samantha Bowling, who's an Audit Partner at the accounting firm of Garbelman Winslow in Maryland and the current Chair of the Executive Board of the Maryland Association of CPAs.This episode is focused on public accounting, but it also has great implications to business and industry accounting professionals. So, I encourage anyone in accounting – or just interested in how AI is going to change the nature of work – to listen to the interview and decide how these technologies might affect your organization.Now, in March of 2016, artificial intelligence was introduced to the accounting profession when IBM and KPMG signed an agreement to bring Watson into KPMG's audit practice. At the time (and still, really), many of the small- to middle-sized firms speculated that this technology was too expensive for their practices.Samantha, however, saw an opportunity. She felt that if the larger firms had this advantage, how long would it be until they started taking clients? She turned that question into action, and 18 months after IBM and KPMG's announcement, Samantha was able to bring artificial intelligence into her audit practice at an affordable price.In fact, Samantha was awarded the Innovative Practitioner Award 2018 from CPA.com for her efforts – and it was well deserved!Now, if you're still a little skeptical or just curious, then start listening or keep reading and you'll learn how she did it.Small Firm, Big TechnologyFor context, Samantha’s firm only has about 15 employees, depending on the time of year. They do mostly everything that small firms do, except for government contracting, and she happens to be the audit partner at this firm.So when Samantha heard about KPMG introducing AI into their audit practice three years ago, she thought she was probably going to lose a lot of revenue if the large firms have Watson and her firm doesn’t have anything. “I'm not going to be able to do auditing anymore,” Samantha though. “[But] I really don't like tax. So, I have to find a solution."Samantha started by talking to her software providers, asking how they were implementing AI into her platform... and they said they weren't. They were only going to look into AI for the large firm platforms. She was a little discouraged, but she didn’t stop searching. Instead, she did what most of us do when we have a question: she Googled it.She just happened to come across a company called MindBridge, a Canadian startup company that was willing to work with her and let her try it out. Still, she was skeptical. She thought she can't afford the software, it’s probably not going to do what it says it's going to do; was she setting herself up for disappointment?Resources:Learn more at gwcpas.comCheck out MindBridge.aiTwitter: https://twitter.com/sbowlingcpaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-bowling-cpa-cgma-25531420

Show More

Unlock more with Podchaser Pro

  • Audience Insights
  • Contact Information
  • Demographics
  • Charts
  • Sponsor History
  • and More!
Pro Features