UK accountants are using AI mainly for routine, high volume work: drafting and summarising, document capture, reconciliation and client contact. In a Wolters Kluwer survey of 100 UK accountants, 66% were already using AI. Across professional and business services as a whole, 43.4% of firms reported using AI in December 2025, up from 31.4% a year earlier.
Most of that use is behind the scenes. How clients reach the practice is a separate question, and it’s where this guide ends up.
How many UK accountants are using AI?
The most direct UK figure comes from Wolters Kluwer’s survey of 100 UK accountants, published in May 2025. It found 66% using AI within their firm or finance department, rising to 69% among accountants in practice. A further 25% weren’t using it yet but planned to, and 9% had no plans.
It’s a small sample, so read it as a direction rather than a census. The wider data points the same way. The government’s AI adoption plan for professional and business services reports 43.4% of firms in the sector using AI in December 2025, against 31.4% in December 2024.
Where are accountants using AI first?
Wolters Kluwer’s respondents reported using generative AI for drafting reports, summarising data and client communications (70%), machine learning for predictive analytics, fraud detection and risk assessment (54%), and automation for routine tasks (46%).
Day to day, that looks like what Xero’s guide to AI for accountants describes: bank reconciliation, document capture from receipts and invoices, report generation, anomaly detection and invoice creation.
All of it is work done inside the practice. None of it changes what a client experiences when they pick up the phone.
Where is the gap? How clients reach the practice
Client contact is shaped by deadlines. From 6 April 2026, sole traders and landlords with turnover above £50,000 must use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. HMRC said more than 864,000 people were affected by the first quarterly deadline on 7 August 2026. The next quarterly updates are due on 7 November 2026, 7 February 2027 and 7 May 2027.
More clients sending more updates, more often, means more calls and messages arriving at the practice. Every one that goes unanswered carries a cost. Around 85% of callers who reach voicemail never call back, and UK businesses collectively lose an estimated £30 billion a year to missed calls, an industry estimate rather than an official figure.
Clients are also ready for AI at the front door. EY’s 2026 AI Sentiment Index found that 35% of UK consumers had used AI for customer support in the past six months, and 59% valued the faster response times it gave them.
That’s the case for 24/7 AI call answering and AI live chat for your website. Routine questions get answered, messages get taken, appointments get booked, and anything needing advice goes to a person. We cover the build in detail on our AI receptionist for accountants page.
What does this look like in a quarterly update week?
Illustrative only, not a client result. Take a practice with 300 clients, around 80 of whom fall under Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. In the week of a quarterly deadline, 40 of them call or message with a question.
If a quarter of those go to voicemail or sit unread, that’s 10 enquiries waiting. Some are existing clients who need a reply. Some are prospects ringing round several practices, and they’ll book with whoever answers first.
The numbers will differ for your practice. Count the unanswered calls in your busiest deadline week, then multiply by what a new client is worth in first year fees.
What should a practice automate first?
Here’s the order we’d suggest for a practice. It’s our view, not a survey finding.
- Answer calls and chat. It’s the most visible task, the questions are routine and the result shows quickly in fewer missed enquiries.
- Onboard new clients. Collect details and documents the same way every time, without someone chasing each item.
- Then automate client communication such as deadline reminders, document requests and status updates, through workflow and CRM tools.
- Use AI for internal drafting and summarising, under your own review and data protection policies.
Starting at the front door has a practical advantage. You can measure it from day one, because you already know roughly how many calls go unanswered.
What changes for your team?
The day to day change is mostly about interruptions. When routine calls and chat questions are handled first time, your team stops breaking off client work to take a message or check the diary.
Each conversation arrives as a clear record: who called, what they needed and what happens next. Someone can pick it up in the morning without playing back a voicemail or chasing a colleague for context.
The advice calls still come to your people, which is where they add the most value. They just arrive with the details already captured.
What should you look for in a supplier?
The tool matters less than how it’s configured. When you compare suppliers, ask:
- Does it connect to the software you already use, whether that’s Xero, IRIS, Karbon or Bright?
- Is it set up around your services, your deadlines and your wording, or is it a generic script?
- What happens when a caller needs advice? There should be a clean handover to a person, with the details already captured.
- Can the supplier answer your questions on call recording notices, data location and contracts in writing?
- Who maintains it once it’s live, and how do you change it when your services or deadlines change?
What AI shouldn’t do in a practice
AI shouldn’t give tax or accounting advice, make judgement calls on unusual situations or handle a distressed client. A well configured system recognises the edge of its script and hands over to a person.
That boundary is the point. Routine work goes to the system, and your people spend their time on the work only they can do.
What are accountants worried about?
The same Wolters Kluwer survey recorded the concerns. 43% were worried about the accuracy of results, 42% about data security and privacy, and 41% about AI replacing accountants.
On jobs, ICAEW research reported by Accountancy Today in May 2026 found 68% of firms believed AI would reduce demand for certain early career accountants. 83% agreed that wouldn’t mean fewer roles overall.
Accuracy and data security are the two to plan for. Keep a person in the loop for anything involving advice, and check where client data goes before you commit to a supplier. The ICAEW’s guidance on AI and accountants is the place to start on the professional rules.
A practical way to start
Pick one client facing channel. Count how many calls and messages go unanswered in a typical fortnight. Put an AI receptionist or live chat on that channel for a month, then count again.
The before and after is your own data, and it’s more useful than any survey.
About the figures in this guide
Every figure in this guide comes from a published survey or an official source, and each one is linked. Where a sample is small or the data is dated, we say so. We haven’t included any figure we couldn’t trace back to its source, and we haven’t used any client results.
