Hello everyone, Danny here. Welcome back to the AI Moment podcast. This is the first part of a new three-part series where Jonathan and I delve into the fascinating world of AI and its impact on the finance industry and small to medium-sized businesses.

In this first episode, we're joined by the brilliant Martin Spiller.

Martin's a man of many talents, having qualified as both a barrister and an accountant, and with a background as a successful serial entrepreneur. His latest venture is Oakmere Partners, which focuses on helping owner-managed businesses find new avenues for growth.

During our conversation, Martin provided some incredibly valuable insights. He highlighted that many businesses are already using AI without even realising it, through tools like Xero and QuickBooks. We also discussed how AI can be a massive opportunity for businesses, not a threat, by automating the "dull stuff" and freeing up a finance team's time to focus on strategic, value-add tasks. Martin shared his perspective on how AI can be a perfect "finance friend," empowering non-finance professionals to understand their numbers better without the fear of looking stupid.

The key takeaway for me is that the future of finance is a hybrid model. It's about using AI for grunt work, such as data analysis and forecasting, while ensuring human oversight remains in place to check for errors and to provide the strategic thinking a machine simply can't.

We covered a lot of ground in this first part, and I'm really excited for you to hear what's coming up in parts two and three. So, thanks for listening today. If you have any questions or want to learn more, please reach out via the show notes below. You can also subscribe to our newsletter for more important links and tools mentioned in this podcast. You can find all the details at aicoments.co.uk. See you next time!