AI Reality in Firms: Randy Nail | CEO: Hogan Taylor

Speaker A: Where is AI shaping or reshaping strategic direction for accounting firms?

Speaker B: For accounting firms or for Hogan Taylor? Rob?

Speaker A: Um, well, that's a good distinction.

Speaker B: Hogan Taylor is a top 100 firm headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We are a firm that does the traditional accounting services, audit, tax. The strategic imperative is that it's a tool. Was that November 23rd somewhere where ChatGPT became M an A? It is a tool that we are happy to evaluate with our culture that we can live our mission in a greater, more purposeful way. So AI is not the big scary monster out there waiting to take away everybody's jobs. That's not how we feel about it.

Speaker A: Which leadership decisions on AI do you feel will matter most?

Speaker B: Never in our history have we taken productivity gains and laid people off because of them. We've just redeployed resources. Strategy is changing quicker probably than ever because these tools are available to us now. Foreign.

Speaker A: This is AI reality. Inside Accounting Firms, a series here on Accounting Voices, where a select group of senior firm leaders and tech CEOs answer the same five questions related to AI based on what they're seeing, deciding and held accountable for inside their firms. Randy Nail is my special guest today. Randy, welcome to the show.

Speaker B: Thank you, Rob. Happy to be here.

Speaker A: We'll get into a quick intro in a minute, Randy, so the audience knows who you are. First of all, I honor, uh, our technology partners in this that are genuinely shaping how AI is being applied inside accounting firms. So field guide the AI native platform for audit and advisory firms instead, the first AI tax agent for end to end research, planning, filing and Defense Carbon, the global leader in AI powered practice management software digits the AI powered financial intelligence platform for accounting firms and filed the intelligent tax workspace for prep and review automation. Great companies, great tech, great partners for accounting firms. Randy, you may recognize a couple of names there because, uh, we might touch on technology. Listen, tell us briefly, briefly about you and your firm and then we'll get into the five questions.

Speaker B: Hogan Taylor, uh, is a top, uh, 100 firm headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which is where I physically am located. We have offices in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Northwest Arkansas, Little Rock, Arkansas, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We are a firm that does the traditional accounting services, audit, tax. We also have a lot of consulting fees with various business advisory services that we perform provide to our clients. We also have a wealth firm. So we think it's about the clients, Rob, and what the clients need in Oklahoma and Arkansas and now Louisiana. Uh, we try to provide to them. That's a little bit about who we are.

Speaker A: Nicely Done. Thank you. Randy, we're going to ask you the same five questions we're asking everyone in this strategic inquiry. So let's kick off. Where is AI, uh, shaping or reshaping strategic direction for accounting firms?

Speaker B: For accounting firms or for Hogan Taylor, Rob?

Speaker A: Well, that's a good distinction. Uh, why don't you go for Hogan Taylor? Because you're very progressive, fast growing firm, Randy, and perhaps you're doing a little bit better than most.

Speaker B: I don't know that we are, and I don't know that anybody really has their hands around, like, how the profession is doing. Maybe you do, Rob, because you talk to more of us than probably anybody else. But in Hogan Taylor, for us, uh, the strategic imperative is that it's a tool. And a tool has come into existence that before. What was that November 23rd somewhere where ChatGPT became a thing. It is a tool that we are happy to evaluate with our culture so that we can decide how it might change the client experience and the employee experience so that we can live our mission in a greater, more purposeful way. Now, I know that it's a lot of fancy words, but that's what we believe at Hogan Taylor. So AI is not this thing that's going to. It's going to make a lot of change. It's going to do a lot of good stuff. Uh, but it's not the big scary monster out there waiting to take away everybody's jobs. That's not how we feel about it. We're excited to use it as a tool that helps us with what we, again, believe is our client experience imperative and our employee experience imperative.

Speaker A: Yeah, it's nice to be taking it back to the people. I had this. The humans in the loop and the clients obviously are fundamental to that and your own staff, too, so that is refreshing. Question two, Randy. What are firms getting wrong about AI? Uh, you talk to a lot of your peers and leaders, you're probably in some senior executive groups and you talk about things. What are you hearing?

Speaker B: Well, I'll just speak off the top of my mind there, Rob, to the question. And I hope that I don't offend my friends because I love our profession and our love CEOs of all sizes of firms. And we as a profession cooperate and work together so very well. And I love that I'm fearful that there's fear in the profession about what is this thing and is it going to do something and am, uh, I missing out on something? And so therefore, we have made ourselves a little bit susceptible to the advertising and marketing in the world that basically says this thing is here and you need to be using it. Now, life is going to forever change and you're going to be left behind. There's some truth in some of the hype that's going on, but there's also a lot of hype. And at, uh, Hogan Taylor, we just believe that we approach everything from culture. From culture. AI has as a tool, a place for us to evaluate it, but we're not going to get caught up in all the hysteria. Large language models as we know them today are going to change the world. Well, they're certainly more powerful than they were a year ago, and they're getting more powerful. It's not sent in it yet. Right. It's not thinking for itself. It's not doing things for itself yet. So I think the profession is getting some of that wrong. Rob. There's too much over promising under delivering, and firms should take a healthy step back. We have a great profession, great firms, and we don't have have to have this spirit of fear that seems to be taking over in a lot of the world, not just the accounting profession. So we're trying hard at Hogan Taylor not to let that happen.

Speaker A: Yeah, well said. I interviewed Calvin Harris recently who's headed the New York state society for CPAs, and he very readily admitted that accounting has an image problem right now. He described AI as the new Excel. It's the new bright, shiny thing, but we still don't know whether it's a force for good or a force for evil. Interesting that you said it comes back to culture. Richard Koppelman, CEO of Apria, who you will know, he came on the show and answered the same five questions you did. And he drew it back to culture as well, because they're very strong on their culture value. So thank you for your candid answer about what firms might be getting wrong with A.I. and, uh, no names mentioned, so no shaming there. Randy, um, they know who they are. Question three for you. Which leadership decisions on AI do you feel will matter most over the next few years?

Speaker B: Well, it's what is it? And how to deploy it so it's strategic. In, uh, the major firms group, we sat through a conference and the AI Driven Leader, a book by Jeff woods, was the thesis really was for people like me to use a AI as a strategic thinking partner rather than just something that helps you with your email. And so using, uh, large language models as a strategic thinking partner in today's environment is something that I try to do with just How I use it personally for, you know, the direction of Hogan Taylor, it's a phenomenal tool. A lot of strategic development that just like resides in my brain, and I produce it. However I produce it gets really focused with the use of large language models, which has access to the everything ever written in mankind. So it's a powerful strategic thinking tool. Again, a tool, Rob, to help us with even how to think about what it is and how to use it to get back to the main thing, which is we have a mission to serve our clients and provide an employee experience so that we contribute to the greater good of mankind, where we are and where we've been assigned in the world. And so we're not afraid of it. It's a cultural thing for us. We want everybody to use it. We talk a lot about adaptability at Hogan Taylor this year, and adaptability is really the issue for us, is let's don't be afraid of it, let's explore it, let's play with it, let's learn it, let's use it. And I have said to my firm, Rob, uh, never in our history have we taken productivity gains and laid people off because of them. We've just redeployed resources. And these are people, these are our people, and we've done a lot to train them up. And, uh, so we're just going to retool ourselves with whatever AI is going to teach us about how to deliver services in the future.

Speaker A: And, uh, just as a ballpark, what's the headcount now, Randy?

Speaker B: At home In Taylor, about 425 people that we feed on a daily basis, Rob. So that's a lot of people. So that then you take their 2.5 family members and you know, we're absolutely. We have a significant payroll for sure.

Speaker A: But I can just imagine our audience saying, well, in a headcount, 400 people or more, so many people are racing ahead with AI and so many people are, uh, holding back or maybe intimidated by it. So question four is appropriate here. Let me ask you, it where is AI uh, creating the greatest internal tensions inside firms?

Speaker B: Well, if you buy too many of these tools which promise to do a lot of stuff, and you don't let them connect with the systems and you don't train your people on, especially data privacy, government policy, those things that make, uh, data precious in our profession, which our clients like, trust us to hold on to that. Well, if you find yourself buying tools and now all of a sudden, you know, it's got access to your system and it's training on your data and you didn't know that client information was out there. Some of those things in the rush to adopt and not get behind and to buy into some of the hype that I mentioned earlier, and I don't mean to overplay that, Rob, I think our profession is full of men and women who are way too smart for that. But some of that is happening. Then what happens is we've spent a lot of money and now we have a problem to fix and to clean up. Rather than just taking our step back and let's be methodical about our strategy and let's implement it and let's be a adaptable to change our strategy if it needs to change quickly, which is happening. Strategy is changing quicker probably than ever because these tools are available to us now.

Speaker A: Taking a step back is difficult when you're. You're in a rocket ship or a juggernaut that is just going forwards and forwards ever faster. But, um, thank you for that. I'm going to come to question five in a moment, Randy, but, uh, quickly, a thank you to instead and carbon and fuel guide filed and digits for the partnership on this series. Each of them plays a role in how firms are attempting to bridge the gap between what you called it, Randy, that AI ambition, and the operational reality. And I'm grateful for you and all of them in this conversation. So let's hit question five to finish off. Randy, by 20, 27, 28, what will separate the leading firms like Hogan Taylor from the rest?

Speaker B: Well, for me, that's going to come back to it's a cultural thing. And a cultural thing is you're going to find a firm full of people who are eager, excited, adaptable, willing to change, innovative, entrepreneurial in their spirit, because there's a culture that feeds into all of that, which means that whatever the tool is in front of them now, you have a professional ready to use it and deploy it, rather than a culture that has not really prepared itself for adaptability and innovation and change and those kinds of things. And now you just have a tool, you're not necessarily sure what to do with it. So I still think within 27 and 28, which is close enough for us to kind of guess at, right, Rob, we're still going to have these tools that are going to be fascinating and powerful, and we're going to do some, some really cool stuff with them. I don't know yet that they're going to be thinking for themselves. And when that happens, I think we'll have to have another conversation about what it all means. But within the next few years, those who are going to kind of separate themselves, they're going to embrace it, they're going to be bullish about it, and they're going to teach their people how to, how to have the right attitude and how to train on and to use it.

Speaker A: So many important points there. This is a high reality. Inside firms. Five questions, one lead, a 12 minutes, no script, no spin. You can find the full series on accounting voices across YouTube, LinkedIn in we're syndicated on CPA, trend lines, and all the major podcast platforms. Thank you so much, Randy Neil from Hogan Taylor, for your time, your candor, and for being part of this critical conversation. We appreciate it.

Speaker B: Thank you, Rob. Uh, it's been a pleasure. Thank you.