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Your team is already using AI. The question is whether you know where, on whose account, and with whose data.

Most firms have gone from 'we're not touching it' to 'half the team has a ChatGPT tab open' in under a year, and the policy side has not caught up.

Client data is being used in some cases and notetakers are joining client calls. Accounting software vendors are switching AI features on by default, and you probably aren't even aware. Meanwhile nobody has checked whether the firm's professional indemnity cover responds to an error caused by AI, or whether the engagement letter says anything about AI use at all.

This session gives you the answers. Not a warning to avoid AI, and not a sales pitch for it. Billie will show you exactly where your data goes in the main tools, what the ICO and your professional body expect of you, and what to do about the AI use already happening in your firm without your knowledge. There is a live walkthrough of settings so you can see it for yourself.

You will leave with questions to ask your vendors for your next software adoption. Firms who get this right are able to say yes to AI with confidence. Firms who ignore it are carrying a risk they cannot see and have not yet priced.

In this session Billie Mcloughlin will cover the following topics:

• What AI security means for a firm. Four separate worries hide under one phrase: data privacy, accuracy, regulatory compliance and client trust. Most firms only worry about one and leave the other three wide open.
• Where your data goes. Consumer versus business plans, training data settings, data residency and retention periods. Live walkthrough of the real settings in the AI tools you use so you can check your own firm afterwards.
• The risk you cannot see. Where to look to find out what everyone is really using, including personal accounts on work devices, notetakers on client calls and browser extensions nobody approved.
• When AI gets it wrong, who carries it. Hallucinated tax positions, human review that stands up to scrutiny, audit trail, what your PII insurer needs to know, engagement letter wording and what to say when a client asks whether you use AI.
• The firm AI security checklist. Data classification, vendor due diligence, staff training, and what to do if something does go wrong.

By attending this session, you will:

• Understand where your data goes in the main AI tools, and be able to check and change those settings in your own firm the same day
• Be able to call out unapproved AI use across your team and know how to bring it under control
• Know what the ICO, your professional body and your insurer expect from a firm using AI, and where your current position falls short
• Have clear wording for engagement letters and for the conversation with a client who asks about AI
• Leave with a security checklist to work through with your partners, and know which points to fix first

Course level: Foundation / Intermediate