AI at BDO
As Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to change the world we all live and work in, BDO remains focused on harnessing its potential to help make a meaningful difference for clients.
We are excited about the client opportunities that will come from our sustained investment in fostering a culture of leading AI adoption and expertise across our teams. While using AI to streamline day-to-day workflows and data management, we are also helping clients benefit from its true potential - through areas such as automatic forecasting and anomaly detection - to generate even more efficiencies, enable new insights and deliver higher quality outputs.
In doing this, we remain true to our BDO purpose – ‘people helping our people’. We see AI adding to what we do, not replacing it. All our work will always be overseen by real people who remain focused on meeting our clients’ wide range of needs. What’s more, our BDO New Zealand Responsible AI policy provides principles and risk management protocols that guide all our work.
BDO’s AI Governance Committee includes BDO Partners, the CEO and CIO, and provides oversight of our AI strategy, policy development, risk management, and stakeholder engagement.
The BDO New Zealand Responsible AI policy is designed to ensure confidence and trust in ethical management, data integrity and compliance. This policy emphasises avoiding harm and bias, adhering to legal standards, exercising human oversight, and committing to continuous learning about AI risks.
All our people are able to access tailored AI training and benefit from ongoing mentoring and guidance. They can all also draw on our specialist AI support for help with technical solutions, streamlining project execution and ensuring data integrity.
We require all AI systems to be safe, secure, and reliable, with clear accountability and human oversight. This is supported by monitoring AI systems and mandatory measures to manage bias and ensure data integrity. All our people are trained in our guiding principles and risk management protocols.
We use BDO approved AI tools only, verify outputs for accuracy, maintain transparency about AI assistance, and protect privacy. We apply rigorous testing to every AI agent, we ensure all data remains secure and we never use client materials in training our AI tools.
Our approved AI tools include Microsoft 365 Copilot, Studio and ChatGPT Business integrated with other accounting systems such as Xero and MYOB, for which we develop and test new solutions under the guidance of our BDO AI Programme Manager and overseen by our AI Governance Committee.
While the demand and range of AI needs among our clients all over New Zealand grows every day, we often find a key first step lies in establishing strong data foundations; making sure all your business data is clean, accurate, trusted and integrated within future-proofed platforms.
Whether you require a simple system enhancement or a full end-to-end digital transformation, our BDO Digital team can help create bespoke digital solutions to transform your understanding of your business, ultimately leading to better business decisions and scalable growth. Our information system strategies and roadmaps are fully integrated and include payroll and inventory solutions, sales and CRM, project management, forecasting and business intelligence, point of sale, and more.
With AI business tools evolving rapidly, there are growing opportunities to explore efficiencies and savings in your business – including your accounting, finance and other information systems. However, unfortunately information technology risk is also ever-increasing. As businesses rely further on artificial intelligence, automated processes, embedded system controls and outsourced technology solutions like the Cloud, the risk that something will threaten the security of your systems and data is real. Our BDO Risk Advisory team conducts reviews to assess the scope and magnitude of your information technology risks, and can advise on solutions to mitigate the risks identified. This includes helping you in a number of areas:
In leveraging AI, our focus is on finding the most effective ways to help you reach your goals, faster. It’s important to us that we not only help clients achieve measurable time savings and improved accuracy, but also make gains in using AI to identify and act on business opportunities or accelerate market growth faster and more effectively.
Whether you’re exploring use of AI tools in your business to support your accounting needs and business systems, or looking to understand how BDO is using AI in our work – your first port of all is your BDO adviser. We look forward to working with you in embracing the transformation AI is bringing – and best harnessing its capability in the areas that matter to you most.
