A friend of mine recently shared a story on LinkedIn that made me laugh.
They’d asked an AI agent whether they should walk or drive to a nearby car wash.
The AI advised them to walk.
It’s funny – but there’s a serious point hiding underneath it.
Even the most sophisticated AI tools don’t truly understand real life. They lack context, nuance, common sense, and any real grasp of how people and businesses actually operate.
Yet they deliver their answers with complete confidence.
So when an acquaintance recently told me – proudly – that he’d uploaded his business numbers into AI and asked it to analyse them, I felt genuinely concerned.
On the surface, it sounds clever. If AI can summarise meetings, write reports and answer complex questions, surely it can analyse a set of management accounts?
But financial analysis isn’t just about processing numbers. It’s about understanding the story behind them.
AI doesn’t know that one unusually profitable month came from a one-off contract. It doesn’t know that margins dipped because a key supplier raised prices, or that cash flow tightened because several large clients paid late at the same time.
And critically, the quality of the analysis depends entirely on the quality of the questions you ask and the information you give it. If finance isn’t your area of expertise, it’s easy to focus AI on the wrong things.
And it will draw misleading conclusions just as confidently as accurate ones.
That’s where the real danger lies.
Decisions based on flawed analysis can lead your business to cut costs in the wrong places, overestimate profitability, misjudge cash flow, or pursue growth that simply isn’t financially sustainable. Poor analysis doesn’t just create confusion — it creates expensive mistakes.
Now, I want to be clear: AI absolutely has a place in accounting. Used properly, it can streamline processes, speed up repetitive tasks, and improve how financial information is presented. That’s how we use it at Insight — and it genuinely benefits our clients.
But when it comes to interpreting financial information and helping business owners make important decisions, human expertise still matters enormously.
I recently heard someone describe AI as a bright but very inexperienced new intern. I thought that was spot on.
A good intern can save you huge amounts of time – with research, administration, first drafts, and presentation. But you wouldn’t hand them responsibility for major financial decisions without oversight, context, and experienced judgement.
That’s exactly where AI still is: an excellent assistant, but not a substitute for genuine financial expertise.
At Insight Associates, we work with ambitious companies turning over £1m+ to help them properly understand their numbers, make better decisions, maximise profitability, and grow sustainably.
Because while AI can help process information faster, real business growth comes from experienced people who can interpret the numbers, see the bigger picture, and guide you toward the right decisions with confidence.
If that’s something you’d like to explore, email garry@insightassociates.co.uk or call us on 01279 647 447 to arrange a no-obligation conversation with me or one of our specialists. We’d love to help.
Warmly,
Garry
