Accountex 2025: The AI-powered future of accounting is here

The accounting profession isn’t inching forward—it’s shifting gears.

Accountex London 2025 made one thing clear: we’ve entered a new era.

Making Tax Digital is reshaping how accountancy practices work. AI is moving from curiosity to capability. And clients expect more than just basic accounting and bookkeeping services.

This isn’t simply about compliance or automation. It’s about redefining what it means to run a modern practice.

In this article, we highlight three big shifts showcased at Accountex that point to the new AI-powered future of accounting and what they mean for your accountancy or bookkeeping practice.

Here’s what we cover:

1. Making Tax Digital: From compliance to continuity

The message is clear: Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax is no longer on the horizon—the work for it is well underway.

HMRC’s Director of Making Tax Digital, Craig Ogilvie, confirmed the go-live date of April 2026 for all sole traders and landlords earning over £50,000 in self-employment or property income. But the focus wasn’t just on deadlines—it was on mindset.

Chris Downing, director for accountants and bookkeepers at Sage, drove the point home at Accountex: “This might be the last year you charge annually for a tax return. MTD is about continuous engagement.”

The key shift is behavioural. You need to move away from offering a service to your clients where you provide a once-a-year tax filing and towards real-time, ongoing collaboration.

This includes using cumulative quarterly updates—data nudges designed to improve record-keeping, surface liabilities earlier, and support more strategic advice.

Chris urged practices to act now. His playbook?

• Segment clients based on readiness
• Map out your plan to onboard them in waves
• Switch to monthly pricing models to support continuous service
• Test tools and workflows in the MTD for Income Tax pilot (there’s one for sole traders and landlords and one for accountants to sign up clients).

He also encouraged practices to make the most of software such as Sage for Accountants—especially segmentation tools, tagging, and automation—to manage the shift efficiently.

This is more than “surviving” MTD.

The new legislation and requirements can be used as a catalyst to build scalable, future-proof operations that free up time for higher-value work.

If your practice takes the lead on MTD for Income Tax early, not only will you reduce the chance of disruption, you’ll also gain a competitive edge.

2. Making Tax Digital is a client relationship reset button

Beyond compliance, MTD for Income Tax provides you with the opportunity to redefine how you support your clients—shifting from transactional services to trusted, year-round relationships.

Chris from Sage put it simply: “MTD isn’t really about tax. It’s about time.”

How you spend or save that time determines your ability to scale without burning out.

Filing tax returns 18 months after the fact is a bottleneck. It’s reactive. Under MTD for Income Tax, real-time collaboration becomes the norm—which means better conversations, more thoughtful decisions, and stronger client relationships.

Chris’s practical advice? Segment your client base:

• Ready now: already using cloud tools? Get them into the HMRC MTD for Income Tax public beta and refine your processes.
• Convertible: willing to move to using software with the proper support—educate and guide them.
• High-risk: the spreadsheet and shoebox crowd—either help them change or start tough conversations.

Sage for Accountants and Sage Copilot make this easier, helping practices automate categorisation, prompt follow-ups, and generate tasks with minimal input.

As one accountant said, “AI must be embedded in workflows—not something I bolt on.”

More importantly, trust and control remain central. Your clients trust you—and therefore, they’ll trust the technology you adopt, so long as you stay visibly involved.

MTD, then, isn’t just compliance reform. It’s a relationship reset button—away to serve better, build deeper trust, and work in a more human, less hectic way.

3. AI: Embedding intelligence in the workflow

Sage introduced Sage Copilot to the accounting world 12 months ago. At Accountex 2025, that story shifted—from potential to practice.

As Lisa Ewens, Sage product lead for small business, explained: “This is AI designed for real-world impact.”

More than 25,000 UK accountants, bookkeepers, and small businesses use Sage Copilot today.

Its growth reflects a broader shift in the industry: AI is no longer an idea to explore—it’s a capability to embed.

Supporting people, not replacing them

The core message? AI won’t replace your role as an accountant or bookkeeper. It will free you to focus on high-value work.

Sage Copilot handles the repetitive friction points: identifying late payers, flagging anomalies, nudging clients to upload documents, and automating onboarding workflows.

One standout feature? It sends client reminders automatically—no human follow-up needed.

It’s not just about efficiency. Trust is paramount

Lisa from Sage was clear: “We will never use AI in a way that erodes your trust—or your client’s.”

Three principles back that promise:

• Explainability: all AI outputs can be reviewed and understood.

• Security: client data remains private and protected.

• Control: humans stay in charge of every action and recommendation.

The focus is not just on automation, but on reclaiming time and reinvesting it in stronger client relationships.

Chris from Sage took the conversation even further.

In a standout session at Accountex, he reframed AI not as a future trend but as a present-day capability practices must actively plan for.

“AI won’t replace you,” he said. “But accountants who use AI will replace those who don’t.”

So, what do you need to be aware of when it comes to AI? Three things come to mind:

• Adoption remains low despite high awareness. While practices may have tried the likes of ChatGPT or Copilot tools, only a minority use them weekly or daily.

• Skills are the missing link. AI isn’t just an out-of-the-box tool, it’s a discipline that needs training and practice to get right. You need to develop your prompting, workflow design, and judgment skills to get the best and most tailored results.

• You need an AI strategy. This includes clear internal policies, team training, and client communication. If your clients ask about AI—and they will—you must be ready.

Where to start with AI

Chris broke down a practical approach:

• Start with a use case. Don’t try to “AI everything”. Pick one pain point, such as email summaries or bank reconciliation, and solve it.

• Educate your team. If you lock down AI tools without guidance, people will use them anyway—without context, risk policies, or standards.

• Segment your tools. Some AI tools are embedded (like Sage Copilot), while others (like ChatGPT) are standalone. Each requires different governance.

• Communicate with clients. If you’re using AI in your work, be transparent. Build trust around how you use it to enhance the service you offer your clients.

Final thoughts

Chris ended with a compelling vision:

“AI isn’t just time saved. It’s time reinvested in resilience, advisory services, and a better work-life balance.”

If your practice embraces these shifts early—from AI integration to MTD preparation—you’ll set the pace for a smarter, more human era of accounting.

Explore how you can experience the latest in AI and automation in your accounting software.