Konvey Blog

Insights for Professional Services Firms

Guides and commentary on how AI actually gets used inside Australian and New Zealand professional service firms.

Three colleagues work at laptops in an open-plan office, each holding an umbrella indoors: a tiny cocktail umbrella, an ordinary black umbrella and a huge green and white golf umbrella.

What each Copilot licence covers

Copilot is Microsoft's AI assistant, and the name now covers several versions that can reach different things. This piece covers what Copilot is, how it spread through Microsoft 365, what each version can and can't do, how people tend to use it, what it can do in Outlook, PowerPoint and Excel, and how Copilot training can match those features to the work each team does.

20 October 202614 min read

Four office staff crouch behind a starting line taped on the office carpet: one set to sprint, one tying a shoelace, one reading a file and one looking around, while colleagues watch and laugh.

How ready is your firm

AI readiness describes how far along a firm is with AI. For this article, we assess it across six areas: the tools in use, the work they do, policy, training, systems and budget. This piece covers what AI readiness means, the figures on how ready people feel, the levels of an AI maturity model, and a self-assessment your firm can run on its own.

20 October 202610 min read

Four smiling colleagues in a modern office gather round a big cardboard box stamped AI, THIS WAY UP, as one of them cuts open the tape.

When the computers arrived

A practical look at AI change management for professional firms. Computers took years to settle into Australian businesses, and they paid off best alongside skilled people and reorganised work. We set out what that history suggests for AI, what success can look like for a team, and five small changes to start with.

20 October 20268 min read

Two stacked wire in-trays on a timber desk beside a closed laptop: the top tray, labelled SMALL STUFF, is empty, and the bottom tray, labelled BIG CALLS, is piled high with case files.

AI productivity

Is AI helping or hindering our decision fatigue?

Decision fatigue is the idea that each decision a person makes wears down the ones that follow. This piece covers what the research shows and what it does not, how AI changes the decisions people in professional firms make each day, and what a firm can do about the load.

13 October 20268 min read

A hand in a suit sleeve drops one more crumpled receipt into an overflowing cardboard shoebox with AI RECEIPTS scrawled on the side in black marker.

Reviewing your AI subscriptions to get the best returns

Much of what a firm pays for AI can arrive in small amounts: an upgraded plan, a top-up of credits, a tool claimed back on expenses. This piece looks at how that spending builds up, what recent research says about where it lands, and how a firm can review its AI subscriptions so it decides where the money goes.

30 September 20267 min read

A smiling young graduate in a navy suit opens the glass door of an accounting firm, below a sign reading Accountants and a NOW HIRING sign on the glass.

Will AI replace accountants?

Accountants are on Treasury's list of the occupations most exposed to AI, and many in the profession are wondering what that means for their own work. This piece covers what the Australian research says about AI and accounting work, the shortage of accountants and the demand for their work, where the risk sits for graduates and junior staff, and how a firm can train its juniors with AI as part of the program.

29 September 202610 min read

A hand lifts a brass key from a timber key board on an office wall, where four identical keys hang in a row from tags reading Reception, Accounts, Support and Partners, with an open-plan office behind.

Building AI skills across the firm

AI skills cover understanding what a tool is doing, using it well in your own work, and knowing when a person needs to check what it produces. This piece looks at what those skills are, why they matter in every role from the front desk to the partners, what people and firms are doing about them at the moment, and how a firm can work out what each role needs.

29 September 20269 min read

Four smiling colleagues of different ages sit side by side at a training table in a bright office, each with a white gym towel around their neck, a steel water bottle and a laptop, facing a presenter.

AI training for the whole firm

AI training is how people in a firm learn to use the AI tools and get better with them over time. This piece looks at what AI training covers, the levels it runs at, why the whole firm starts from the same place, where checking fits, and how to set up AI training that lasts.

29 September 202610 min read

A partner stands at a boardroom table presenting to colleagues, in front of a screen about understanding the firm's AI tools and leadership setting culture, governance and tone.

Leaders go first

AI for managers and partners starts with understanding what the firm's tools and people can do, so leaders can set the tone, the culture and the governance for AI. This piece looks at why AI belongs on the leadership agenda alongside cyber security, how a team takes its cue from its leaders, how decisions about AI get made, and what leaders need to know about the tools and their people.

29 September 202611 min read

A lawyer works alone at a desk late at night in a dark office, lit by a single desk lamp, with city lights through floor-to-ceiling windows behind and shelves of law books on the wall.

AI productivity

Burnout in law

Australian research now gives a detailed picture of lawyer burnout and the workplace conditions associated with it. We look at what the 2025 Victorian Lawyer Census found about workload and workplace conditions, how AI is changing the work lawyers need to check and supervise, and which parts of the working environment a firm can change.

28 September 202611 min read

An accountant sits at a desk late in a modern office with their head in their hands, surrounded by thick stacks of paper and several monitors showing spreadsheets and charts, with a server rack behind glass.

AI productivity

Burnout in accounting

Australia has its first industry-wide measure of wellbeing among accountants and bookkeepers, and it puts the profession below national benchmarks for mental health and wellbeing. This piece covers what burnout is, what the Australian evidence shows and where it runs thin, how the lodgment calendar shapes the load, what the research says about AI and workload, and what a practice can plan around its peaks.

28 September 202612 min read

An office whiteboard with Monday to Thursday listing tasks such as bank recs, BAS review and journals, and Friday empty except for Not required in red marker.

AI productivity

What to do with the time AI gives back

AI can give some time back to people in professional firms, and the four-day work week is one of the ways a firm could use it. This piece looks at what has happened to productivity and working hours since Keynes, what the four-day week trials found and where they fall short, what a shorter week means for firms that bill by time, and where a firm can look for that time across its whole team.

28 September 202613 min read

A senior partner in a navy suit and a client in a grey blazer laugh together over coffee at a meeting table in a sunlit office, his laptop closed beside him.

AI productivity

Value, time and productivity: what are we working for?

For more than a century, better technology meant a shorter working week. Since 1983 the standard hasn't moved. Here is what the last three industrial revolutions can teach firms about this one.

28 September 20269 min read

A cluttered desk seen from above: a laptop open to an AI assistant beside a half-written email, a stopped timer reading 18:47, headphones, a coffee, and stacks of paper and notebooks covered in handwritten sticky notes.

AI productivity

What a four-minute job costs

People in professional firms switch between tasks and screens throughout the day, and AI has added a new kind of switch. This piece looks at what the research on context switching says, why it matters for work that needs a clear head, what AI is doing to it, and how a firm can set AI up so the work stays in one place.

28 September 202610 min read

Four empty, coffee-stained mugs lined up beside a laptop on an office desk in the evening, while a smiling professional leans back in her chair behind them.

AI productivity

What counts as a productive day

Productivity means different things to an economist, a firm and the person doing the work. What the research says AI is doing to it, and how to measure it.

28 September 20267 min read

A man standing in front of a hand-drawn chart taped to a wall, showing lines running from Partners through IT, a practice lead and Risk down to Clients.

Who owns AI in your firm?

AI in a firm can end up with one person, who took it on out of interest. This piece looks at what that job involves, why its answers need the partners behind them, what the research says about partners and clients, and six decisions to take to a partners' meeting that give AI a home in the firm.

22 September 20267 min read

A smartphone on a rain-streaked office windowsill shows a bright sunny weather icon while heavy rain pours down the window over a grey city.

Why AI can sound confident when it's wrong

Large language models generate text by predicting likely next tokens from patterns in their training and in the material they are given. That process can produce a real reference or a plausible invented one in equally fluent language, and research finds the confidence in a model's wording is a poor guide to whether it is right. This piece explains where that confidence comes from, a practical way to judge which tasks need the most checking, and three habits that help a team decide what to check before work leaves the firm.

17 September 20269 min read

A hand holding a pen is about to sign a printed document on a timber desk, where three red flags reading SIGN HERE point to signature lines, beside a laptop and a cup of coffee.

Are you the human in the loop?

Human in the loop is the phrase firms reach for when they talk about checking AI. This piece looks at what the phrase means inside a firm, what the Supreme Court of New South Wales and the Tax Practitioners Board now expect, and how a firm can name where a person reads the work and who that person is.

15 September 20267 min read

A person with a pen marks up a printed AI-drafted financial performance summary, with notes saying "Be more specific" and "Start again", beside a laptop showing the same draft.

AI productivity

What is workslop?

Workslop is low-effort, AI-generated work that can look finished at a glance but leaves the person who receives it to do the thinking. This post covers the research on it, what Australian courts and regulators have said about unchecked AI output, and how a firm can decide which work AI drafts and how closely it is reviewed.

15 September 20269 min read

A woman in a grey blazer stands at the end of a long table of legal files, folders and laptops, watching junior colleagues work while one presents a diagram on a whiteboard in a high-rise office.

Will AI replace lawyers?

Will AI replace lawyers? So far, the Australian research gives little sign of lawyers being replaced. This post covers what AI is doing in legal work at the moment, what the evidence shows about lawyer jobs, capacity and the people leaving the profession, why junior lawyers need a firm's attention, and what a training program for juniors with AI built into it can look like.

9 September 202610 min read

Four colleagues talking around a meeting table, with symbols for a chat app, a browser, a transcription tool and an AI assistant glowing on the glass wall behind them.

Shadow AI: when everyone brings their own tools to the table

Staff at law and accounting firms are finding AI tools on their own, and many are doing good work with them. This piece looks at what shadow AI is, why it matters for both productivity and safety, and six steps a firm can take to bring it into view.

8 September 20267 min read

Two colleagues talking over a laptop at a kitchen table, its screen showing notes on structuring an AI working group, with handwritten pages spread across the table.

Building a Champion AI Team

Most firms already have AI champions. Almost none have a champion team. What forty people teaching themselves separately quietly costs a firm.

1 September 20269 min read

A smiling professional carrying a laptop walks through the glass front door of an office, which has a round red and white sticker reading BYO AI.

Shadow IT vs Shadow AI

Shadow IT and shadow AI start with the same instinct: a staff member finds a tool that helps with their work. This piece looks at how AI tools can reach a firm by a different route, what that means when staff build their own apps with AI, and four steps for bringing those tools into the open.

28 August 20265 min read

Over a person's shoulder, a monitor shows a legal time-entry form; an AI panel beside it suggests a duration of 0:18 with an Accept Suggestion button, and a thick stack of printed pages sits on the desk.

AI productivity

AI and the billable hour

AI is shrinking the time some professional work takes, and that raises new questions about the billable hour. This piece looks at what the research says about AI and billable hours in Australian firms, what regulators expect, whether six-minute units still make sense, and how a firm can start thinking about the value of its work as well as the time it took.

27 August 20269 min read

A shared document of saved prompts open on a screen, with several people able to reach it.

Managing your AI prompt library

People across professional firms have worked out prompts that give them good results, and those prompts tend to stay with the person who wrote them. This piece looks at what a prompt library is and how a firm can set one up.

27 August 20266 min read

A printed AI Policy checklist on a desk, ticking responsible use, data privacy, security, fairness and compliance, beside a laptop, coffee mug and notebook, with glowing AI governance icons floating above.

A policy that says yes

An AI policy sets out how people in a firm can use AI in their work, and an AI strategy names the work the firm wants AI to help with. This piece looks at what each one is, what regulators and professional bodies ask of firms, what the research says about people who are unsure what they are allowed to do, and how to write a draft policy that lets people use AI openly and with confidence.

24 August 202612 min read

A man in a suit walks out through glass doors into a sunlit street at the end of the day, his phone left lying on the office floor behind him.

AI productivity

AI and the right to disconnect

Australia's right to disconnect lets employees refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact outside their working hours, unless refusing is unreasonable. AI agents can now keep working through the night, so work can carry on after the people who set it going have stopped. We look at what the law says, how AI fits with it, and five decisions that help the people in a firm switch off at the end of the day.

19 August 202610 min read

A laptop on an office desk with a red and white name-tag sticker on its lid reading HELLO

Sorry, what's an agent?

A plain-English glossary of 20 entries on the AI terms that come up at work, from agent and hallucination to the .md and JSON files AI tools produce. Each entry says what the word means and where it shows up in a firm's work. The piece also looks at how familiar Australians are with the language of AI, and how a firm can keep a shared vocabulary of its own.

22 July 202611 min read

Four colleagues at a meeting table lean in to look at a tablet one of them is holding, one taking notes in a notebook, with a laptop and a cup on the table and a faint network of lines glowing on the wall behind them.

Building a Confident AI Team

Confidence with AI tends to sit unevenly across a firm, with a few people out in front and many more unsure where to start. This piece covers what the research says about how people feel about AI in the workplace, why uneven confidence matters for a firm, what a confident team looks like, and where that confidence comes from.

9 July 20269 min read

A large card reading SHOW AND TELL in bold letters stands on a boardroom table behind a neat row of laptops, phones, a tablet and earbuds, while two smiling colleagues look on.

Running your AI audit at your firm

An AI audit lists the AI already in use inside your firm: which tools, used by which people, on what work, and whether any of them hold client information. This piece covers what an AI audit is and how to run the basic version yourself.

30 June 20267 min read

A glass jar labelled SAVED TIME on a law firm desk, crammed so full of papers and sticky notes that its lid sits beside it, with a laptop and a colleague at work behind.

AI productivity

Working Smarter with AI, not just faster

AI is saving people in firms real time, and most are putting it straight back into other work. What the research says, and what to do with it.

23 June 20268 min read

Someone carrying a laptop with a yellow L-plate stuck to the lid, walking into an open-plan office on their first day.

Making AI training part of your onboarding

New starters often arrive having used AI at university or at another firm. This piece looks at what they bring with them, and how a page in the induction pack can show them how the firm uses AI.

24 February 20264 min read