Executive summary
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.
A new starter has almost certainly used AI before.
Their first week is spent learning how the firm works, from the practice management system to the billing codes. AI can be part of that week too.
Take Sam, who is joining a firm after three years at another practice. Sam uses AI most days to summarise a long email chain or pull the deadlines out of a lease.
1The proposal letter
Along with AI, Sam brings the last firm's way of writing a proposal letter. In Sam's first few weeks at the new firm, a partner may hand back a draft with the fees set out differently, or point Sam to the firm's templates. Before long, Sam's letters read like the firm's.
Sam's AI habits came from the last firm in the same way: which tool to open, and what is fine to paste into it.
So which tool will Sam open to draft the first letter at the new firm?
2New starters and their own tools
The research shows plenty of people bring their own AI tools to work, so Sam may arrive with a familiar tool already in mind. Microsoft and LinkedIn's 2024 Work Trend Index, a survey of 31,000 people in 31 countries, found 78% of AI users were bringing their own AI tools to work. Of the people using AI at work, 39% had received AI training from their company.
International Ipsos research for Chartered Accountants Worldwide, reported by Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand in February 2026, found 92% of the chartered accountants surveyed want AI training, and 30% have received some.
For a firm hiring a few people a year, new starters like Sam can mean one team working with several tools, each picked by the person who brought it in.
AI Uplift Program
Know what to hand a new starter
The investigation finds out how your people use AI today and where your firm wants the lines to sit. You keep the findings either way.
3AI in the induction
What we tend to see is that a new starter learns most of the firm's habits from the person at the next desk.
If the chat that produced Sam's letter sits in Sam's own account, the method behind it may never be visible to the partner reviewing the draft or the rest of the team.
What goes on the AI page
A page in the induction pack, with a person from Sam's team to walk them through it, can cover five things.
The AI tools the firm has approved, and how to ask about a new one
What stays out of them, particularly client information
Who checks the output for the kind of work Sam will do, and at what point
Where the firm keeps its shared prompts
Who to go to with a question or an idea
Sam can try one of the firm's prompts during induction and see who reviews the work. A later check-in gives them somewhere to raise new tools, prompts or ideas they have picked up.
Working it out alone
- Uses the tools they brought with them
- Decides what is fine to paste in
- Checks work their own way
- Keeps good prompts in a personal chat history
- Shares new ideas when asked
Learning from the induction
- Uses the firm's approved tools from the first week
- Knows what stays out of them
- Knows who checks what, and when
- Starts from the firm's shared prompts
- Takes new ideas to a named person
4Where we come in
The page Sam reads, and the prompts it points to, come from the firm's own decisions about AI. Our investigation helps your firm make them.
It starts with a survey and interviews across the firm, and sessions with your partners. Your partners then get a draft AI use policy to finalise, and you can write the induction page from it.
The findings belong to your firm whether or not we go any further together.
If you would like to know what your new starters should be shown about AI, reach out to our team. The first conversation works out whether your firm is the right fit for the AI Uplift Program, and whether we are the right people to help.
AI in your induction
Frequently asked questions
What is AI onboarding?
Making AI part of how a firm inducts new starters: which tools the firm uses, what can go into them, who checks the output, where the shared prompts live and who to go to with a question.
Why include AI in an induction?
A new starter's first weeks are when they learn how the firm works. An induction page shows them the firm's way of using AI alongside everything else.
How do new starters learn how a firm uses AI?
Mostly from the people around them. A page in the induction gives every new starter the same starting point.
Who should take a new starter through the AI page?
A person in their team who uses the firm's AI tools for similar work, with a check-in after a month.
What if a new starter is already confident with AI?
Start by finding out what they can do. Then show them what the firm has decided, and give them a named person to take their ideas to.
About the author
Julia leads the investigation and is the author of the report presented to your leadership. Her background is in research, data analysis and business strategy.
Primary sources
Microsoft and LinkedIn, 2024 Work Trend Index: AI at work is here. Now comes the hard part, 8 May 2024microsoft.comChartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, Empowering CAs to lead with confidence in the age of AI, reporting Ipsos research via Chartered Accountants Worldwide, 23 February 2026charteredaccountantsanz.comThis article is general information about how firms organise their use of AI. It is not legal advice, and any policy drawn from it should be finalised by your firm.