5 ways professionals leverage artificial intelligence to save time

How AI saves time for professionals

There’s no doubt that the use of AI is growing. Interest in the technology certainly is. Based on the responses of the professionals surveyed, 93% of professionals are excited about the potential benefits AI can bring, including efficiency gains, freed-up time, and direct ways to add value. In addition, the report predicts that 56% of their work will incorporate AI-powered tools in five years.

These professionals increasingly see that AI can provide them with several benefits — and that one of the biggest and most exciting of these benefits is how much time AI saves.

Why is extra time such a crucial benefit? In the Future of Professionals Report, 54% of respondents said that they don’t have enough time during their workdays to complete everything they’d like to achieve in their practice. They believe that the amount of time they’d save by adopting AI technology could be as much as four hours a week by next year and 12 hours a week in five years.

With its ability to pore through and analyze massive amounts of data, AI significantly reduces the time professionals need to spend on necessary but repetitive tasks such as drafting documents, conducting research, and reducing risks. And by automating a variety of standard processes, AI tools can help make workflows more efficient.

Two of the key benefits of AI – adding value and saving time — are two sides of the same coin.

5 ways to use your extra time

How might professionals use the extra time that AI technology could save them? In the report, 24% of those surveyed cited work-life balance, spending more time on hobbies, rest, and general well-being; and 10% said they’d use it for client work, client communications, or special projects. 

Here’s a look at five ways that professionals can use the extra time they gain by incorporating AI technology into their practices:

Personal well-being

In the report, 59% of professionals surveyed said that they want more work-life balance in their careers, and 38% are seeking improved mental health and wellbeing. The professions that these respondents practice in are highly rewarding, both financially and psychologically. But they're also highly stressful.

High stress levels can take their toll in numerous ways, including anxiety, depression, and burnout. AI technology has the capability of relieving many sources of stress due to worry and overwork. This, in turn, helps professionals pursue hobbies and other sources of relaxation — and even helps them achieve something as simple like getting enough sleep.

Client-focused activities

Building and maintaining client relationships are essential to the success of any business practice. By streamlining processes and other work, AI-powered tools can help professionals focus on ways to better serve their clients or organizations. For instance, it allows accounting professionals to devote more hours to providing higher-value services, such as business advisory work.

Business growth

Adding such services also leads to more business with potential clients or companies. The extra time that AI provides can allow these organizations to work on basic business-building blocking and tackling, such as marketing and strategic planning.

Operational improvement

With legal, risk, and tax professionals becoming more cognizant of AI tools and their capabilities, they see how this technology reshapes their workflows and thus boosts their efficiency and productivity. AI’s capabilities can provide new ways to improve processes and organize time.

About one-quarter of the professionals surveyed in the 2024 Generative AI in Professional Services report say that their organizations already use AI to update and streamline their workflows. Accounting firms, for instance, are starting to incorporate AI-powered software to help them address capacity challenges and limited resources.

Professional development

AI also provides opportunities for firms to develop talent and new skills that benefit both the firm and its clients. Professionals know very well that they need to continuously learn and upskill (for instance, learning how to successfully incorporate AI into their work).

Though many people worry that AI will cost them their jobs, it is more apparent that this technology will require them to work in new ways — and that those changes will be more beneficial than disruptive to their practices.

The current and future benefits of extra time

When used effectively and intentionally, AI-powered technology developed specifically for legal, tax, and risk practices empowers professionals by providing them with time to pursue innovative approaches and services, competitive advantages for their companies and clients, and more satisfying work lives.

To learn more about the current state of AI, the technology’s benefits such as extra time, and how its productivity benefits could impact the future of work for tax, legal, and risk professionals, download Thomson Reuters’ second annual Future of Professionals Report.