Roundtable 1: Do not automate the mess
Our starting point is deliberately fundamental:
Are firms at risk of automating processes that should not exist in the first place?
Professional services firms inevitably accumulate processes over time. Some genuinely support client service and good management. Others reflect historic structures, individual preferences or ways of working that have simply never been challenged. Workarounds become normal, duplication becomes embedded and activity continues because “that is how we have always done it”.
AI can accelerate these processes. But acceleration is not the same as improvement.
Chaired by Richard Chaplin, this will be a candid peer discussion among CEOs and Managing Partners examining questions including:
- – Which processes genuinely create value for clients and the firm?
- – Which should be removed rather than automated?
- – Where are partners and teams creating workarounds because formal processes no longer work?
- – What needs to be simplified or standardised before AI is introduced?
- – Where would clearer process ownership or playbooks reduce unnecessary dependency on individuals?
- – Which activities can safely be automated, and where must judgement, relationships and professional discretion remain central?
The discussion is not about particular AI tools. It is about the leadership choices and operational discipline required to use AI well.
This roundtable begins a broader Forum exploration of what it means to lead a professional services firm in the age of AI. Subsequent conversations will examine the economics and governance of AI adoption and where human judgement should sit as systems become more autonomous, before we bring these threads together at our March conference.
We hope you will join Richard and a small group of fellow firm leaders to contribute your perspective to the discussion.
