AI immersion series for Practice

Event information

The AI immersion series is a practical, interactive live event designed to help professionals move beyond AI awareness and into real‑world application. Delivered in collaboration with Microsoft at Chartered Accountants Hall, the event explores how AI, particularly AI agents, can support and streamline common finance and business workflows.

Through live demonstrations and hands‑on workshops, attendees will have the opportunity to design and create their own Copilot agent, gaining practical insight into how agents can be applied responsibly to day‑to‑day finance activities. The session suits those who are already using Copilot at work and now want to build agents of their own. Access to Microsoft 365 Copilot on a paid, licensed account with the ability to create agents (the “Create Agent” function) and a laptop will be a prerequisite.

This session will be delivered with GenFinance.AI and facilitated by Truly-SMB.

Key benefits

• Build practical confidence in AI agents by understanding what they are, how they differ from chat tools, and where they can add value across finance and business workflows.
• Gain hands‑on experience through guided workshops where you’ll design and create your own Copilot agent, translating concepts into real‑world application.
• Identify responsible, high‑impact use cases for AI in your role, with insight into governance, good practice and how to take next steps after the event.
• Understand where Copilot Cowork fits alongside chat and agents, with a plain-English look at the cost, data residency and IT controls that firms are asking about.

Who should attend?

Practitioners who are already using Microsoft 365 Copilot day to day and want to move from prompting into building their own agents. The session is aimed primarily at mid-tier accountancy practices, whose teams and clients typically sit in the SME market. Find out how to build agents to do the following workflows:

• Accelerate Client onboarding: researching a prospective client to give your KYC process an accelerated start.
• Prepare Technical Accounting entries, such as aged receivables write-off, IFRS 15, IFRS 16. inventory obsolescence, with the double entry and the rationale behind them.
• Compute Tax compliance, such as CT Calculation, VAT treatment and recoverability.
• Research Market, competitor and industry research to understand a client and its risks.
• Produce Business valuation assessments, including methods such as DCF, earnings multiples with multi-scenario modelling.

Find out more information on our 'workshop activities' tab.

About the speakers

	Peter Beard ACA BFP, Founder and Director, GenFinance.AI Peter has over eight years of experience in finance and accounting. At Ernst & Young (EY), he managed a range of audits (including FTSE and EURO Stoxx 50-listed), contributing to EY's AI research and leading technology transformation projects. Peter was awarded twice by EY UK, for his "Significant contributions to innovation initiatives" and "Exceptional technical proficiency and quality commitment".
	Matt Kiernan, CTO - Truly SMB Matt is Chief Technical Officer at Truly SMB, a UK-based consultancy helping small and mid-sized businesses get real-world value from technology. With over 15 years’ experience delivering Microsoft Business Solutions, he specialises in AI, automation, agents, and modern business systems—working hands-on with businesses and their teams to turn technology into practical, impactful outcomes.
	Elliott Poulter, SMB AI Business Process Lead, Microsoft UKI Elliott leads SMB Sales at Microsoft UK, specialising in Business Applications. With a background in business change, cloud computing, workflow management. Elliott helps small and medium businesses streamline operations and drive growth using an AI first approach. He brings a practical, customer-first approach to digital transformation across the UK SMB sector.
	Event chair: Ian Pay, Head of Data Analytics & Tech, ICAEW Prior to joining ICAEW in March 2022, Ian worked for over 10 years at PwC in Data Analytics, specialising in External Audit and Data Acquisition and developing robust and automated ETL processes to support the firm’s award-winning Halo suite of applications. Ian also played an active role in the development and delivery of training courses, with digital upskilling being an area he is particularly passionate about. He has previously trained as a secondary school teacher and a musician.

CPD hours

ICAEW's Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Regulations require a minimum number of hours and an ethics requirement. Attending this event could contribute up to 7hr30mins of verifiable CPD, providing you can demonstrate that the content is relevant to your role.

A copy of the event booking confirmation email is accepted as evidence of verifiable CPD. Click here to use ICAEW’s self-assessment tool to help you work out how much CPD you will need to fulfil each year.

Costs

There is no charge for ICAEW members to attend this event.