„The transformation of the industry has begun – and Afileon will be right at the forefront“ - an interview with Christof Kurz, CTO at Afileon

The digital transformation does not stop at the tax consultancy industry. To be able to advise their clients both professionally and securely, law firms need a future-orientated technical mindset. Right from the outset, Afileon has consistently focused on standardisation, digitalisation and automation through artificial intelligence. The uniform and future-oriented technological infrastructure benefits all law firms in the network.  Despite all the excitement regarding the technical possibilities, the human factor continues to play a key part.

In an interview, Christof Kurz, CTO at Afileon, explains how the network is using the opportunities offered by digitalisation to further boost the quality of advisory services, as well as client loyalty and employee satisfaction.

Afileon is keen to become a pioneer in the digitalisation of the tax consultancy industry. What is your vision for this area?

Tax consultancy – just like many other industries – is set to change significantly as a result of artificial intelligence. Whether law firm management, bookkeeping or tax declarations – in the near future, AI assistants will be able to perform standard tasks just as well as humans.

In times of skills shortages, mandate rejection, full workloads and a perceived overload of the entire workforce, those who utilise the benefits of AI for themselves significantly increase their processing speed, can take on more clients and at the same time increase employee satisfaction within their own firm.

What sets Afileon apart from other law firm groups or networks in terms of digitalisation?

DATEV is the undisputed standard in the German tax consultancy environment. Accordingly, the technical digitalisation approaches between law firm groups only differ in terms of the detail. The real difference lies in the consistent utilisation of the technical possibilities already available today.

The Afileon Group exclusively comprises highly successful law firms managed by entrepreneurial professionals. What characterises us is our shared spirit of bringing together digital best practice processes, including the tools used at the law firms, learning from each other and then consistently rolling out the best tools and processes throughout the Group.

What challenges do you see in the digitalisation of the tax consultancy industry and how do you intend to overcome these?

Digitalisation is not an end in itself, or to put it another way: digital garbage is still garbage. So the crucial step of standardisation always comes before digitalisation. Work processes must first be standardised before they can be digitalised and then ultimately automated in a third step.

When standardising and digitalising processes at a tax consultancy firm, not only the firm's own employees but also the clients need to be convinced of the benefits for them – and of course they also need to play along. This is currently the greatest challenge. In our environment, well-argued advisory services are therefore even more important than the theoretical technical possibilities. We see this as a competitive advantage in the Afileon Group, since our partner law firms are characterised by high consulting quality and very trusting client relationships.

What part does AI play in Afileon's digitalisation plans?

AI is paramount for us. Everything that is standardised and digitalised in the process can be automated with AI assistants to a level of quality that was simply unimaginable just a few years ago. DATEV is developing secure assistants here in its AI workshop, but there are also other approaches in the areas of chatbots and robotic process automation that we are currently examining.

Are there any training courses or support measures for law firms that can help them successfully implement the digital transformation?

With the Afileon Digital HUB, we have a separate unit at our service company that focuses holistically on the topics of standardisation, digitalisation and automation. The key task of this Hub is to ensure that the most important asset a tax consultancy firm has – namely its employees – take the journey together, not only in terms of content but also emotionally. The transformation of the industry has begun – and Afileon will be right at the forefront.