Why I Finally Stopped Fighting AI (And You Should Too)

For years, I wore my firm’s manual processes like a badge of honor. “We do things the old-fashioned way,” I’d tell clients. “Personal touch. Human expertise. No shortcuts.”

What I was really saying was: “I’m terrified of technology replacing what makes us special.”

That fear cost me — and my firm — dearly. While I was clinging to spreadsheets and manual reconciliations, our competitors were delivering insights in days that took us weeks. They were winning proposals not because they were smarter, but because they were faster. And their margins? Let’s just say they weren’t paying overtime for month-end closes anymore.

The wake-up call came during a client meeting last year. We were presenting our quarterly analysis — work that had taken our team two weeks to compile. The CEO interrupted halfway through: “This is great, but we already made these decisions based on real-time data from our other consultants. Do you have anything forward-looking?”

We didn’t. We were still looking in the rearview mirror while our client needed navigation for the road ahead.

That night, I finally admitted what I’d been avoiding: My resistance to AI wasn’t protecting our firm’s value. It was destroying it.

The Real Fear Behind the Resistance

Here’s what nobody tells you about adopting AI in a professional services firm: The technology is the easy part. The hard part is letting go of the identity you’ve built around doing things a certain way.

I’d spent 10 years building our reputation on meticulous, manual analysis. My team took pride in their Excel mastery. Our clients trusted us because they could see the human effort in every deliverable. How could I tell them we were going to let machines do that work?

But then I realized I was asking the wrong question. The right question was: What if AI freed us to do the work that actually matters?

The Night Everything Changed (Thanks to Suits)

I’ll never forget the moment I realized how much time we were wasting. It was a Sunday night, and I was settling in for my monthly ritual: spending 10+ hours building our financial close package. Board meeting was Tuesday. I had no choice.

As I opened Excel for what felt like the thousandth time, I decided to try something different. I’d been hearing about Claude from other Collective 54 members. “Just try it,” they said. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

So there I was, Suits rerun playing in the background (Harvey Specter would definitely use AI, right?), feeding our P&L and Balance Sheet into Claude and asking it to create a financial insights package.

Thirty minutes later — thirty minutes — I had a comprehensive month-end close package. Complete with:

• Variance analysis that would’ve taken me 3 hours alone
• Trend insights I usually spent another 2 hours calculating
• Commentary that actually made sense of the numbers
• Professional formatting that didn’t look like my usual Excel mess

I literally laughed out loud. Then I felt sick. How many Sunday nights had I sacrificed? How many insights had I missed because I was too tired after hours of manual work to actually think about what the numbers meant?

From 10 Hours to 10 Minutes

But here’s where it gets really interesting. That first Claude-powered close was just the beginning. I turned that initial output into a template. Now, every month, I just:

1. Download the P&L and Balance Sheet from our accounting package
2. Grab a handful of non-financial KPIs
3. Feed them into my Claude template
4. Get a complete HTML report in minutes

Minutes. Not hours. Not days. Minutes.

My Management Team and Board now get insights faster than ever. But more importantly, they get better insights because I actually have time to think about what the numbers mean instead of just compiling them.

The Multiplication Effect

Here’s what surprised me most: It wasn’t just about the time saved. It was about what that time unlocked.

When you’re not spending 10 hours on manual compilation, you can spend 2 hours on strategic analysis. When your board gets reports on day 3 instead of day 15, they can actually use them to make decisions. When you’re not dreading month-end, you can actually look forward to discovering what the numbers tell you.

Each hour saved doesn’t just give you an hour back — it multiplies into better decisions, deeper insights, and competitive advantages you didn’t know you were missing.

What This Means for Professional Services

After experiencing this transformation firsthand, here’s what I’ve learned:

Your expertise isn’t in the mechanics — it’s in the meaning. Any AI can compile numbers. Only you can explain why they matter to your specific business, in your specific market, with your specific strategy. That’s what clients pay for.

Speed is the new differentiator. When you can deliver insights while they’re still actionable, you become indispensable. It’s not about being fast for the sake of being fast — it’s about being fast enough to actually influence outcomes.

The human touch becomes more valuable, not less. Now that I’m not drowning in Excel, I can actually talk to my team about what the numbers mean. I can spot the story behind the data. I can ask the questions that no AI would think to ask.

The Competitive Reality Check

I used to think AI adoption was optional — a nice-to-have for firms that wanted to be “cutting edge.” Then I realized something sobering: While I was spending 10 hours on month-end close, my competitors were spending that time winning new clients.

The math is simple. If you’re spending 10 hours a month on work that could take 30 minutes, that’s 117 hours a year. That’s three full work weeks. What could you do with three extra weeks?

• Win 2-3 more clients?
• Develop a new service offering?
• Actually take a vacation without your laptop?

The firms that resist AI aren’t just inefficient — they’re giving their competitors a three-week head start every year.

Why Every Professional Services CEO Needs to Read This

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: If you’re still doing financial reporting the way you did five years ago, you’re already behind. But — and this is important — you’re not too late. Yet.

Based on what I’m seeing at Collective 54 meetups and in the market, you have a window. Maybe 18 months. Maybe less. The firms that move now will capture the advantages. The firms that wait will spend years trying to catch up.

Here’s my advice:

1. Start this week. Pick your most painful recurring task. Try Claude or another AI tool. Don’t overthink it.
2. Start with your own firm. Before you transform client delivery, transform your own operations. You’ll learn faster and risk less.
3. Build templates, not one-offs. The real power comes from reusable processes, not single wins.
4. Share the wins with your team. Show them how AI makes their jobs better, not obsolete. My team loves that I’m not stressed every month-end anymore.
5. Keep it simple. You don’t need complex implementations. I built my entire month-end solution with Claude and basic prompts. No coding. No IT department. Just questions and answers.

The Question That Matters

Six months ago, I was asking: “What if AI makes mistakes? What if it’s not as good as doing it manually? What if clients don’t trust it?”

Today, I ask different questions: “What insights am I missing while doing busywork? What opportunities am I losing while building reports? What life am I missing while working Sunday nights?”

The shift from the first set of questions to the second isn’t about technology. It’s about recognizing what actually creates value in professional services.

Hint: It’s not your ability to compile data. It’s your ability to understand what it means.

Your Move

I still remember that Sunday night, watching Harvey Specter win another case while I built my first AI-powered financial package. The show ended, and I was done too. For the first time in years, I actually watched the credits roll instead of rushing back to Excel.

That’s when I knew everything had changed.

You could spend tonight doing what you’ve always done. Or you could spend 30 minutes trying something new. One approach guarantees you’ll be doing the same thing next month. The other might just transform your firm.

The choice is yours. But if you’re waiting for permission to start, consider this your sign.

After all, Harvey Specter wouldn’t wait. And neither should you.