Generic AI tools can only get you 80% of the way 

Tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Copilot don’t know your firm’s approved clause library. They can’t verify a figure against your source data. They have no way of knowing which regulatory phrasing is required on page 12 of an audit report. 

That gap between “looks right” and “is right” is where they break down. And in professional services, it’s where the cost of getting it wrong is highest. Audit reports, tax filings, and engagement letters are signed off by people who carry personal liability for every word. 

“The partners signing off on those audit reports or the tax return, the liability is on them. It’s critically important that the quality is right and that they’re comfortable signing those papers. Because they’re the ones that are liable.” 

Chris Kavcsak

Regional President, Ascend 

That pressure only grows as AI moves toward agentic workflows, where it takes over full processes rather than just supporting them. 

“Right now, you have AI as an assistant. But we keep talking about agentic AI taking over full workflows, and the liability is still going to rest with the partner, with the lawyer actually signing off. Are you willing to put your license on the line without having the tooling for the quality checks?” 

Chris Kavcsak

Regional President, Ascend 

The “last mile” needs rules-based automation

The key is knowing when to use AI, and when to use something more reliable. Rules-based automation handles the parts that can’t vary: approved clauses, verified data, mandatory disclosures, and regulated phrasing that has to be exactly right every time. 

That combination of AI and rules-based controls is what closes the gap. It lets firms move fast on document creation without sacrificing the accuracy that professionals need to sign off with confidence. 

“LLM platforms like ChatGPT or Claude are really good at getting to 80%. Where Templafy drives that last mile of efficiency is in that final 20% of content creation, which is extremely hard.” 

Jean-Marc Chanoine

Chief Sales Officer, Templafy 

Research from MIT Sloan found that accountants using AI shifted 8.5% of their time away from manual data entry toward higher-value work, and closed their monthly books 7.5 days faster. But the firms seeing the biggest gains were the ones where experienced professionals stayed in control of the output. 

Define what “good” looks like first 

What does a good engagement letter look like? What does an audit report need to contain? What does approved language look like across teams? Without clarity on best practice, AI just automates inconsistency at scale.

“Within a firm there might be 15 chiefs with different opinions, and 20 partners with a whole different view on what the solution should do.” 

Jean-Marc Chanoine

Chief Sales Officer, Templafy 

This part’s important: the right technology partner helps you navigate that complexity. They don’t just hand over a platform. They work with your stakeholders, align people across practice areas, and make sure the solution fits how your firm actually operates. 

See how BDO Canada scaled consistency with Templafy. 

Clean your data before you deploy anything

As the saying goes: garbage in, garbage out.  

When client information, templates, approved content, and process logic are scattered across six different systems, AI has no reliable source of truth to work from. The output reflects the mess underneath it. 

“You can’t deploy an agent in a world with disaggregated data. Before you can deploy agentic AI, you have to have a source of truth when it comes to process.” 

Jean-Marc Chanoine

Chief Sales Officer, Templafy 

Getting data in order means consolidating systems, deciding which sources take precedence, and making sure everything AI touches is accurate, current, and approved. It’s unglamorous work. But it’s what separates firms that see real results from those still running pilots a year later.

“You don’t have an AI strategy if you don’t have a data strategy. You can’t just drag-and-drop AI into a firm when the data might be in six different systems. How do you stitch that together in a way that’s workable and effective?” 

Chris Kavcsak

Regional President, Ascend 

The biggest productivity drain is in the final document 

The hard thinking is done. The audit work is complete. The numbers are checked. And then someone still spends hours putting the final document together, formatting, restructuring, hunting for the right approved text to drop into page 27. 

That’s the bottleneck. And it’s where the most experienced people in the room are losing the most time. 

“A lot of the calculations have been done, the audit work has been done, the interviews have been done, and really some of the toughest parts are actually putting together the final output. Organizations that have Templafy, their employees’ lives are better because they have a solution that can eliminate moving boxes around in PowerPoint, or injecting a specific piece of text on page 27.” 

Jean-Marc Chanoine

Chief Sales Officer, Templafy 

That’s the value of platforms like Templafy, and why document automation has become the most immediate, most measurable AI deployment in professional services. 

Templafy’s AI document agent platform turns a prompt into a fully compliant, correctly formatted document, trained on your firm’s own rules, templates, and approved content, cutting out the manual assembly work between finished analysis and final deliverable.

Governed AI raises quality across the board 

When every document comes from a governed source of truth, quality goes up across the board.  

Junior team members produce work that matches senior standards. Review cycles get shorter. And senior staff get time back for the work that needs real human judgment: client relationships, strategic thinking, advisory work. 

“Even someone who wasn’t great at creating a presentation can now produce something that’s nearly perfect and exactly on brand. Yes, there’s a time saving, but what about the components that increase quality of life for employees? That’s a huge part of the ROI.” 

Jean-Marc Chanoine

Chief Sales Officer, Templafy 

“How do we enable our people to focus on the highest-value activities, the client service, the advisory, and actually give them a better quality of life? That’s the goal.” 

Chris Kavcsak

Regional President, Ascend 

Start narrow, then scale

The firms seeing the strongest results don’t try to fix everything at once. Start with workflows that are truly universal, like engagement letters. Every part of the business produces them, they follow a clear structure, and getting them right matters. Get that workflow right, prove the value, then build from there. 

“Firms are most successful when they tackle very well-defined problems within a subset of the population, instead of a monolith solution that’s supposed to solve everything.” 

Jean-Marc Chanoine

Chief Sales Officer, Templafy