01/05/2026
It's National Productivity Week. As a cloud accounting software provider, we see finance leaders revisiting long-running automation programme and a rising interest in AI that can process invoices, automate reconciliations and generate reports within finance functions.
"National Productivity Week is a good opportunity for organisations to take a closer look at how efficiently work gets done. Smart automation delivered by AI is helping finance and accounting teams process invoices faster and automate reconciliations. Tasks like month-end report generation can be completed in a fraction of the time, reducing manual effort and freeing up capacity. On paper, it looks like a clear route to improved performance.
But speed alone doesn't dictate productivity. In finance teams, it comes from making better decisions, earlier - and that's where human judgement remains critical. Financial decisions are rarely driven solely by numbers. They are shaped by risk appetite, organisational priorities, and the wider context in which a business operates. These are not things you can automate away.
AI can surface insights, identify anomalies, and process vast amounts of data. But it cannot - and should not - take responsibility for the decisions that follow. Those judgements carry consequences, and teams cannot outsource accountability to a system.
As a result, the most productive teams won't necessarily be those that automate the most or rely heavily on AI. They'll be the ones that strike the right balance - combining the speed and efficiency of AI with human judgement and accountability. Ultimately, productivity is about making the right calls at the right time, with the right information to hand - not just maximising output," said Hugh Scantlebury, CEO and Founder, Aqilla.
