AI Training with Tact
In the movie Tropic Thunder, Robert Downey Junior’s character confidently states “I know who I am! I’m the dude playing a dude disguised as another dude”! At Tact, we believe that in the near future every accounting firm will essentially be “an AI firm operating as an advisory firm disguised as an accounting firm”. That’s why we’ve decided to “bet the farm on AI”! For the past three years we’ve been patiently building our technology stack and acquiring expertise in areas such as cloud computing, machine learning and AI. We still have a long way to go! However in this article I’d like to start sharing news around our ongoing AI research and development initiatives. In-order to do so, I need to tell you a short story about Abel.
Abel’s Accounting Dragons
Imagine there’s an entrepreneur named Abel who runs a car rental business in your neighborhood. At the moment Abel is facing a hefty tax penalty from the tax authorities due to not submitting his financial statements on time. Furthermore, Abel’s business is struggling to pay its bills and just got declined for a loan! At Tact we’d say that Abel and his business are facing several accounting dragons at once! Like many other entrepreneurs, the root cause of Abel’s problems stem from his business not having access to timely financial reports and advice. Let’s not be too hard on Abel though! His business is still small and can’t afford to hire a part-time bookkeeper or accounting firm. On the other hand, Abel doesn’t have the knowledge himself to do his own bookkeeping or prepare financial reports. So Abel is sort of between a rock and a hard place!
AI Powered Accounting
But what if AI could make a difference! At Tact we believe that AI is an important key to unlock financial value for entrepreneurs like Abel. Imagine we could give Abel access to an AI accounting app in the near future. Let’s say that this app is connected directly to Abel’s business bank account via Tactly (i.e. open banking solution for the Caribbean). Every day bank transactions from the previous day automatically show up in the app without any manual data entry. Furthermore, because this app is powered by AI, 90% of the bank transactions for Abel’s business are automatically categorised; e.g. rent expense, office supplies, telecommunication, utilities and so forth. Abel now has a clear overview and can keep score of where his money is going with simple to understand charts and graphs. The app goes the extra mile for Abel; giving him insights into spending trends and even determines whether his business will have sufficient cash for upcoming bills. Abel can also connect to a real-life accountant (yes we’ll still be needed!) who can advise on tax or other matters related to his business.

Training Custom AI Models
In-order to realise the above vision of AI powered accounting for our clients, Tact is currently conducting research and development to build custom AI models. We are building proprietary datasets and machine learning pipelines to create AI models that can perform a variety of bookkeeping, accounting and financial planning tasks; with a high level of accuracy and precision. These models will be developed to cater to businesses operating in the Caribbean and its diaspora. This is by far not an easy feat to achieve and there are challenges that we face (more about those in a future post)! However we believe that the benefits for Abel and other entrepreneurs like him are worth it. If our efforts prove to be successful (we’ll keep you posted on this), we believe that the models we develop can be used by other accounting firms, financial institutions, governments and developers to deliver better services and unlock financial value for the Caribbean region and beyond. I believe we can make this positive impact. After all, that’s why I started Tact.