MY LIFE IN NUMBERS
Gaige Kinsella CA
AI & Intelligent Automation Strategist, EY
As the family pragmatist, Gaige Kinsella CA was drawn to accountancy’s disciplined pursuit of clear answers. Now he leads a team making sense of AI’s vast potential to reshape the future – for which he’s been named a CA Rising Star 2026. He talks tech, rugby and the joys of snowboarding
11
I grew up around Bolton. I was good at numbers as a kid, so my mum always wanted me to get a good education. I did the 11-plus exams for Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School, an amazing state grammar in the north-west. A shame it was an hour bus ride each day, but I loved my time there and the teachers were always so supportive. I do remember an odd story when I first started, that it had been designed by a prison architect – and it did always give Shawshank vibes.
11
I grew up around Bolton. I was good at numbers as a kid, so my mum always wanted me to get a good education. I did the 11-plus exams for Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School, an amazing state grammar in the north-west. A shame it was an hour bus ride each day, but I loved my time there and the teachers were always so supportive. I do remember an odd story when I first started, that it had been designed by a prison architect – and it did always give Shawshank vibes.
3
Growing up, it was just me and my older brother at first, and then our younger brother joined us a few years later. The three of us have always been close, but we’re all very different.
My older brother is a dancer turned video producer – incredibly creative and driven. He loves it, but everything’s done by the seat of his pants, whereas I was always more pragmatic and, like, “Is this really a good idea?” When I was about 10, we were sneaking out of Nana’s house, and he wanted to jump from this upstairs window. I said: “Let’s just go downstairs and go out through the door.” But he insisted it would be more fun if we jumped – and lo and behold, we fell through a garden bench.
My younger brother has taken a completely different path again. He studies business and management at Stirling University, but his whole world is golf. I’m incredibly proud of him – he’s played on the European golf tour over the past two years, playing off +1. I’ve already told him that if he goes pro he may need an accountant, like myself…
1
Growing up, it was just me and my older brother at first, and then our younger brother joined us a few years later. The three of us have always been close, but we’re all very different.
My older brother is a dancer turned video producer – incredibly creative and driven. He loves it, but everything’s done by the seat of his pants, whereas I was always more pragmatic and, like, “Is this really a good idea?” When I was about 10, we were sneaking out of Nana’s house, and he wanted to jump from this upstairs window. I said: “Let’s just go downstairs and go out through the door.” But he insisted it would be more fun if we jumped – and lo and behold, we fell through a garden bench.
My younger brother has taken a completely different path again. He studies business and management at Stirling University, but his whole world is golf. I’m incredibly proud of him – he’s played on the European golf tour over the past two years, playing off +1. I’ve already told him that if he goes pro he may need an accountant, like myself…
17
My mum was a nurse, then a clinical nurse, selling medical equipment. Now, after 20 years of that, she’s opening up a dog retreat. We’d always raised guide dogs – you look after them from the age of three months till about 15–18 months, when they’d go to be properly trained.
I was always surrounded by animals. We lived on a farm from when I was 12, and when we moved in we were left three horses and two donkeys to look after. Then we had five cats, three dogs, two guinea pigs and two albino gerbils – terrifying things with red eyes – making 17 in total in our little ‘zoo’.
17
My mum was a nurse, then a clinical nurse, selling medical equipment. Now, after 20 years of that, she’s opening up a dog retreat. We’d always raised guide dogs – you look after them from the age of three months till about 15–18 months, when they’d go to be properly trained.
I was always surrounded by animals. We lived on a farm from when I was 12, and when we moved in we were left three horses and two donkeys to look after. Then we had five cats, three dogs, two guinea pigs and two albino gerbils – terrifying things with red eyes – making 17 in total in our little ‘zoo’.
18
I love reading and I love English, but I just wasn’t very good at it. But numbers always made sense to me because you’re working towards an answer, there is an objective. So I loved maths. The bit I found difficult when I did my A-levels was that we went from numbers to imaginary numbers. It was interesting, but too theoretical. And that’s when I got into accounting. I thought that makes sense. So at 18 I went to the University of Durham to study accounting and finance.
18
I love reading and I love English, but I just wasn’t very good at it. But numbers always made sense to me because you’re working towards an answer, there is an objective. So I loved maths. The bit I found difficult when I did my A-levels was that we went from numbers to imaginary numbers. It was interesting, but too theoretical. And that’s when I got into accounting. I thought that makes sense. So at 18 I went to the University of Durham to study accounting and finance.
13
In 2013, while at university, I did an industrial placement at EY in Luton. I’d applied for a few of the other Big Four for a summer internship but hadn’t explored taking a year out of university. Luckily, an EY recruiter was a customer at the restaurant I was working in over summer. They explained what EY has to offer, what the career paths are, and it sounded great. I applied and it was all a bit of a whirlwind from there. I did about 16 months on the placement having extended it over summer, followed by six months as an EY ambassador and then came straight back to complete my ICAS training after university – 13 years later I’m still here.
2019
I qualified in 2018, then in 2019 spent four months in London where I worked in the digital transformation team, which is what I wanted. I was always very interested in computers, though I wasn’t one of those people who could code. But when I got to EY I was able to think, “If I could automate this thing, it would save me a lot of time. I know a computer can do it. I just don’t know how to do it personally.” Essentially I was looking for a way to do my job more easily, more effectively.
20
I played rugby from a young age. I was a larger child – portly, if you will – so rugby was an obvious sport for me. I played union – the right version, even though I’m from the heart of rugby league country! Then it became a massive part of my life from probably the age of 13 or 14 when I was playing for Rossendale as a prop forward and also working in the rugby club. I continued playing until I was around 23 and had a bad head injury, which knocked my confidence. But the Rossendale team were amazing – there was a group of about 20 of us and we were very close. I’m still in touch with most of them and two were my best men at my wedding.
20
I played rugby from a young age. I was a larger child – portly, if you will – so rugby was an obvious sport for me. I played union – the right version, even though I’m from the heart of rugby league country! Then it became a massive part of my life from probably the age of 13 or 14 when I was playing for Rossendale as a prop forward and also working in the rugby club. I continued playing until I was around 23 and had a bad head injury, which knocked my confidence. But the Rossendale team were amazing – there was a group of about 20 of us and we were very close. I’m still in touch with most of them and two were my best men at my wedding.
2
I knew I wanted to catch the wave with tech. In 2022 I began a two-year master’s at Bath, exploring the detection of generative AI in financial literature. ChatGPT-3 had just come out by the time I started, so it was good timing, because our curriculum was completely overhauled overnight. Instead of having to build systems, we had to learn algorithms and build them from scratch, whereas if you were using AI, they’d suggest pre-built ones. So it was a lot harder than I thought it would be, but it was amazing learning not only how AI works, but how humans interact with tech.
I hadn’t thought about it before, but we did a lot of work in human interaction with systems and what goes through people’s minds when they're using one – a bit of psychology, if you like. A lot of the studies in my thesis ended up being about detecting the use of AI in financial reporting and statutory accounts, which was very topical because at EY we were looking at how fraud is becoming easier to perpetrate using AI.
56
Back in 2019 there were just five of us, but I now manage a team of 56, which is a sub-team within the larger analytics team of about 200. Most of my work is in client transformation now, looking at how we can take out these really painful tasks that seem to consume a lot of people’s time, but add little value to the business. So one thing I’m always asking is: is AI the right tool? Are you trying to crack a walnut with a sledgehammer? AI is a great tool, but it’s not a finished product by any stretch of the imagination. I think these models are perceived as being a lot smarter than they are – a lot is being trained on old data, so it’s just regurgitating itself and becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. We need to be more critical and sceptical.
56
Back in 2019 there were just five of us, but I now manage a team of 56, which is a sub-team within the larger analytics team of about 200. Most of my work is in client transformation now, looking at how we can take out these really painful tasks that seem to consume a lot of people’s time, but add little value to the business. So one thing I’m always asking is: is AI the right tool? Are you trying to crack a walnut with a sledgehammer? AI is a great tool, but it’s not a finished product by any stretch of the imagination. I think these models are perceived as being a lot smarter than they are – a lot is being trained on old data, so it’s just regurgitating itself and becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. We need to be more critical and sceptical.
35
Being selected as one of the 35 CA Rising Stars 2026 in the Innovator in Technology category was wonderful. My colleague Amber was the first to spot the opening. She said, “You qualify for this, don’t you?” – which was unexpected because she thinks I’m ancient!
I know in the end quite a few people nominated me, and it’s humbling to think there are a lot of people who have valued what I’ve done in the past five years. For many of them, it’s their first job, so they’ve come without any knowledge of accounting into a technology role for accountants. And we’ve grown as a team, not just in numbers and spread – we’re now in every EY office in the country, bar Aberdeen – but in what we can do. I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved, and that a lot of them are now going on to be managers.
35
Being selected as one of the 35 CA Rising Stars 2026 in the Innovator in Technology category was wonderful. My colleague Amber was the first to spot the opening. She said, “You qualify for this, don’t you?” – which was unexpected because she thinks I’m ancient!
I know in the end quite a few people nominated me, and it’s humbling to think there are a lot of people who have valued what I’ve done in the past five years. For many of them, it’s their first job, so they’ve come without any knowledge of accounting into a technology role for accountants. And we’ve grown as a team, not just in numbers and spread – we’re now in every EY office in the country, bar Aberdeen – but in what we can do. I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved, and that a lot of them are now going on to be managers.
Gaige with now wife, Sarah, at his master’s graduation ceremony
Gaige with now wife, Sarah, at his master’s graduation ceremony
10
My wife Sarah and I met at Durham University. We were together for 10 years before we married last year. No kids yet – we wanted a year or so to ourselves after marriage to do whatever we want, like go on long holidays. So we’ve just booked for three weeks in the US and next year we’re hoping to go to China, which is a place I’ve always been fascinated with. So for now, we just have a cat, Gerard, which my wife will say is our little baby boy, much as I keep telling her not to.
15
We also plan to go to Japan. I’ve recently taken up snowboarding, which is apparently a bucket-list item there. I’ll go up a mountain and do some snowboarding, while my wife goes to watch karate, which she’s a massive fan of. There’s an indoor real-snow slope 15 minutes from our house. So I go there once a week and some of the kids are amazing. There’s just a pure lack of fear. I took it up because I wanted a sporting hobby and didn’t fancy golf. I’ll walk around with my brother, carrying his bag, but I’ve no interest in playing myself.
15
We also plan to go to Japan. I’ve recently taken up snowboarding, which is apparently a bucket-list item there. I’ll go up a mountain and do some snowboarding, while my wife goes to watch karate, which she’s a massive fan of. There’s an indoor real-snow slope 15 minutes from our house. So I go there once a week and some of the kids are amazing. There’s just a pure lack of fear. I took it up because I wanted a sporting hobby and didn’t fancy golf. I’ll walk around with my brother, carrying his bag, but I’ve no interest in playing myself.
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