As AI Product Manager at KPMG, Francesca Van der Byl CA is helping turn technological potential into practical tools that make auditors’ working lives easier. Her interest in technology began early, when she developed Excel workbooks to improve testing, before moving into data analytics. This enabled teams to examine entire populations of transactions rather than relying on samples.

“You get a more complete view of the data,” she explains. “And you can identify anomalies that might not have been visible through traditional sampling.”

Having experienced some of the frustrations of working in audit, Francesca understands the difference the right tools can make. “I’ve experienced some of the pain points myself and having seen first-hand where the frustrations and inefficiencies lie, I’m focused on developing tools that solve real problems for auditors.”

“Initially, Clara AI gave auditors secure access to generative AI, but now they can create their own AI agents to help with specific tasks and challenges”

Her own early experiments with ChatGPT revealed both AI’s promise and its ability to produce convincing but inaccurate information. “Some of the early hallucinations were obviously a big issue, but rather than being put off, I wanted to understand it better, so I began to experiment in order to understand its strengths and its limitations.”

Agents of change

Francesca explains that KPMG’s AI tools for auditors have progressed significantly. “One tool I have had involvement in is called KPMG Clara AI and it’s available to all KPMG auditors globally. Initially, Clara AI gave auditors secure access to generative AI, but now they can create their own AI agents to help with specific tasks and challenges.”

Flow-chart agents, for example, turn documented business processes into first-draft diagrams, helping auditors understand how an organisation operates. Francesca expects these capabilities to expand across the audit process over the next 12 months.

But innovation is about people as much as technology. Through hackathons and practical learning sessions, she helps colleagues build confidence and discover how AI can support their work.

Ethical adoption is equally important. “We all have a responsibility to approach AI ethically, including recognising and understanding its environmental impact,” she says. “KPMG’s Trusted AI framework builds sustainability into the development process, including choosing the right model for each task. Sometimes, a simpler approach can deliver the same result while using less energy.”

Francesca is excited to be part of a profession embracing new ideas and better ways of working. Her place among the CA Rising Stars was particularly rewarding.

“I was really honoured to be shortlisted,” she says. “The Oxo Tower [awards ceremony] event was a fantastic experience. It was great meeting the other finalists and hearing about the diverse and interesting work they’ve been doing across the profession.”

Clear talk

While Francesca is developing AI tools to transform audit, Andrew Kitson CA was simply looking for more efficient ways to get things done. “I’m not someone who’s incredibly tech-focused,” he admits. “It was more that I was looking at the work I was doing and thinking: ‘There must be a better way of doing this’.”

Now an Associate at The Scottish National Investment Bank, Andrew talks to businesses, learns about their operations and assesses their suitability for investment. AI helps him manage the information these conversations generate.

“You’re having all these different conversations one after another and you’re trying to remember everything, so in that respect AI has become an extra pair of hands,” he says. He uses tools to transcribe calls, extract key points and summarise discussions. Copilot also helps him prepare concise investment analysis and identify areas requiring closer attention.

“Building relationships requires more than good data. AI can help you prepare for a conversation, but it can’t have the discussion for you”

Andrew’s experience with AI began at Deloitte, where he worked in Glasgow and Edinburgh after studying accounting and finance at the University of Glasgow. He developed prompts for a platform auditing Level 3 investments – complex valuations involving significant assumptions and professional judgement – before qualifying in September 2025 and moving into his current role in September of this year.

Despite the benefits, Andrew is clear that AI can’t replace professional judgement. “You can’t just take the output and assume it’s correct,” he says. Nor can it replace human connections.

Human power

“Technology can’t replace the human element of a role. Building relationships and understanding businesses requires more than good data. AI can help you prepare for a conversation, but it can’t have the discussion for you.”

This people-first perspective informs his thinking about accountancy training. If AI takes over basic tasks traditionally assigned to trainees, the profession must find other ways to develop those fundamental skills.

Having delivered AI training himself, Andrew understands the value of exploring technology while drawing on professional experience. His inclusion in the CA Rising Stars top 35 was welcome recognition.

“I was honoured and privileged,” he says. “It felt great to see the hard work that I’d put in had been seen and appreciated on a wider level.”

Looking ahead, Andrew wants to continue his investment career, building on the transferable skills gained through his ICAS studies and professional training.

“My role is quite different from audit, and you don’t need to be an ICAS-qualified accountant to work in finance. But my studies and professional training gave me a really good set of transferable skills to take into the investment world. I’d like to continue pursuing that pathway but using AI to help with any efficiencies that I can see.”

The power of automation

For Youssef Hounat CA, accountancy and technology have become two sides of the same career: one provides an understanding of problems, the other the tools to solve them.

Youssef qualified in 2020 after beginning his career at EY in London, working with investment banking clients. In his final year, he split his time between audit and an internal product team developing digital tools.

“I became more interested in the technology side of things,” he says. “I worked on audits 50% of the time and I also worked as a product manager in an internal team where we were developing AI and robotic automation tools. Ultimately we were trying to improve the audit process to make people’s lives a bit easier.”

“It’s really fulfilling to think you changed the game a little bit. For me though, the greatest reward is making work less repetitive and more meaningful”

He saw how technology was making complicated processes easier to automate. “There’s this real technological inflection where lots of things that were very complicated and messy to automate were able to be automated by someone sitting behind a laptop.”

For Youssef, the key was understanding the problem rather than necessarily knowing how to write complex software. “You just need to clearly know the outcomes you want to deliver. Then you can have tools which support you in doing that.”

Specialist know-how

That combination of accountancy knowledge and product thinking became his niche. After EY, he joined DataSnipper, a technology company developing tools to automate repetitive audit tasks. During Covid, he travelled to Amsterdam to join the start-up as its first product hire.

“I knew it would benefit them having a CA on their team because they’d be able to understand the nuances of the industry.”

As a product manager, Youssef bridged the gap between technology and its users, turning auditors’ frustrations into practical digital products. He eventually became VP of Product, helping develop technology used by more than 500,000 auditors across 175 countries and credited with more than $1.4bn in productivity savings.

Yet Youssef is most interested in what those achievements mean for people doing the work. “The work I did was spoken about in Parliament and is used by governments and audit agencies around the world. It became industry standard and it’s really fulfilling to think you changed the game a little bit. For me though, the greatest reward is making work less repetitive and more meaningful.

“Taking something that was drudge work and being instrumental in developing an industry that means that work is less repetitive, that’s the change you want to see in the world.”

He has also seen how innovation can inspire progress across the profession. “Once people saw the success in innovating the audit profession, loads of other companies followed suit, and a real ecosystem has sprung up.”

Safe space

Today, Youssef is Senior Product Manager at Adyen, where he focuses on tackling financial crime. The global payments platform enables businesses to accept payments across markets, but its infrastructure can also be exploited by criminals. He is developing investigation tooling, which supports Adyen’s investigative responsibilities under the post-event transaction monitoring framework. This identifies suspicious activity and helps detect and mitigate risks including fraud, identity theft, account takeover and money laundering.

Looking ahead, he expects AI agents to eliminate much of the digital administration that consumes professionals’ time. “Any time you have to copy and paste information, flick through different menus or interfaces, or process lots of receipts and invoices, those bits of work are going to go away.”

Rather than seeing this as a threat, Youssef sees an opportunity for CAs to focus on where their expertise makes the greatest difference. His CA Rising Stars recognition offered another chance to celebrate those shaping the profession’s future.

“It was a brilliant evening celebrating the next generation of CAs, and genuinely exciting to meet so many talented people across the profession – from innovators in technology to changemakers, ethical leaders and community-focused CAs.”

For Youssef, that breadth of talent reflects a profession full of possibilities. “Accountancy is far broader, more creative and more impactful than the stereotypes suggest.”

Learn more about using AI and technology with a range of useful links