CLA working with Digits to develop proprietary AI model

Top 20 firm CliftonLarsonAllen announced it is working with AI-focused accounting platform Digits to develop and train its own proprietary AI model, which will be deployed across the firm, starting with its client accounting and advisory services practice. Digits will be an option within the firm’s CAAS service platforms for its clients.

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“This moment demands a clear point of view: AI should not belong only to the biggest companies and the biggest firms with the largest budgets,” said CLA CEO Jen Leary in a statement. “It should reach the people who power the heartbeat of the country, who create jobs, serve communities and move America forward. Most of the companies we evaluated had tacked AI onto decades-old software. Digits started over and built the right technological solution for the AI era. They are visionaries. They are bold. And they are built for where accounting is going. Together, we’re going to deliver on the promise of AI-native accounting. We want our clients to know: With Digits, we are putting financials in your pocket [and] advisors in your corner.”

While the foundation of this AI is Digits’ Firm Model offering, which was rolled out last year, Josh Engler, CLA’s chief outsourcing officer, said in an email that this effort is far more than implementing off-the-shelf technology. While Digits is providing the platform and the model-training infrastructure, CLA is providing the data drawn from decades of experience to shape the new model. The plan is for the two companies together to deploy CLA-trained AI to thousands of current and future clients over the next three years.

CLA will first be rolling this out to clients within the firm’s CAAS practice, offering it as an option within its CAAS service levels. While theoretically CLA could have built a platform like this itself, Engler said it was more important to identify the right platform and partner to accelerate its vision for clients. CLA selected Digits because it built its platform around AI from the start as opposed to adding AI features onto existing processes. 

“The opportunity for CLA is to focus our knowledge on where it creates the greatest value: training the model with decades of professional judgment, industry specialization and client experience rather than recreating foundational platform technology,” he said. 

CLA declined to discuss the financial terms of the collaboration, as well as specific platform architecture or infrastructure details. 

The announcement comes shortly after CLA announced it had acquired regional firm Perkins and Co., an accounting and advisory firm based in Portland, Oregon, that services privately held businesses and nonprofits across Oregon and Washington (see previous story.)

The deal expands CLA’s presence in the Pacific Northwest and adds 200 employees and nearly $50 million in revenue.