iscoverAn award-winning professional has urged accountants to “move with the times” and stay ahead of incoming changes such as ESG requirements and the rapid AI evolution.
‘Opportunity of a lifetime’: Why accountants must stay ahead of the ESG and AI curve
31 July 2025
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9 minute read
To avoid being left behind in the accounting industry and its fast-paced transformation, accountants are relying on one another to stay ahead of the sustainability and technology curve to grow and enhance the profession.
Speaking on a recent Under the Hood podcast episode, Sarah Lawrance, Hot Toast founder and chief executive, said change was coming, opportunity was everywhere, and there was never a better time to become an accountant.
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“Change is coming and it’s time we start to engage with it and leverage it for the industry as a whole so no one is left behind,” she said.
“No more burying our heads in the sand as an industry, it’s time to acknowledge if your business model is built around the transactional, and if you don’t have a clear strategy on your value proposition, then you need to rethink it.”
Winning Thought Leader of the Year and the Accountants Daily Excellence Award at the Australian Accounting Awards in June, Lawrance said she wanted to continue to connect and immerse herself within the accounting community, helping others adapt their business models to make way for incoming changes.
Lawrance noted that accountants at the small business level needed to understand that sustainability requirements and AI were coming down the pipeline quickly, and now was the time to take measures to prepare efficiently and effectively.
Though there are no current sustainability regulations at the SME level, Lawarnce said this was something that should be adopted and leveraged as soon as possible to not only help the environment and broader sustainability goals, but to help clients and themselves when the time comes.
“Sustainability at the most basic level for accountants is looking into carbon accounting. Looking at what your emission factors are as a business, what do they look like and how can we all potentially move the needle for that?” she said.
“When we start to look at scope one, scope two and scope three, everything’s in the data, the financial data that we’re in all day, every day. But if we’re talking about advisory for accountants and how we give value to clients, and what that relationship is, sustainability just forms part of that.”
“So, sustainability, broadly, is social responsibility, environment and governance. We’re all over governance anyway, so we’re already really strong in that area. The environmental piece is something that we can definitely focus on, but we can use the data from a ledger to uplift that space as well.”
Lawrance added it may seem like a daunting task for some based on the significant admin workload many struggled with, yet it was important to have the conversation and utilise knowledge to be a better business with a greater impact.
On the technology side, Lawrance said she believed accountants were in the perfect position to leverage AI and leverage it in a way that made a stark difference to workflows.
“I think we’re about to see the biggest level of disruption in professional services in the next five to seven years that we’ve seen in its entirety. I think that it is going to be super disruptive, and I don’t say that to scare-monger, and I don’t say that as clickbait,” she said.
“We need to start now if we know there’s going to be a level of disruption. What are the conversations that need to be happening at an association level around training and education, to look towards the future so that we don’t get left behind?”
“It really is going to be the biggest opportunity of our lifetime. It’s also potentially going to be one of the biggest threats too, depending on how quickly we can move and adapt as an industry.”
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