Xero is facing criticism from accountants over a sponsored social media post, in which a British entrepreneur said she could save hundreds of dollars in accounting fees each month by connecting Xero to Claude instead.
The incident shows the tension between firms like Xero, which say AI should empower human accountants, and the professionals besieged by headlines saying AI could take their jobs entirely.
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Personal branding strategist Amelia Sordell this week shared an Instagram story claiming she had spent in excess of £120,000 ($225,100) on accountants since 2020.
Sordell said she recently connected her Xero accounting software to Claude, asking the AI platform to create a full management account spreadsheet.
That task was “something I used to spend £800 ($1,500) a month having an accountant do for me,” she said, in a post shared to her 77,000 followers.
Sordell disclosed the post was an ad, used the tags #xero and #xeropartner, and included a link offering discounted Xero access for six months.
The post was removed, but not before catching the attention of accountants, who took to LinkedIn to say it diminished the work they do for clients — and for Xero itself.
Finance professional and accounting consultant Laura McKenzie on Thursday said she had advocated for Xero for years.
But she said she would cease her relationship with Xero, calling the post the “final straw”.
Xero was “paying non-accountancy-based influencers to send out messages to the business community that, in my view, damage the profession,” McKenzie added.
“First of all, accountants are your biggest customers and advocates – why would you even consider harming their businesses in this way?” wrote business consultant Kate Gloudemans.
Damon Anderson, Xero UK’s former director of operations, went further.
In a blog post, he said Xero “always sold tools to professionals who did the work and owned the decision”.
But the post “spoke like something else: skip the professional, buy the outcome, here is a discount code”.
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In a statement provided to Anderson’s blog, Kate Hayward, Xero’s UK managing director, apologised for an ad which “does not reflect our values … and it should never have run.”
Hayward also addressed Xero’s own approach to AI, which has seen the business launch a suite of AI-enabled accounting and forecasting tools — while assuring human jobs are safe.
The executive likened the advent of AI to the arrival of cloud computing, a technology which did not make accountants obsolete, but freed up their time to focus on client-facing work.
“There’s real anxiety in the industry right now and it deserves real talk,” she added, while saying Xero is designing “for the accountant at the centre”.
In a statement provided to SmartCompany on Friday, Angad Soin, managing director AU+NZ and global chief strategy officer, reiterated Hayward’s comments.
The post was not written or approved by Xero itself, nor was it reviewed in accordance with its usual guidelines, which have now been upgraded, added Soin.
The post “contradicts everything we stand for,” he said, before reflecting on the accountants who feel “bypassed”:
Accountants and bookkeepers have always been and continue to be key partners, we have enormous respect for that community and we know the incredible impact they have on small businesses. When cash flow gets tight, or a business is weighing up whether it can afford another employee, the accountant or bookkeeper is their first call. A lot of businesses are still trading today because of the important work accountants and bookkeepers do.
The company is “committed to backing our partner community and getting our governance right so we never downplay the vital role advisors play,” he said.
Regarding AI, Soin said Xero sees the technology as a lever for “taking on the routine heavy lifting in the background so accountants and bookkeepers have the space to apply real expertise, exercise judgement, and spend more quality time advising their clients”.
Beyond the quickly deleted sponsored post, Xero has faced recent criticism from some users over its increasing subscription prices.
Chief executive Sukhinder Singh Cassidy last month defended those increases in the context of Xero’s new features, telling the Australian Financial Review those added fees amounted to the price of a cup of coffee.
