In an accounting firm, the hardest knowledge to share is judgment: when a return deserves planning, and when it needs a specialist's eye. That judgment usually sits with a few senior people.
BPM LLP, an accounting and tax firm of roughly 1,300 people, found a way to share it. Carolyn Cotter, Managing Director of Tax Operations, sums up the effect in a Microsoft customer story: "It lowers the barrier to asking the right questions."
What BPM LLP did
BPM licensed Microsoft 365 Copilot for everyone in the firm. Before scaling beyond pilots, it set an AI Acceptable Use Policy that colleagues read and acknowledged, plus guidance on approved and restricted tools, and partner Reply delivered role-based training.
In Tax, one agent helps teams evaluate a return against BPM's own planning frameworks, so staff who once waited until manager level now take a first pass at tax planning. A second agent works as a quality checkpoint. Built with clear criteria from subject-matter experts, it flags when work needs review by national tax or estate and trust specialists, creating a clear record of due diligence. Microsoft reports no figures for these agents.
What it already gives the business
BPM's specialists still make the calls. Their criteria now sit inside the agents the teams use, so junior staff learn earlier and specialists see the work that needs them.
The firm paired this with clear rules. Moe Asgharnia, Chief Information Officer, sets the standard in four words: "Mostly right is still wrong." For a smaller firm, the model to copy is the order of steps: policy first, then training, then agents built on written expert criteria.
The ExValu perspective, a hypothesis
Where a Company Brain could take it next
The checkpoint agent records when work goes to a specialist. A Company Brain could also capture why the specialist decided as they did, so the criteria improve with each review.
Over time, that would give a firm a history of its judgment calls that new partners and buyers can read. That is our hypothesis, built on a vendor story about a large firm.
What an owner and a buyer would look for
The owner can track how often junior staff take the first pass, how many files get escalated and how many escalations were needed.
A buyer looks for written review criteria, a record of escalations and an acknowledged AI use policy. Microsoft states the data is not used for training and is not retained; those are the vendor's statements, so confirm them for your own setup and client data.
The problem behind this case
Facing the same problem?
About this analysis
* The image is AI-generated and does not show BPM LLP staff. The facts and figures on this page come from the published source named below.
This is an independent ExValu analysis of a published case. Facts, figures and names are as reported in the source below, which our team checked on October 14, 2026. The ideas for next steps are our own perspective and make no claim about conditions inside BPM LLP. To request a correction or removal, write to [email protected].
Primary source: Vendor customer story, Microsoft, May 2026. Available at www.microsoft.com/en/customers/story/26531-bpm-microsoft-365-copilot.