Posted by Narene Nicolas
Dec 19, 2025
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Being in the finance and accounting industry, D&V Philippines has always understood the need to stay on top of the latest trends relevant to the industry. Our commitment to adapting to our industry’s continuous changes allows us to provide the best quality finance and accounting services for our clients.
In recent years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become more of an emerging technology to an expected integrated tool in finance and accounting. With AI, clients can expect accurate financial reports, cleaner data and deeper insights – all of which D&V Philippines are committed to provide as it upholds its high standard of service delivery.
As the company scaled its operations, the management recognized the growing gap between traditional manual processes and the enhanced level of efficiency we provide our global clients – both in providing finance and accounting services and in our back-end processes as well.
Because of this, it became clear that to stay competitive and continue delivering support at the level that we are known for, we need to evolve.
How do we do this? By building a sustainable AI integration map for the company.
Knowing that AI integration is not a sudden change, D&V Philippines chose a deliberate and responsible strategy, backed by sustainable adoption, strong governance with process refinement at every stage, and team-wide readiness.
We understand that AI integration should not be rushed – especially in fields such as ours that handle sensitive financial information and are required to be compliant with regulatory requirements in different localities. With this, AI integration, spearheaded by the Chief Technology Officer alongside the I.T department and backed by and widely supported by D&V Philippines’ management began.
Adopting the Right Mindset
Knowing that proper integration can only happen if everyone within an organization is on the same page, the management team first had to establish the right mindset.
In this regard, our CEO became one of the strongest advocates of responsible AI adoption. As a seasoned accountant, he has seen how firms who gamely adapt to the latest in accounting trends and technologies were able to keep their processes evergreen and their position competitive within the market.
Vying for responsible AI adoption, one thing that was made clear from the start is that D&V Philippines’ outlook on AI should be that it will be treated as a partner and a resourceful tool for our people rather than a disruptive force – especially as the company values our workforce as its most important asset, being the primary drivers of our quality services and service delivery processes. With the support from both the CEO and the management team, departments within the company shifted their view of AI.
It cannot be denied that one of the most common sources of resistance when it comes to AI is employee fear. Across many industries, employees worry that AI has the capability to replace their roles. At D&V Philippines, we tackled this hesitation directly, making it clear that we are designing systems where humans and AI work together, complementing one another’s strengths.
Establishing AI Governance and Policy
To embody this completely, the IT department – in collaboration with the management team and Quality Assurance Department, are currently designing the D&V Philippines’ AI Policy, which ensures:
- Ethical and responsible AI usage.
- Protection of client confidentiality.
- Compliance with relevant regulations.
- Clear documentation and auditability of AI processes.
This not only assures our employees and supports the collaborative culture that we continue to build but also provide our clients with security and peace of mind as they are assured that their data will remain confidential, secure, and protected as we continue to adopt AI into our internal processes.
Read: How IT-Driven Solutions Enhance the Employee Experience at D&V Philippines
Knowing What to Prioritize
Rather than adopting an immediate widespread AI integration strategy, D&V Philippines aims to handle its integration efforts while considering its long-term sustainability and value.
Understanding this, the CTO alongside the IT department focused on first automating the company’s internal processes – ensuring that we lay the foundation by creating an internal knowledge base along with clear and accurate data sets to make sure AI models that D&V Philippines plan to launch are properly train.
This decision did not come lightly as the company determined which to prioritize first, how it fits into existing workflows, and whether or not it supports our people. This governance-driven approach sets D&V Philippines apart from companies that rushed into its AI integration efforts without properly preparing their systems, building their data or training their teams.
The goal for our AI roadmap is sustainability, with the root of the initiative aligning with our commitment to provide employees with all the resources for them to do their job to the best of their ability while also providing our clients the best of what the industry can offer.
With this, our mindset is slow, steady, and strategic – a pace that ensures every step strengthens the company and safeguards our stakeholders.
Laying the Foundation
While the potential of AI is indeed immense, it is only as good as its foundation. Our IT department recognizes that AI integration cannot operate effectively and add value to the company without strong internal systems and clean, well-structured data. In fact, many organizations often fail in their AI adoption efforts because their AI tools and programs are deployed before their internal processes are mature enough to support that. To prevent this, D&V Philippines spent years building the foundation first.
Our first step? Optimizing and automating our internal processes.
Automating Internal Processes
Before AI can handle advanced work that would allow us to provide an added value level of support for our clients, we had to first standardize the routine and repetitive tasks within the company. Our IT team worked on streamlining workflows, reducing manual errors, and creating processes that are consistent, trackable, and relevant.
Partnering with other internal departments such as human resources, sales, marketing, and communications, and quality assurance, they were able to make improvements in areas such as:
- HR onboarding and offboarding
- Payroll-related processes
- Documentation flows and approvals
- Internal data management routines
These automated systems benefitted the company in two ways: reducing the administrative burden on employees and allowing them to focus on other value-adding tasks that take more of a strategic hat, while also helping the company generate a coherent data environment – an essential step for training and supporting future AI models that the company will use.
The company's automation projects were not just about speeding up its internal processes; it was about cleaning and organizing the foundation upon which AI could eventually be built.
Creating a Strong Internal Knowledge Base
To help with knowledge-sharing and in preparing the company’s infrastructure for AI adoption, the IT department also developed and launched AskDV in 2023 – an internal knowledge base that consolidates valuable company information, guidelines, workflows, templates, and other key internal resources into one centralized database. With it being a chatbot feature, employees are able to access all of this immediately, increasing data transparency within the company.
How does it help our AI integration efforts? By centralizing essential data and implementing structured categorization, we were able to strengthen our organizational memory for AI training.
This knowledge base also serves as an early model and case study for the company of how AI can assist the day-to-day work of our employees. Employees can easily interact with AI-driven retrieval systems with AskDV, reinforcing digital familiarity, and reducing resistance to future AI tools. AskDV became an internal training tool as much as an information platform.
Building Our Data
Knowing that AI is only as useful as the information it relies on, D&V Philippines has and continues to devote a significant time into refined gout internal data structures, standardizing documentation processes and integration information across departments.
Through the initiative of our Quality Assurance Department, we now have a centralized document center for all working internal processes. This successfully:
- Consolidating scattered data sources
- Reducing redundancy
- Improving data accuracy and validation checks
- Creating clear data ownership and accountability
By prioritizing this early on, we avoided one of the biggest barriers to successful AI adoption.
Financial Preparedness
AI integration – especially if company-wide, is a substantial investment. Knowing this, D&V Philippines created a well-planned budget approach. Instead of shelling out a large amount upfront, we allocate resources gradually, evaluating the results of each stage before moving on to the next project.
With our priority being sustainability over speed, we were able to minimize the risk for the company, investing only in tools and processes that aligned with our long-term strategy. This protects the company from overspending while allowing us to focus on value-adding integrations rather than trend-driven purchases.
Building an AI-Ready Team
Within our IT department, continuous AI training and preparation through the help of Microsoft-led training sessions allowed us to strengthen our AI readiness. Currently, members of the IT Department are taking or have taken certifications in Power Automate, Copilot Proficiency, and external knowledge-sharing workshops to strengthen their AI literacy.
However, we understand that training should not only be limited within our IT Department. Given that we are aiming for company-wide AI adoption, it is only natural that it will affect all departments — from Operations and Client Services to HR, Finance, and Sales and Marketing. Because of this, the IT department has launched an AI-focused training track to orient the employees on AI’s capability to help with their daily capacities, helping them confidently with AI-related systems.
Beyond technical skills, we also go back to the first step of our AI integration roadmap: adopting the right mindset. With the help of our management, we encourage our teams to stay open to innovation – both for the benefit of the company and for their own professional development – and to readily learn about emerging technologies. This culture ensures that our employees are ready and able to handle widespread AI integration as the company prepares for it in the future.
Promoting an Adaptive Company Culture
Beyond technical skills, adaptability is essential. We encourage teams to embrace innovation and to stay curious about emerging technologies. Managers play an active role in reinforcing the message that AI will support their work, not replace their roles. This cultural shift ensures that employees remain motivated and open to continuously improving the way they work.
What’s Next for D&V Philippines?
While our automation and early-stage AI integration is underway, both the management and our IT department are already preparing for more advanced integrations that will continue to unify our internal systems and be applied towards our client-facing processes.
One of the IT Department’s upcoming projects is Agentic AI – an AI software that acts as an intelligent data processor capable of integrating all the tools, resources, and software a specific team uses. Unlike simple automations, Agentic AI can now interpret workflows and provide customized support according to the needs of its users.
Our goal is for every department to eventually have its own AI agent tailored to its department’s functions and daily tasks. These agents will help with project monitoring, information retrieval, documentation, and even some technical processes — all aligned with strict governance and security protocols set in D&V Philippines’ AI policy.
Long-Term Vision for AI Integration
The reality of it all is that AI is here to stay. Ready to adapt, D&V Philippines believes that instead of avoiding AI, we must learn to not only coexist with it but to maximize its utilization. Those who embrace AI as a partner instead of competition will thrive. With proper governance and sustainability at its core, our AI integration roadmap will not only strengthen the company but prepare our people for the future of the accounting industry, able to provide continuous client support at the highest level.
As we continue our AI integration efforts, one principle remains constant: AI should elevate human expertise and not replace it. At D&V Philippines, it always will.
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Narene Nicolas is a Vice President of Global Operations and the Chief Technology Office at D&V Philippines. Connect with her on LinkedIn.
--This article has been written in collaboration with Aly Tagamolila, a content and creative specialist at D&V Philippines.
