Narratives

Long-form connected thinking

Each narrative connects multiple signals into a strategic position. Two bodies of work: an AI narrative sequence built over three years, and an operational intelligence strand grounded in accounting, finance and business change.

The best proof point

Hidden Hours

Hidden Hours

Research into the operational pressures facing accounting professionals — compliance burden, workflow friction, late payments and business change.

This is what Editorial Intelligence looks like in practice — a research question that became an ongoing evidence-building programme. Research, customer stories, events, sales conversations and product usage data, connected into a narrative that compounds over time.

Read the narrative →

The AI narrative

4-part sequence

A progression built in real time as the market moved — from the generative moment through the agentic vision, practical adoption and the trust argument. Each stage answered a different question.

01

What can AI create?

Generative AI

The generative AI moment arrived faster than most organisations expected. The editorial challenge was not to explain what AI could do, but to help organisations think clearly about what they should do with it.

→
02

Can AI complete meaningful work on our behalf?

Agentic AI

Where is generative AI heading? Towards autonomous execution — agents that complete meaningful work on your behalf. The agentic vision came early in the narrative, before the technology fully arrived. And it raised the stakes for the knowledge underneath.

→
03

How can businesses use it today?

Practical AI

The practical AI phase moved the question from what AI can create to how organisations deploy it in real workflows. For accounting and finance, this meant domain-specific models, the launch of Sage Copilot, and 25,000 professionals beginning to change how they work.

→
04

Can we trust it with data, decisions and workflows?

Trusted AI

AI trust is not built through claims about innovation. It is built through connected evidence — how AI is governed, how humans remain accountable, and how organisations decide what AI should and should not do.

→

Operational intelligence

Narratives grounded in accounting, finance and business change — how organisations work, how the hidden costs of modern work compound, and how MTD is restructuring practice.