How Helen transformed her bookkeeping business with AI
After 36 years as an Inspector of Taxes with HMRC, redundancy could have been the end of the story. For Helen, it was the beginning of a better one.
She retrained, completing AAT Levels 2, 3 and 4 at Truro & Penwith College alongside a digital marketing course with DPN, and in 2018 launched Helen The Tax Lady, her own bookkeeping and accountancy business.
By 2025, Helen was established and growing, and curious. She'd already begun experimenting with ChatGPT and had even started building her own bot. But something wasn't quite clicking, and she signed up to DPN's AI Workplace Productivity Skills Bootcamp in July 2025.
Working through real business scenarios with expert trainers, she learned how to use AI tools more effectively, automate repetitive tasks, and streamline her workflows. The impact was swift. Her confidence in using AI jumped from 1 to 5. She's now saving between £1,000 and £1,500 every month, and has the capacity to take on new clients.
"My confidence in AI jumped from a 1 to a 5," she says.
Helen is continuing to build on her AI journey, embedding new tools and strategies into her business, with no sign of slowing down.