What client data leaves the firm with AI
Feature by feature, what client information Achekam sends to an AI vendor when staff use AI, and what is removed or refused before anything is sent.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
A client's financial director asks, quite reasonably, before signing this year's engagement letter: "If your staff use AI on our file, where does our information go?" A partner who answers "we're careful" has not answered. A partner who can say which features send what, to whom, and what is stripped out or refused first, has.
Confidentiality is not a new duty that AI created. It is one of the oldest obligations of the profession. What AI changes is the number of places client information can travel without anyone noticing. This article maps those places in Achekam, feature by feature, so a firm can answer its clients precisely and set its own rules where the defaults are not enough.
The duty comes first
Professional accountants work under codes of ethics, and confidentiality is one of the fundamental principles at their core. The IESBA's International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants sets out those five fundamental principles and the conceptual framework for identifying and addressing threats to them.
Sending client information to an outside AI vendor is a disclosure to a third party, even if the vendor deletes it after answering. The question for the firm is not whether AI is allowed, but whether each disclosure is necessary, proportionate and covered by what the client has agreed. That judgement belongs to the firm. What Achekam provides is a set of controls that reduce what is disclosed and refuse some things outright.
Where requests go
All of Achekam's AI features go through one AI engine, which can use Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, DeepSeek or xAI. It uses the firm's own API key first, and the platform's key only where that is allowed.
For confidentiality, the key choice matters. A firm that uses its own key sends client information under its own contract with a vendor it chose, and can point a client to that vendor's terms. Settle which vendor, and under whose key, before staff start using AI on client work.
South African ID numbers, removed by default
By default, the engine removes South African ID numbers from text before it is sent to an AI vendor. An administrator can switch the removal off in AI settings.
Leave it on unless there is a specific, documented reason. An ID number is almost never needed for the task an AI is doing, whether that is summarising correspondence or drafting a note, and it is exactly the kind of identifier whose disclosure causes harm.
Firms in Nigeria and Kenya should read the rule narrowly. It is written for South African ID numbers. Do not assume a Nigerian National Identification Number or a Kenyan KRA PIN is treated the same way, and train staff not to paste such identifiers into AI requests at all.
Covering e-mails drafted without addresses or files
When staff send a client a request for documents or an envelope for signature, they can ask AI to draft the covering e-mail. The prompt sent to the AI carries no e-mail addresses, no IP addresses and no file contents. A person must read the draft and send it, and the e-mail is recorded as AI-drafted.
In other words, the AI writes the words of a polite request without seeing who it is going to or what is attached. That is a good example of the principle firms should apply everywhere: give the AI only what the task needs.
Restricted data classes, refused
Staff can upload a receipt, invoice or statement to Document Intelligence for AI to read. Restricted data classes, such as payroll and bank data, are refused unless they are allowed for a particular purpose.
That refusal is a useful backstop. Payroll records and bank statements are among the most sensitive documents a firm holds for a client. If a firm decides that a particular purpose justifies sending them, it can allow that purpose deliberately, and that decision should be recorded in the firm's AI policy with the reason, rather than happening because a staff member uploaded the wrong file.
Features that send a whole record
Not every AI feature sends client data at all, and some send a lot.
| Feature | What reaches the AI vendor |
|---|---|
| Accounting AI, Audit AI, Tax AI, Payroll AI | Only what the user types; these answer from the model's general knowledge and do not read the firm's records |
| Client Intelligence | The chosen client's record |
| Engagement Intelligence | The chosen engagement's record |
| Covering e-mail drafts | A prompt about the request, with no e-mail addresses, IP addresses or file contents |
| Document Intelligence | The uploaded document, with restricted classes refused unless allowed |
Client Intelligence and Engagement Intelligence are the features where the most client information leaves the firm in one request. Decide who may use them, and on which clients. A client who has asked that AI not be used on their file should be excluded from both, and the team told.
The topic assistants carry the opposite risk. Because they do not read the firm's records, staff may paste client details into the chat to get a more specific answer. The firm's policy should say plainly what may and may not be typed there.
Answering the client
With the map above, a partner can give a client a short, true answer:
- which vendor processes AI requests on the firm's work, and under whose key;
- that South African ID numbers are removed by default;
- that request e-mails are drafted without addresses or attachments;
- that payroll and bank data are refused unless a specific purpose is allowed;
- which features, if any, will send the client's record, and that the client may ask for them not to be used.
For the controls on what AI may do as well as what it may see, see what Achekam's AI can see, do and refuse. The firm's rules on all of this belong in one document; writing the firm's AI use policy explains what it should contain.
Before the next engagement letter goes out, agree one paragraph on AI and client information that the firm is willing to put in writing, and check that every statement in it matches the table above.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
