HMRC’s £10bn AI payoff and the 2030 digital self-service push - Accountex Manchester 2026

Accountex Summit Manchester returned to Manchester Central as a pivotal gathering for the UK accountancy sector. Bringing together over 3,300 practitioners, finance leaders, and fintech innovators, this year’s programme focused heavily on practical technology adoption, regulatory readiness around Making Tax Digital (MTD), and bridging the widening skill gap across practices.

Rather than leaning into futuristic hype, the overriding theme across the show floor was grounded execution: how firms can build resilient, reliable foundations — from clean data stack governance to robust compliance — so that new tools actually yield measurable returns.

We sat in on “Putting the Customer First in a Digital World” to hear directly from HMRC’s customer experience team as they outlined the tax authority’s digital-first vision. Here are the core takeaways and practical implications for UK practices.

When HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) takes the stage at industry gatherings, accountants usually brace for technical updates on Making Tax Digital (MTD) or administrative timelines. But at Accountex Manchester’s FD Show, the revenue authority delivered a different message: its digital evolution is no longer just an internal IT project. It is a £10bn operational strategy driven by artificial intelligence and user-centred design.

Speaking to a packed audience, HMRC’s Natalie Gillson, alongside colleagues Kathleen Rawlinson and John Swift, unpacked how the department is shifting from rigid, process-driven administration to a modern, digital-first tax authority.

The session offered a rare look under the hood at how HMRC plans to hit its ambitious 2030 target: handling 90% of all customer interactions via digital self-service.

The £10bn Proof Point: AI Beyond the Hype

Opening the session with a striking metric, Gillson revealed that HMRC’s deployment of artificial intelligence and advanced analytics protected and recovered approximately £10 billion in tax yield over the past financial year alone.

This figure underlines a critical reality for tax advisers: HMRC’s data-matching network (anchored by its Connect system and machine-learning tools) is no longer experimental. It is cross-referencing over 50 data streams, including bank accounts, Companies House records, and land registries, to identify anomalies at scale.

HMRC Connect & AI Analytics

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90% Digital Self-Service Primary Target

• HMRC App & Online Portals
• Automated Tax Queries
• Fast NI / Status Downloads

Human Intervention Targeted Support

• Vulnerable Taxpayers
• High-Risk Inconsistencies
• Complex Agent Appeals

However, Gillson emphasised that despite these automated capabilities, human accountability remains non-negotiable.

“Where a decision is going to be made that affects a customer… at the end of that process, there will always be a human being who is responsible and accountable.” — Natalie Gillson, HM Revenue & Customs

For tax agents, this provides essential reassurance: while algorithmic flags trigger nudge letters and automated compliance checks, final decisions and complex appeals will remain in human hands.

3 Core Pillars Driving HMRC’s 2030 Vision

HMRC’s strategy rests on three primary operational mandates set by the UK government:

1. 90% Digital Self-Service by 2030

HMRC is shifting routine administrative tasks to self-service digital platforms, primarily via the HMRC App and online accounts. Tasks like downloading National Insurance numbers, verifying tax codes, and checking Self Assessment registration are being automated. The strategic objective is to clear phone lines so frontline staff can support complex cases, vulnerable taxpayers, and professional agents who need human help.

2. Closing the £59.2bn Tax Gap & Efficiency Savings

To help address the UK’s estimated £59.2 billion tax gap, HMRC has been tasked with bringing in an additional £10 billion in annual revenue while simultaneously delivering £700 million in internal department savings. Meeting these aggressive financial targets is impossible through traditional manual compliance alone; it relies heavily on automated risk scoring.

3. Modernising Core Back-End Infrastructure

Acknowledging historical practitioner frustration with slow systems and webchat outages, Gillson noted that customer-facing tools can only perform if HMRC modernises its internal infrastructure. Upgrading legacy back-end platforms remains a key priority to enable real-time data exchange between software providers, taxpayers, and agents.

Designing for Human Behaviour, Not System Processes

A central focus of the session was HMRC’s shift toward user-centred design. Historically, tax administration was built around HMRC’s internal processes, forcing taxpayers and agents to navigate a maze of disparate systems.

To fix this, HMRC is redesigning services around real-life events:

• Starting a Business: Streamlining registration workflows so sole traders and directors get clear, step-by-step guidance rather than fragmented forms.
• Approaching Retirement: Joining up State Pension data, personal tax accounts, and PAYE records into a single view.
• Behavioural Insights & Research Panels: Testing platforms against thousands of real users to ensure workflows match how people actually behave, rather than how a policy document assumes they will.

Crucially, this focus is backed by structural leadership changes. HMRC became the first UK government department to appoint a Chief Customer Officer (Myrtle Lloyd), embedding customer experience directly into board-level decision-making. Executive board members now regularly shadow frontline telephone and webchat channels to see firsthand where user journeys break down.

What This Means for UK Accounting Practices

HMRC’s digital-first push directly alters how accountants manage client workflows and agency operations over the next decade:

1. Client Self-Service Migration: Advisers should encourage personal tax clients to adopt the HMRC App for basic queries (such as checking tax codes or state pension records), freeing up fee-earners to focus on higher-value planning.
2. Data Accuracy Over Explanation: With AI analytics continuously scraping financial data sources, discrepancy flags will occur faster. Ensuring clients maintain clean, reconciled bookkeeping before filing is critical to avoiding automated “nudge” letters.
3. Escalation Routes for Agents: As HMRC moves simple queries to digital channels, phone support will increasingly be reserved for complex agent enquiries and vulnerable clients. Practices should structure their administrative teams to handle routine tax checks digitally.

HMRC’s transformation shows a clear path forward: routine compliance is moving rapidly to self-service digital rails. Practices that adapt their service models now will be best placed to deliver strategic value as the UK tax system fully digitises by 2030.