Reporting reinvented – ARKK’s digital reporting conference

The conference, hosted by ARKK, brought together digital reporting specialists, regulators, software providers and finance professionals to explore the future of digital reporting. Panels included experts from Reportl, Tangelo, Black Sun Global and Pomelo to name a few. For a conference focused on digital reporting and the uses of AI, the majority of attendees were using notepads and pens to take notes – a reassuring nod that not all had been lost to the digital world.

Digital reporting is evolving faster than ever. We wanted to hear how regulatory changes and AI will affect corporate reporting and practical steps for clients. The conference offered a glimpse of the future in the form of tighter regulation, more structure and AI shaping how investors interpret reports. It was also a chance to hear diverse perspectives from peers and experts.

Major regulatory and reporting updates

Companies House reform

Companies House outlined its progress under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act – aiming to improve data quality and accuracy on the register. Compulsory identity verification began in November 2024 (with a 12-month transition period). Many in the room were hopeful for any news that Companies House could reveal. Despite not providing many definitive changes, Companies House revealed that any substantial changes, including updates to accounts, will come with at least 21 months’ notice. Awareness was highlighted as a key concern as many still don’t know the full ins and outs of what is changing.

IFRS 18

BM&A came all the way from Paris, enthusiastically communicating that IFRS 18 was designed with digital readers in mind. IFRS 18 is a new accounting standard (effective from 2027) that replaces IAS 1 and redesigns how companies present and disclose their financial statements. The main aim is to improve the way information is tagged and consumed through cleaner categorisation, clearer labels and better cross-referencing. Most significantly, this will improve transparency, consistency and comparability for users. We can anticipate this development soon as the new taxonomy is already prepped for IFRS 18.

More transparency, less box-ticking

Throughout the different presentations and panels, reporting was emphasised as more than a ‘tick-box’ exercise. Speaking to other agencies, it was clear that reporting needed to be transparent to stakeholders, highlighting their ups and downs through clear stories where elements such as KPIs and governance mean something instead of doing the bare minimum required.

AI in corporate reporting

Unsurprisingly, AI was the hot topic of the day. AI already plays a role in how reports are discovered and understood but what is key is how structure makes or breaks this experience.

AI is often the first reader

With many relying on AI summaries, many stakeholders read a machine-generated version of reports before seeing the real thing. It’s important to ensure that the summary reflects what you intended.

AI needs good structure to thrive

Although ‘advanced’, AI needs a specific environment to excel. That specific environment is clean, consistent and well-tagged content with PDFs that are fully accessible.

Humans still matter

Even in an AI-heavy world, the human factor is more prevalent than ever. Many at the conference expressed their concerns for AI and what this meant for reporting. Companies remain responsible for the accuracy of their reports and how they’re being interpreted. Humans still do the heavy lifting.

It’s clear how digital transformation is being rolled out across the outputs for corporate reporting, but we’re also interested in how it can be used earlier in the process. Companies that embrace these changes early will gain an advantage in an AI-mediated world. While technology will play a larger role, corporate reporting will ultimately still be human at its core.

LB is actively exploring opportunities to harness and embrace AI in our clients’ corporate reporting production, for example, to check sentiment and to make reports more concise – an objective that ties in very clearly with the FRC’s recent advice in their corporate reporting review.