29th July 2025,
#3 Instant Expertise: Turning Painful Pro Work into Push-Button Tools with AI
The last two newsletters covered how AI-native apps are replacing bloated SaaS - and why their revenue keeps compounding.
This one’s about something a little more personal: the jobs we all dread. User research, contract review and tax season.
These used to mean specialists, scheduling, and invoices. Now? They're getting done in minutes, on your screen, with no one in the loop but you - and a very good AI.
⚡ Research, legal, and tax - rebooted
| Task | What used to happen | What it looks like now |
| User research | Run 25 interviews, wait 6–10 weeks, pay $50–80k | Outset runs 250 AI-led conversations in 48 hours, and summarises everything for you—already used by Nestlé, Microsoft, and WeightWatchers |
| Legal drafting | Call your lawyer, wait days, review redlines, repeat | Harvey and Genie AI draft, red-line, and explain contracts in minutes. Genie has 10,000+ legal pros onboard; Harvey is on track for $100M ARR |
| Tax prep | Block off a weekend. Hope you didn’t miss anything. | TaxGPT answers your questions in plain English. April files directly from your bank app—in under 30 minutes. |
🔁 Why these companies don’t just grow - they snowball
Let’s unpack what makes this group special:- They’re unlocking new buyers. Small businesses that never hired a research firm, lawyer, or tax advisor now can. These aren’t replacements - they’re greenfield.
- Every action nudges revenue up. Whether it’s an interview, a clause, or a return—usage = expansion. Many of these tools hit 130 %+ net dollar retention without trying.
- The more they’re used, the smarter they get. AI learns from what you feed it. Tools like Genie and TaxGPT get better every month—and harder to switch away from.
- You don’t need onboarding. Most people get to “wow” on day one. That means no sales call, no hand-holding, and a CAC you can smile at.
- They don’t leave. Once embedded in a daily workflow - like Outset piping into sprint reviews or April sitting inside payroll - there’s no going back.
- Margins stay high. These aren’t services with a face-lift. They’re software, with SaaS-style gross margins and consumer-style growth curves.
🌍 Why this wave is hitting now
This isn’t just tech timing. A few big tailwinds are pushing this forward:- Regulators are leaning in. The CFPB’s open banking rule (finalised October 2024) requires banks to make consumer financial data easily accessible via APIs, removing the biggest hurdle for tools like April to plug directly into payroll and banking flows. Meanwhile, the EU AI Act enters its first compliance phase in February 2025, nudging public-sector buyers toward auditable, accountable AI products rather than consultant-heavy solutions.
- Costs keep climbing. Legal and accounting fees have consistently outpaced inflation - law firm billing rates rose 6.5% YoY in 2024, and top partners now charge up to $3,000/hour. For most businesses, that math no longer works. When AI can deliver 80-90 % of the output at 10% of the price, the switch is easy to justify.
- There just aren’t enough pros. Big Four firms are laying off thousands, but 80%+ of CFOs still report accounting-talent shortages. Law firms are seeing record associate attrition. Tools like Harvey and TaxGPT are filling the gaps—not just for efficiency, but because there’s no one left to bill the work.
- Governments are bankrolling the rails. The IRS has $58B allocated through 2031 to modernise the U.S. tax system including APIs, real-time filing, and AI-assisted compliance. That’s helping tools like April go from experimental to expected, especially when regulators and infrastructure are now working with them.
🧭 Where Kinetic is focused
We look for founders who:- Turn a painful process into a 10-minute delight
- Grow with usage, not just signups
- Ship weekly, not quarterly
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01st July 2025,