“AI is going to take my job.”
“In the next three years, my position won’t exist.”
“If we don’t keep up with AI we’ll go out of business.”
I wish I could say these are hypothetical anxieties, but they’re excerpts from recent conversations with other accountants — and even with my own employees. As AI adoption reshapes our daily lives, the fear of becoming obsolete is picking up steam in the accounting industry. And I’ll be the first to admit that the concerns aren’t entirely misguided. After all, AI is changing the profession, and those saying otherwise may not be paying enough attention.
Key takeaways
- While AI excels at routine tasks like transaction classifications and data entry, clients highly value the proactive planning and strategic advisory that only humans provide
- Accounting firms using AI-based software save significant time each month to reinvest hours into deep consulting and building long-term client relationships
- Because AI systems can hallucinate, experienced practitioners are essential for providing the critical oversight and expert judgment needed to protect clients
- Attending industry conferences and networking with peers remains a sound strategy for building supportive connections and bringing cutting-edge strategies back to your small business clients
Instead of fixating on whether we can keep pace with every new tool, we should be focusing on a reality that AI can’t address: technology isn’t the only thing clients are paying for, and it’s not always the most important thing to them either.
Beyond the algorithm: Why your clients need you more than ever
I think that we can agree that AI is extraordinarily good at the “what” and the “how” tasks in accounting. It can identify:
- Which transactions need to be categorized
- Patterns that exist in the data
- Documents that need to be collected
- How to best organize and track the work
But if you’ve read my other content on CAAS accounting and intangible services, you’ll see that compliance is only one piece of the puzzle, often the thing clients care least about and are willing to pay the least for.
Any accountant who has sat across from a small business owner realizes that the most important thing for them to understand is the “why” behind the numbers, and the most valuable thing they can offer is support that goes well beyond basic compliance.
“Here’s something we don’t talk about enough in this industry: small business owners don’t always have a sounding board when they need it most, and AI isn’t really the best place to go when we need empathy.”
— Marit Burmood, CPA, EA and Ledger contributor
They have big wins, even bigger stressors, and more often than not, there’s nobody in their immediate circle who truly understands what they’re navigating. Sharing financial information with friends and family is generally off the table. Employees look to them for answers no matter the priorities piling up. The responsibility of keeping everything running smoothly and profitably rests squarely on their shoulders. All of this they largely carry solo!
For many of my clients, our relationship is their safe space, their supportive space, and the space worth top dollar to keep. It’s the kind of differentiator that an AI chat lacks or what lags when looking for answers from an LLM.
Whether you’re meeting clients in person or building relationships using video calls, high-touch advising is how you verify that the numbers actually reflect the human reality behind the business. As accountants, the numbers will always help with navigating, and AI can help make sure they are accurate and well-categorized.
But a trusted advisor helps a client figure out what to do next, providing support, proactive planning, and a path toward growth — and that level of service is exactly what the market demands (and will invest in).
AI can do some heavy lifting so you can be the client hero
Let’s peel back the layers to see how accounting firms are effectively using AI in their practice. MIT Sloan School of Management assistant professor Chloe Xie describes the accountant’s workload in two categories.
- The laundry: This includes routine tasks such as transaction classifications, bank reconciliations, document collection, and data entry.
- The poetry: This is the proactive planning, strategic conversions, and the advisory work that only someone with your experience and judgment can deliver.
Chloe reiterates the pain point that the majority of accountants have been feeling for years: that the laundry has always taken up far more of our time than it deserves, and the poetry is squeezed in whenever there’s time left for it.
In a joint study out of MIT Sloan and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Xie and co-author Jung Ho Choi found that accountants using AI-based software saw a reallocation of approximately 8.5% of their time away from routine data entry and toward high-value tasks like business communication and quality assurance.
| AI’s Role: “The Laundry” (Data and processing) | Your role: “The Poetry” (Strategy and advisory) |
| Categorizing routine transactions | Uncovering the “why” behind the financial trends |
| Reconciling bank statements | Acting as a sounding board for business decisions |
| Flagging anomalies and data extraction | Investigating errors and providing expert oversight |
| Generating preliminary financial statements | Helping clients plan for growth and succession |
| Compiling documents and data entry | Building trust and long-term client relationships |
At first glance, this percentage might not seem earthshattering. But when you compound it across a week, a month, or a busy season? It’s real time back on your calendar, ready to reinvest in your clients and provide them with the white-glove service they’re aching for. When you look at it from this perspective, rather than eliminating the human element, accounting firms are actually using AI to protect it.
Human-in-the-loop: Why your experience is the new premium
Raise your hand if you’ve ever been working with AI and found an error. In my experience, I’ve found everything from research slipups to simple extraction and organizational mistakes due to system constraints, misinterpretation of the tasks, sometimes both. The takeaway? AI is only as good as the person who inputs the data — and reviews the output.
Case in point: The New York Times recently put AI chatbots like Claude and Gemini to the test for filing taxes. The results? The bots got IRS codes wrong, overlooked basic details, and miscalculated refunds or tax liabilities by an average of more than $2,000 (which is dangerous for taxpayers who blindly trust these tools instead of remaining skeptical).
In fact, 62% of accountants surveyed in the Stanford Business research said they were concerned about AI-generated errors flowing through their systems. The risk of unchecked AI output is very real, and the person best equipped to provide that oversight is an experienced human practitioner.
This means your role as Chief AI Oversight Officer is an increasingly valuable service as more processes continue to be automated and the accounting industry shifts. We need to adjust our pricing to reflect that. When your client is getting an expert whose judgment is protecting them from errors, that is worth paying for.
Who is actually putting AI in action?
The data also produced one of the most validating findings for experienced practitioners that I’ve come across. It turns out that senior accountants benefit more from AI than their junior counterparts. This might seem surprising if you’re thinking about it from a purely tech-savvy perspective, but the qualities that senior accountants bring to their relationship with AI include:
- Ability to collaborate with it
- Question it rather than treat it as the authority
- Step in when something doesn’t seem right
These are the skills that junior accountants simply haven’t had the time to develop yet. And when some reports say LLMs hallucinate rather than admit it doesn’t have answers, the takeaway is this: experience isn’t becoming less valuable in an AI-driven world. Instead, it’s increasingly a must.
Reclaiming seven days for deeper advisory
As someone who works day in and day out in the trenches, I can speak not only for myself but for my fellow colleagues when I say that the biggest thing most of us are short on is time. It’s probably one of the reasons why a recent OnPay survey found that 1 out of 5 accounting pros have automating tasks as a top priority.
Looking at efficiency in the Stanford study, the findings show that firms using AI-based accounting software close their books 7.5 days earlier each month. For a lot of us, it’s tempting to put more on our plates when we get hours back (especially with admin work constantly piling up). But I want to challenge you to think about those extra 7.5 days differently.
AI can change your approach
What if instead of letting that newfound time get swallowed up by more of the same, you blocked it out specifically for the human conversations that are always the first thing to get squeezed out of a busy schedule? These days, more and more clients are voicing the same concerns, and most of them sound something like “I can never get a hold of my accountant.”
Instead of brushing these off and filing them away in the “clients just don’t understand” compartment, what if we used AI for the speed and sincerity to build the long-term relationships that actually keep clients around?
Authenticity is the ultimate moat
In a world where automated bots can answer questions, AI can generate financial statements, and software can flag anomalies in an instant, the one thing that can’t be replicated, packaged, or automated is a genuine human connection.
Clients know the difference when they have an advisor who is invested in their success, and that feeling is not something that any technology can produce (or replicate).
“Human” is becoming a premium brand, and showing that you care about them and their life creates authentic relationships and builds client loyalty that can last for a lifetime.
— Marit Burmood, CPA, EA and Ledger contributor
So while ignoring technology would be irresponsible, don’t lose sight of the fact that your tech stack is just part of the equation.
The power of the peer network: Why being in the room matters
One of the most overlooked parts of the bigger picture outside of AI is the accounting community itself. As a solo practitioner for years, I felt like I was literally on an island. It was isolating, scary, and I struggled to get the support I needed when making decisions and handling complex tasks. The loneliness was almost enough to make me leave the industry altogether, but before that happened, I made a move that changed my life and my career for good:
I attended a tax and accounting conference.
Some of you reading this may have never attended an in-person conference or networking event. On the other hand, some of you are laughing, saying this is what grounds you, recharges you, and makes you a better accountant. Since embracing my inner social butterfly, I’ve met peers all along this spectrum. And while opinions differ on networking and its impact, I can attest that in my own life and career, it has made all the difference.
I’m a firm believer that connecting with others in the industry helps you make those connections you can: call on in times of need, build a roster of referrals for your clients who need specialized services, and gain knowledge that you can only learn from people who have seen and heard it all.
— Marit Burmood, CPA, EA and Ledger contributor
Additionally, attending industry events and conferences shows your clients that you are bringing the best, forward-thinking strategies to the table.
Putting the “human” back in your workflow
As I step down from my digital soapbox, I hope you walk away with one core notion: you are far more valuable than AI. It isn’t something to fear or resist. AI is simply a tool, and like every tool, it’s only as powerful as the person taking the reins. Here are some final suggestions for putting everything we’ve talked about into practice.
- Data deep dive: First, pay attention to what AI is actually giving you. That same Choi and Xie study found a 12% increase in general ledger granularity among firms using AI-based software, meaning your books are more detailed and more specific than ever before. Use that rich data to have more personalized, more informed conversations with your clients. Present them with professional, client-facing documents that AI helped you generate. Create a bridge between the organized and detailed data and the context and interpretation that your clients need.
- Put time on your side: Second, protect your AI-found time and use it to build long-lasting relationships, rather than letting it get swallowed up by more admin and task management. Human conversations are more important than ever in this day and age. Instead of getting lost in the mix, make yourself and your services stand out from the crowd.
- Nurture connections: Third, keep attending industry conferences, speaking up amongst your colleagues, and showing up to the events and conversations that are shaping this industry. Your peer network is one of your greatest professional assets, and every connection you make is another resource you can bring back to your clients.
Looking ahead
The firms that will define this next era of accounting won’t be the ones that leaned hardest into AI and automation. They’ll be the ones who used it to their advantage to show up more fully for the humans on the other side of the table. Instead of fearing AI, we should be thanking it for finally giving us the time to do just that.
