Jake Winkler
Feb 10, 2025
I get asked all the time, “How long do you think you’ll be able to do accounting since AI is going to replace the profession sometime soon?” My answer: “I’m not that worried.”
If you are looking at the accounting profession as nothing more than debits and credits and spreadsheets, maybe AI can replace many of those basic functions of accounting. Accounting is so much more than that. The main reasons that the profession is actually in a position to capitalize on the AI revolution and be more valuable than ever are twofold:
The supply and demand for trust in business.
Accounting isn’t about math; it’s about translation.
In studies done by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), 70-80% of the American public trust CPAs to act in the public’s best interest. They are regarded as ethical, reliable, and competent in their professions. In fact, when compared to other financial professionals, trust scores are typically higher for CPAs due to the continuing education, licensing requirements, and adherence to strict ethical standards.
Business leaders also trust CPAs highly. A study by the Edelman Trust Barometer indicated that professionals with recognized qualifications (like CPAs) are viewed as credible sources of information by a large majority of the public.
By comparison, public trust in artificial intelligence (AI) has been experiencing a decline in recent years. According to the 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer, only 30% of respondents globally embrace AI, while 35% reject it. In the United States, trust has decreased more sharply; a survey reported by Forbes indicates that public trust in AI companies dropped from 50% to 35%. But even consider anecdotally your own reaction to outputs from AI. If you ask it to craft an email for you, do you just copy and paste it without thinking? That would indicate a high level of trust. More likely, you are reading through every word of it, editing it as you go. Even predictive text itself will have you correcting words or just ignoring them and typing them yourself.
Despite the impressive performance of some large language models (LLMs) on some of the CPA exams, human accountants are not likely to be replaced as current AI models cannot replicate the full range of skills and judgment required for all areas of accounting. AI excelled in highly structured tasks with definitive answers but struggled with complex, open-ended questions.
And this segues us into the translation skills of CPAs. People think that accountants are good at math. Most of accounting is basic arithmetic. An accountant’s real skill is the ability to look at numbers and translate those to people who have difficulty understanding them. CPAs focus their efforts on drawing attention to numbers that impact decision-makers. We can ring an alarm bell for issues years before they happen.
To conclude, while the AI revolution will impact our industry, it is more likely to be used as a tool by your CPA than to replace them.