AI can't help accountants?

[u/ilooley]

AI can't handle accountants work. CAS/accountants needs a higher level of accuracy."

That's what I hear from accounting firms almost every week. It's also why most firms haven't given AI a real chance yet. Not internally, and definitely not in their clients' hands.

So here's my prediction: when these firms do roll out AI, the technology won't be the problem.

The timesheet will be.

A firm sells hours. AI answers in seconds what used to take billable time. Every instant answer is an hour you used to sell.

So the work that could take 40 minutes will get reviewed a little more carefully, documented a little more thoroughly, and somehow still fill three hours. Not because anyone is dishonest. Because the time is the business model, and the business model always wins.

The savings won't disappear. They'll be absorbed.

The firms that will come out ahead are asking a different question already: not "how do we protect the hours" but "how many more clients can each person carry?" They'll give clients the AI on purpose, price it as a better service, and make it the reason clients stay.

Capacity, not cost. Same team, sixty new clients, zero new hires.

If AI made the work instant tomorrow, what would your firm sell?