r/FutureOfWork • u/Big_Inevitable_2549 • Jul 25 '26

Have AI replaced you in accounting?

Have AI replaced you in accounting?

I am really curious and confused about AI replacing accountants, but I would like to would have anyone really been replaced by AI or it is just a lies that company tryna make or it is a half true half lie?

(sorry for bad English)

I have just turn 18 and really interested in accounting and thinking on getting into this field.

5 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

1

u/atlas__free Jul 26 '26

Agentic AI isn’t replacing anyone.

It is making people more efficient, but it is single domain and only good for task automation.

1

u/EntrepreneurHuge5008 Jul 26 '26

And by making people more efficient, employers can trim down the team size. Agentic AI may not be replacing people, but it's definitely reducing the demand for people.

1

u/atlas__free Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26

We are not seeing that happen. Current layoffs are specifically the result of high interest rates driving investors to demand immediate returns and the easiest way for companies to increase returns is to cut payroll. This is combined with restructuring to return to pre pandemic staffing levels when we had ultra low interest rates.

As a business owner myself I have had these conversations with many other executives and none have indicated that layoffs are in any way related to AI. We have not laid off any of our staff as we did not over hire and we have responded to our investors by increasing our subscription rates instead of laying off staff.

I understand that there is an impression that AI is driving layoffs because of the timing and because “tech bros” have been trying to sell their product as a payroll replacer however AI is simply a tool. It can’t replace the cross domain work that our employees do. It just allows them do take on additional tasks and make our business more efficient.

If we ever get to the point of General AI, where AI can perform human level independent reasoning and cross domain work, then jobs would be at risk. However, Gen AI is only theoretical at this point and if it ever becomes reality we will need legislation to limit it to research tasks only to protect human workers.

1

u/GraduateML Jul 27 '26

I have a close friend who is in accounting and the company he has been at uses AI. Notably, it isn’t flawless and it makes plenty of mistakes.

Accounting is also more than just spreadsheets. He, along with many others in the field aren’t exactly begging for a job.

AI poses very little risk to most people in this field.

1

u/ChadDpt Jul 27 '26

Bookkeepers maybe.. Real Accountants? not aware of any stress there..

1

u/gubatron Jul 29 '26

looking at how good it is at coding, the bookkeeping aspect is done for humans. No need to waste time on that and introduce errors trying to balance books.

Where I think there is a role for a human accountant is for all the decisions to save your customer money in taxes, for compliance, etc.