What does AI actually change about being an accountant?
For years, the fear inside the profession was straightforward: AI would eventually replace accountants. That fear turned out to be wrong. Not because the technology stalled, but because of what actually happened once firms put it to work.
The reality is that AI is already how a large share of accountants get through their day. A May 2026 survey of 725 US accounting professionals, run by Intuit’s Firm of the Future, found that 88% used AI for at least one client service in the past year, and 30% now describe it as embedded, i.e., the default way they work, rather than something reached for occasionally. Among those already using it, three in four say it delivered more value than they expected.
That level of integration changes what the real question is. This isn’t a profession bracing for disruption anymore. It’s a profession that has already absorbed the tool and is now working out what it’s actually good for, and what still needs a person.
What the data says AI is good at
A separate global study from IDC, sponsored by Caseware and based on a survey of over 1,000 audit and accounting decision-makers, found that 66% of US firms have already embedded AI into their firm strategy, are using it in select functions, or have pilot projects underway, and 53% plan to adopt or expand their use of AI within the next two years. Together, the two studies point to something firms have already worked out for themselves: AI is fast at the parts of the job that were never really the job. Data extraction, transaction-level review, first-pass documentation. The parts that ate hours without building expertise.
Firms already built for flexibility are pulling ahead
This pattern shows up again in separate 2026 research from Accounting Today supported by data and insights from Makosi, conducted among 139 qualified respondents across more than 120 accounting and advisory firms. Firms running an integrated 60/20/20 workforce model, blending core staff with offshore and agile talent rather than a single fixed structure, report meaningfully higher use of AI across staffing decisions, resource allocation, and core workflows than firms still running a traditional, fully onshore model.
The firms already set up to flex their people are also the ones furthest along in putting AI to work. One CPA firm CEO, speaking at Accounting Today’s Firm Growth Forum in San Diego in May 2026, put it plainly: “Agility is going to be the number one differentiator for the next five years.” The two forces, flexible workforce design and AI adoption, appear to move together rather than compete.
South Africa is having this conversation earlier than most expect
SAICA isn’t waiting for the profession to catch up. In December 2025, SAICA published a set of AI ethics case studies for the profession, working through scenarios where accountants leaned on AI tools without disclosing or verifying the output, and testing those scenarios against the Code’s core principles of integrity, competence, and confidentiality.
The tone from SAICA leadership is measured rather than alarmed. SAICA CEO Patricia Stock has described the decade ahead as shaped by rapid technological acceleration and a more competitive global market for accounting talent, and has said AI should no longer be treated as just an automation tool. The institute’s own view is that AI belongs woven through training rather than bolted on as a separate topic, with ethics and technical competence still doing the defining work.
Where the balance sheet still needs a human touch
What AI hasn’t solved, and by the researchers’ own framing isn’t meant to, is judgment. In the IDC/Caseware study, 73% of US respondents said auditors should always validate AI outputs relied upon in reaching professional conclusions, the highest figure of any market surveyed. Globally, 36% said AI could risk undermining professional judgment if left unchecked. At the end of the day, firms still expect a human to sign off on what AI produces.
None of this points to fewer accountants. It points to a narrower definition of what makes one valuable. The technical grounding that used to take a decade to build, reading a number that looks wrong even when the system says it’s fine, knowing which client hesitation matters, making a call with incomplete information, is becoming the differentiator earlier in a career rather than later.
“AI can process a transaction faster than any of us. What it can’t do is decide whether that transaction tells the true story of a business,” says Stan Kobrin, Chief Technology Officer at Makosi. “The firms getting this right are deliberate about which decisions stay human, and they’re making sure their people are ready for that responsibility sooner.”
What is changing is what firms should want from the next generation of CAs (SA) entering the profession, and how deliberately those early years are structured. Young professionals will spend less time on work that a system can already perform reliably and get more early exposure to the judgment calls that used to wait until well into a career.
The accountants who lose ground here will be the ones who spent their early years on work that AI now does faster than they ever could, while their peers spent that time balancing the one thing it still can’t carry: judgment.
Source: MS Media Hub
REFERENCES
1 – 2026 Accountant Technology Survey | Firm of the Future
2 – IDC, sponsored by Caseware, “The Future of Audit and Accounting in the AI Era,” April 2026
4 – SAICA, “AI Ethics Case Studies (Part 1)”
5 – Accountancy SA, “Focus: AI is rewriting the rules of accounting educatio
