Recent data finds that a significant fraction of accounting firms are changing their organizational structures to optimize for AI, especially when it comes to junior roles.
A poll from accounting practice management solutions provider
This lines up with
With this change has come rising anxiety over job displacement in the accounting field, according to the Karbon poll. Professionals voicing such concerns grew 8% compared to last year, now standing at 22%. Those in operations, technology and administrative positions are especially wary, with their own concerns having grown to 37%, a three percentage point increase compared to last year. In contrast, while those described as individual contributors remain concerned as well, at 33%, this is still down seven percentage points from last year.
Despite this data, however, the poll also found widespread AI use among accounting professionals. It found that 98% of accounting firms use AI daily or multiple times a day, and 83% feel optimistic about its capabilities. However, there has also been some up and down movement over the last few years.
Among firm leaders, those saying they were excited about AI went from 41% in 2024 to 64% in 2025 to 58% now. Among individual contributors, technical and administrative staff, excitement went from 26% in 2024 to 40% in 2025 and has remained steady but, at the same time, those saying they were skeptical or scared of AI went from 18% to 11% and then back up to 18%. The report noted that those most exposed to AI have become more cognizant of its limitations.
"Individual contributors tend to use AI more directly in their day-to-day workflows, drafting SOPs, automating tasks, preparing tax work, and producing technical outputs. This proximity exposes them to AI's limitations more frequently: inaccuracies, hallucinations, formatting inconsistencies and the extra steps required to validate AI-generated work. As a result, they may have more reason to be cautious, and in some cases, more concerned about how AI might reshape their role," said the report.
Karbon also noted that sentiments vary widely based on the size of the firm. The most enthusiastic adopters of AI appear to be firms with 21 to 50 staff members; while AI enthusiasm has cooled in this population compared to last year, 7%, it remains the most excited, 60%, and least fearful, 8%. The report noted that firms of this size are big enough to invest in AI, structured enough to operationalize it, and motivated enough to scale. Quickly catching up, however, are firms of between four and 10 staff members, which stand out as the only ones that saw an increase in excitement in the last year, 8% year over year.
In contrast, the smallest firms, those with one to three staff members, seem to be the least enthusiastic; they're 6% more skeptical compared to last year and 5% less excited. The report suggested that the realities of AI adoption may be starting to compete with limited capacity.
The poll found that 31% of respondents are concerned that the gap between AI-positive and traditional firms will continue to widen. This growing gap was also cited by experts in our own roundup of
Technical tasks remain out of top use cases
The poll also found that the top use case for AI has been, and remains, communications, cited by 77% of firms. Accountants seem most likely to use AI for tasks such as drafting emails and fine-tuning their writing. Following this was meeting transcripts, at 59%, and research, problem solving and brainstorming, at 58%. Meanwhile, some of the fastest-growing use cases include standard operating procedures, policies and process documentation; marketing content; and data visualization and reporting.
Nowhere in the list were technical accounting tasks such as bank reconciliations, tax filings or audit testing. This could be explained due to the fact that, despite the plethora of specialized accounting solutions that use AI, ChatGPT remained the No. 1 AI tool by far, used by 87% of accounting professionals, which is more suited to such tasks than, say, a tax engine.
Karbon's report suggested the popularity of public large language models like ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot could be due to ease of use, as well as their overall association with AI.
"Two of the most popular AI tools used by accounting professionals are Microsoft Copilot (53%) and Google Gemini (34%)," said the report. "Their popularity is likely because these vendors are already deeply embedded in a firm's tech stack. As a result, they're accessible, low-friction, trusted and already security-tested, easy to adopt, and can leverage the context of the rest of the tools in the suite. Unsurprisingly, ChatGPT is the most popular AI tool among accounting professionals (87%). Its global reputation and synonymity with the term 'artificial intelligence' make it a highly trusted option, and its availability as a free tool creates a low barrier of entry."
