AI promises to free accountants from repetitive mundane tasks so they can focus on higher-value advisory and analytics work that requires professional judgment. Offshoring, too, promises to free accountants from repetitive mundane tasks so they can focus on higher-value advisory and analytics work that requires professional judgment. While it might intuitively seem these two things are in direct competition, offshore talent providers report they have instead created powerful synergies with each other.
Nick Sinclair, founder of offshore accounting talent provider TOA Global, said AI is disrupting every part of the professional services landscape, and offshoring is no exception. However, he does not view AI as directly competing with offshoring but, rather, adding a new layer that complements his company's services, versus replacing them. Firms that embrace both, he said, gain a significant edge.
"It's absolutely AI and offshoring," he said. "That's the winning formula. While AI assists offshore accountants with low-value tasks like data entry, basic reconciliations and even first-draft reporting, human judgment remains crucial for validation and interpretation. That's where our global team members shine. AI has strengthened our service delivery by reducing time spent on mundane tasks and increasing the speed-to-output for higher-value activities. We've actually built AI into our offshore model to amplify what our team can do, not replace."
Jigar Shah, chief operating officer of accounting offshore talent provider Unison Globus, has a similar viewpoint, saying AI is more of a complement than a competitor to Unison's offerings. To him, it is not an either/or proposition but a strategic and intentional integration of both.
"AI may be reshaping the landscape in terms of how work gets done, but it doesn't solve for the true talent crisis in the accounting profession. Firms that want to grow and stay competitive rely on educated, experienced professionals as well as the strategic application of AI in their business for efficiency," he said.
Shah said his own firm has already gotten a lot of use out of AI in the realms of automated data extraction, invoice processing, anomaly detection, tax categorization and intelligent scheduling. He added that, like many companies, it's also exploring AI-assisted client communication tools and predictive analytics. Overall, he said that AI has empowered Unison to deliver faster, more accurate and cost-effective services. He added that AI has reduced the company's invoice processing time by 40%, allowing teams to allocate more time to client advisory services.
Sinclair, from TOA Global, similarly said that AI has become a critical part of TOA's offshore provider strategy, allowing it to become a full-scope talent solutions provider. It uses AI not only in its internal operations but also to speed up the delivery of client services as well as to deliver data-driven insights that support ROI of offshore teams. He added that, in a business model based on geographic distance, AI has also been valuable in improving the customer experience by using AI-based solutions to stay connected and be able to swiftly respond to queries or requests.
In both cases, the success of these firms came from a willingness to adapt. Both have observed other offshore service providers that did not successfully do so, mainly because they were trying to hold on to old business models. Shah, from Unison Globus, said they have shifted their thinking in terms of not being a staffing firm per se but a talent and capability platform, which means they train, upskill and integrate people. Sinclair from TOA Global made a similar point, noting that successfully transitioning into higher-value activities in addition to their routine tasks has led them to avoid the fate of those who did not.
"The firms that falter are usually those that resist change or fail to invest in capability-building," said Sinclair. "Offshoring is no longer about low-cost labor, but it is about smart, tech-empowered partnerships. What has allowed Unison Globus to thrive is our commitment to continuous innovation, upskilling and client-centricity. We do not see AI as a threat; we embrace it as a growth partner. Our proactive approach of integrating AI and continuous staff training has positioned us ahead of competitors who were slow to adapt, leading to increased market share."
Mike Kempe, chief information officer at Top 10 firm Grant Thornton, noted that his firm is not thinking in terms of offshoring or AI, and is not funneling clients towards one or the other. Instead, professionals think in terms of the specific problems a client is facing, and the specific solutions to address them, which may be AI, offshoring, or some combination of the two plus other resources. With this in mind, he too felt it wasn't productive to think in terms of AI versus offshoring, as the two are better seen as complements than competitors.
"Our clients are asking for a quality service and a personalized service," he said. "They don't want to feel like they're No. 14 in the queue. So we use a combination of AI, offshoring and near-shoring resources to meet that demand. Our clients are not necessarily asking for an AI solution, they're asking for the best quality service at an affordable price. We can deliver that, and the way we do it is with offshore plus AI plus nearshore and onshore resources."
Differentiating factors
There will likely be some cases where AI is preferable and others where offshoring is preferable. Mark McAndrew, director of project management for firm management with Wolters Kluwer, also noted that people are often more interested in solving a specific problem than whether that problem is solved via AI or outsourcing. But what exactly they use depends on the specific situation.
"In some regards, you might tailor the type of outsourcing to specific customers in your segment or your customer base, and you choose to have those customers flow through a people-centric part of your business, whereas other tax returns or other areas of your business might be more ripe for full automation," he said.
This doesn't mean there are never people who prefer one or the other. For example, McAndrew raised the possibility that a customer might not yet be comfortable with AI, and so might pursue outsourcing to maintain the human element. Conversely, he said, there are also businesses that aren't comfortable outsourcing but don't feel as hesitant about AI, o they will be more apt to pursue opportunities with the latter versus the former. And then there are customers who don't necessarily have a strong preference for one or the other and may even switch between them as their organization grows. In this case, he said it's common for smaller organizations to start with outsourcing and then, as they scale, slowly transition to AI-driven automation solutions.
"For customers that are looking to grow their business and invest in technology that will sustain them in the long term, outsourcing is a big play, and is an area where they can create opportunity and [give themselves] time to be outside of the day to day while they figure out where their AI chips will reside, so to speak. And as you get mid-sized to large, you see customers that now have the wherewithal, or the internal talent, to focus on what they'll do with AI," he said.
But even that is not certain. McAndrew noted that a firm might decide to keep its headcount low while growing its service capacity through automation, while another firm might have a more people-centric approach and prefer offshore talent.
"They complement one another, but do different, different things well," he said.
Shah, from Unison Globus, said that one thing offshoring does particularly well is provide that human touch, which includes professional judgment, context-awareness and relationship building. He said his company's clients do not just need tax execution but adaptable teams of experienced professionals that understand them.
"To be clear, offshoring has evolved greatly in the past years to provide highly skilled professionals who become an integral part of the firm's team, solving problems, understanding the nuances of complex clients, and relieving bandwidth issues at the leadership level. This is not something AI can do," he said.
This means that while AI technology is improving fast, it still won't be able to completely replicate the advantages that offshoring provides, said TOA Global's Sinclair.
"Accuracy alone doesn't replace context, communication or client relationships. Even if AI hits near-perfect accuracy—which I welcome, by the way—the need for skilled accountants won't disappear. The nature of their work will shift, just like it has for decades. We're preparing our team to be interpreters, not just processors. That means upskilling them in advisory thinking, business acumen and communication. Offshoring will evolve into global insight teams, not just back offices. The reality is if AI replaces offshoring, that means it replaces accountants (no matter where they live), so there will be no industry (which won't be the case)," said Sinclair.
The future
With this in mind, it would appear that offshore accounting talent isn't going away anytime soon. All four sources interviewed for this story said they are seeing demand for such services is growing, not shrinking. In the cases of Union Globus and TOA Global, they have reported some clients have even tried AI solutions and returned to offshoring once they found it didn't meet their needs.
Shah said that clients had experimented with AI solutions mostly in data entry and document processing, but found it lacked the oversight and accuracy required for complex financial scenarios.
"What we offer is a blend of people + tech: our human-led, AI-enabled delivery model ensures accuracy, accountability and scalability. That is something many firms found missing in AI-only solutions. A client who initially adopted an AI-driven bookkeeping solution returned to Unison Globus after facing challenges with categorizing complex transactions. Our team not only rectified the discrepancies but also provided strategic insights into financial reporting," he said.
Sinclair, though, once more emphasized that the line between the two is not always so clear. Just as offshorers use AI, there are AI solutions that supplement themselves with offshore labor.
"Some of our clients who once relied on AI to reinvent themselves and their business models eventually turned to outsourcing for greater sustainability. Oftentimes, AI-based solutions in the accounting world are significantly supported by outsourced operations and offshore teams," he said.
To Kempe, from Grant Thornton, the persistence of offshoring makes sense. He noted that when robotic process automation was getting very popular, people predicted huge headcount reductions that didn't really materialize. As AI works its way through the profession, both on and offshore, there were similar concerns that, so far, have not been borne out.
"We all thought that with RPA coming in, being able to automate all these processes, it would be kind of the lower value of work that people were doing manually and that would potentially lead to some dramatic reductions in head count," he said. "Reality was it didn't. Our offshore talent now is bigger than it's ever been. We have more people offshore than we've ever had."
