If you're leading an accounting firm in early 2026, you feel the pressure. Every conference promises AI will transform the profession. Every vendor has a new automation story. Every article warns that firms that do not adapt will be left behind. But most of these conversations overlook that many CPA firms are not AI-ready, and few have a transformation plan in place. You do already have something incredibly valuable: trust. Clients trust your judgment on complex issues. They trust your discretion with sensitive data. They trust you will guide them through regulatory risk. But trust alone won't carry your firm through the next 18 to 36 months.
Several dangers are already visible:
- No coherent transformation plan. Most firms adopt tools ad hoc. There is no clear destination or roadmap.
- Outdated business and governance models. The billable-hour and traditional partnership structures were not designed for an AI-augmented, system-driven firm.
- A talent development crisis. Technical experts are burning out as firms try to turn technical professionals into business developers and consultants, often outside their unique abilities.
The good news is you don't need to change everyone or chase every new application or product. You need a system that focuses people on their strengths and surrounds them with the right support.
Why this series exists
Over the past year, I wrote several Accounting Today articles applying the
- Leverages your existing strengths;
- Addresses your biggest risks; and,
- Positions you for advisory growth while automating compliance.
This isn't theory. I have spent decades advising CPA firms of all sizes. I studied Exponential Organizations with Salim Ismail, learned 10X thinking from Dan Sullivan at Strategic Coach, and explored exponential technologies with Peter Diamandis at Abundance 360. I'm still applying these ideas inside Boomer Consulting and the Boomer Knowledge Network, which now serves hundreds of firms.
Most consultants won't admit that you don't need all 11 ExO attributes to transform. You need three or four strategic attributes, applied deliberately for 18 to 36 months, supported by disciplined change, project and process management.
This article lays the foundation. The rest of the series will walk through the "how."
Burning out your technical experts
Think about your best auditors and tax professionals. They are auditors who can see risk patterns (common sense) that software never will, or tax professionals who make navigating complex structures and tax law look easy.
That expertise took years to develop. It is your differentiator. But then we ask those same people to generate new business, lead strategic advisory conversations, and manage projects, teams and technology change. For many of them, that is not their unique ability. It doesn't give them energy or allow them to produce their best work. As a result, they're frustrated, burnt out and more likely to leave the firm.
You do not need to change your people; you need to build the right system around them. If your system gives them leverage through AI, automation, flexible capacity and better data, they can stay in their strengths while the firm modernizes. That system is what I call the agentic workforce model, built on four ExO attributes.
The agentic workforce
In every firm, there are really two types of work.
The first type is expert work and is judgment-intensive. Examples include:
- Complex risk assessment and audit planning;
- Intricate tax optimization and planning;
- High-stakes client conversations; and,
- Strategic advisory and scenario analysis.
The second type is operational work and is process-driven. Examples include:
- Workpaper formatting and population;
- PBC request management and follow-up;
- Data extraction and trial balance mapping;
- Document classification and routing;
- Drafting proposals and engagement letters;
- Scheduling, reminders, and routine client communication;
- Status reporting and project tracking; and,
- Repurposing content for marketing and education.
Your technical experts should spend at least 70% of their time on the first type of work. Everything else should be handled by the agentic workforce — a combination of AI agents, automation and staff on demand.
Among the 11 ExO attributes, four stand out for CPA firms:
- Staff on demand;
- Algorithms;
- Dashboards; and,
- Community and crowd.
Together, they form a practical four-attribute system that can transform a firm in 18 to 36 months.
Capacity without permanent overhead
Traditional models assume full-time employees must handle nearly every function. Accounting firms hire more people during busy season and carry excess capacity during slow seasons. Meanwhile, they struggle to find and retain the right full-time talent. The ExO alternative is to build a flexible network of human and AI capacity that scales up and down with demand.
The human layer includes experienced auditors available during peak periods, tax specialists in narrow areas (R&D credits, state and local tax, international), project managers, marketing resources, and operations experts who can quickly stand up systems.
The AI and automation layer includes tools that classify and route documents, agents that track PBC requests and send reminders, automation for mapping trial balances and populating workpapers, and drafting support for routine client emails and proposals.
Staff on demand allows you to build operations, marketing and sales capacity around your technical experts, instead of forcing those experts to become something they're not. You protect their unique capabilities while still scaling the firm.
Automate the routine
Highly trained professionals spend too much time on low-value tasks like formatting workpapers, manually extracting data and chasing status updates.
In an ExO practice, AI agents and automations perform predictable, rules-based work. The goal is to reshape the job rather than replace expertise. Machines handle structured, repeatable steps while humans focus on exceptions, judgment and relationships.
When firms do this deliberately, they reduce tax preparation cycle time, spend fewer hours in certain audit steps, improve the quality of work products, and have fewer last-minute surprises. The most effective approach is to start small. Pick one painful process. Automate that first. Prove the win, then expand.
Lead with data, not gut feel
Many leaders run their firms on anecdotes such as "We are slammed," "This client is great," or "Margins feel tight."
When I ask for reliable numbers, such as revenue per full-time equivalent, capacity utilization by role, client profitability by segment or cycle time for key processes, their answers are often incomplete or purely backward-looking.
Dashboards change that. The right dashboards provide real-time visibility into metrics like:
- Revenue and margin by service line and client segment;
- Workflows and bottlenecks in audits and tax;
- Capacity, utilization and the mix of advisory versus compliance work; and,
- Pricing patterns, write-downs and realization.
The goal isn't more reports. It is fewer, better key business objectives that tie directly to your firm's strategic "Power of 3s-Focus."
With clear dashboards, you can see problems forming before they become emergencies, identify which processes are ripe for algorithms and automation, and make resourcing and pricing decisions based on evidence, rather than emotion.
Stop competing, collaborate
No single firm can track every development in AI, regulation, technology, and client expectations. The pace is simply too fast, and accelerating.
The ExO attribute "community and crowd" recognizes that your ecosystem is an asset. Peer audit directors can compare AI workpaper strategies, tax leaders share playbooks for new IRS guidance, clients collaborate on service design and packaging, and communities curate tools, vendors and experiments so each firm doesn't start from zero.
At Boomer Consulting, we see this in the Boomer Knowledge Network and in our Circle communities. When 150 audit leaders or tax leaders learn together, the cost of experimentation and the risk of "going first" drop dramatically.
This is a system for accelerating learning so each firm doesn't have to reinvent the wheel in isolation.
Your MTP
These four attributes are powerful, but they need direction. That direction comes from your "Massive Transformative Purpose." Your MTP is a clear, energizing answer to the question: "Why does this firm exist, and what change are we here to create for our clients and our people?"
For example, an audit-focused firm's MTP might be, "Bring absolute clarity to financial integrity." A tax-focused firm might want to, "Transform tax compliance from a burden into a strategic advantage." And an advisory-oriented firm might have a goal to, "Guide entrepreneurs to financial freedom."
Your MTP is the filter through which you attract clients, deepen services, and adopt technologies. It should be bold!
Your transformation roadmap
Firms always ask how long this transformation will take. The honest answer is 18 to 36 months for meaningful transformation. That may sound long, but it is far better than drifting for another decade.
In the first six months, you build a foundation by clarifying your MTP, educating your leadership team on ExO, AI and the agentic workforce, and selecting one or two painful processes for algorithm pilots. Stand up simple but meaningful dashboards around a small set of KBOs and identify your initial staff-on-demand partners (human and AI).
During the next 12 months, you scale what works. Expand successful automations into more engagements, formalize agentic workforce roles and operating guidelines, and rebalance technical time toward expert work. Shift standardized services toward value-based and fixed‑fee pricing, and deepen participation in peer communities and leadership circles.
Over the remaining months, you reach full systematization. Operations, marketing and sales are increasingly supported by AI and staff on demand. Technical experts consistently spend most of their time in unique-ability work. The firm enjoys rising margins, shorter cycle times, and better client and team satisfaction. The firm transforms internally and can also advise clients on their own transformation.
You are qualified to lead this
If you're an experienced audit or tax leader, talk of "exponential organizations" and AI may sound abstract. But step back and look at your track record.
You've likely already led major technology transitions, weathered regulatory shifts, and gone through mergers, succession plans and cultural change. ExO and the agentic workforce aren't fundamentally different. They give you:
- A clear destination (your MTP);
- A focused set of attributes (staff on demand, algorithms, dashboards, and community and crowd);
- A realistic time frame (18 to 36 months); and,
- A measurement system (KBOs and dashboards that support your Power of 3s).
Most importantly, they let you build a system that honors your people and their unique abilities. You are designing a firm with a purpose, plan and path that provides hope for a better future.
You don't have to wait for all of the articles in this series to begin. You can start today with one question: If our firm achieves its full potential over the next 36 months, what will become possible for our team and our clients?
Your answer to that question is the seed of your MTP. From there, the four‑attribute system gives you a practical way to get there.
The exponential future is already here. Will you lead your firm into it or watch from the sidelines as others do?
Think — plan — grow!
