In collaboration with CalCPA, Ramp surveyed 400+ California accounting professionals to find out what's really happening with AI and automation inside CPA firms — beyond the hype. The findings: firms are busier and more bullish than in years past, but talent is scarce, AI adoption is wide but shallow, and the back office is still surprisingly manual. The firms pulling ahead are the ones using automation to buy back time — then reinvesting it in advisory work clients actually value.
Key findings:
- AI adoption is wide but shallow. 56% of firms use generative AI tools, but only 10% have it integrated across operations — most are still piloting.
- Drafting and research lead the way. Top use cases are client communication (50%), document review (47%), and tax research (46%).
- Security and integration are the real barriers. Data security tops client-facing concerns (39%); training/implementation time is the top adoption barrier (31%).