Technology

AI is changing the way tax practitioners work in significant ways, but none of them involve massive job losses or shrinking demand for accountants and auditors.

Edgefield Group has expanded its formerly private training for individual firms into publicly available CPE courses, as well as launched a new learning platform on using Microsoft Copilot for accounting workflows.

Accounting firms that don't keep up with artificial intelligence risk falling behind their own clients, says Madeline Reeves, founder and CEO of Fearless Foundry.

AI tools cannot be the preparer of a tax position. They cannot be subject to Circular 230, defend a study under exam or be professionally disciplined.

Puzzle announces AI Suite for month-end close; MyCPE One announces CPE Wallet for automating CPE management; Sam's List rolls out Concierge Launch; and other accounting tech news and updates.

The firms that benefit most are not treating AI as a replacement for the accountant's judgment. They are treating it as infrastructure: the parts that should have been automated years ago finally being automated.

Financial reporting and automation solutions provider Inscope announced a new release that uses agentic AI to produce a review-ready disclosure checklist.

If things continue at this pace, it won't be surprising if CPA firms have a 40-to-one agent-to-human ratio in the near future and need a new operating model.

AI-coded apps are changing the dynamics between software vendors and accounting firms, but the market impact so far has been small.

AI is shifting the economics of build-versus-buy as more firms turn to apps created not by software vendors but by code generators such as Claude, Replit, or Cursor.