AICPA recently held its annual AICPA/CPA.com Executive Roundtable, which convenes C-suite leaders from across the accounting and technology ecosystem to gain insights and exchange ideas on how to best serve the profession and their clients and organizations. One of the top takeaways from the event was a discussion surrounding AI.

AI: It's Not If, But When

Embracing artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies can no longer be long-term goals. Advanced technologies are embedded in nearly every consumer product and service that we use daily. They’re reshaping expectations for how we live and work—and, as a result, changing client expectations for how firm services are delivered.

We’re already seeing an abundance of new AI-enabled tools that will allow firms to meet changing client expectations. They’re enabling practitioners to improve processes, streamline numerous mundane tasks, enhance analyses and deliver the deeper business insights and strategic advice that their clients are looking for. And that trajectory appears to only increase with the growing hype around generative AI (GenAI) producing new applications and integrations almost daily.

Of the 45 cutting-edge software providers participating in the event, all but four had an AI solution in the works or already on the market. A few of those solutions that stood out include:

• Instead by Corvee can help accountants determine whether a client qualifies for an R&D credit, write 2,500 to 10,000+ word memos supporting the position, and complete the credit all the way to support the filing. The Instead AI Tax Assistant can also guide you through completing the credit for federal and state jurisdictions.
• Digits has developed proprietary technology leveraging large language models (LLMs), agents and vector similarity models to automate tedious accounting and bookkeeping tasks.
• Sage has filed five patents surrounding the safe use of LLMs, and its Intacct software enables accountants to detect anomalies and potential fraud, and integrate payroll, analytics, tax and other products.
• Thomson Reuters is incorporating AI into audits and tax in areas such as anomaly-based risk profiling and through use of LLMs. They recently made an announcement regarding an annual investment of $100M to AI for their suite of solutions.

This fast response from the solution provider community has made the features and functionality of AI available to firms of all sizes, a sure sign that this technology really does have the possibility to be the next great equalizer.

CPA.com recently launched a multi-part generative AI initiative to help accountants understand the emerging technology and identify how it can be leveraged across practice areas. It includes a toolkit featuring seven steps to build a generative AI strategy, use cases with explanatory videos covering a range of functions that anyone can implement today, a security checklist, glossary of terms and more.