Accounting in the Age of AI: 3 Reasons you need to know it now

AI is trickling into every facet of our lives today. If you are in this world as a technical person it is a tidal wave that is constant. But everyday life in a business is about solving real business issues. I'm going to skip the simple reasons why all the experts (and most are not in the Accountant/CPA/Financial world) say you should be using AI now: Items like productivity and data Analysis. This is very important but everybody is speaking about this, my three reasons are related to real business pain in your practice today.

1. Customer is now a "Tax Expert"

Go back to my first line of this post: AI is seeping into our lives everyday. This includes our clients. We have all been there. Customer comes in claiming to KNOW better than us what we should do on their taxes. Arguing, telling us what we should do because they because ChatGPT told them what to do. The client discussing prompting and deep research.

You need to be able to separate surface-level advice from deeper, strategic application of the tax code.. Understanding AI allows you to validate or challenge their assumptions, explain the limitations of generic outputs, and position yourself as the true expert who can translate AI suggestions into actionable, compliant, and profitable strategies. You don't discount their assumptions you challenge them constructively.

AI literacy helps you guide customers beyond the hype. Many clients will arrive with half-formed ideas from tools like ChatGPT, but they often lack context, nuance, or awareness of risks such as compliance gaps. By knowing AI, you can bridge that gap—showing them how to integrate AI responsibly, align it with business goals, and avoid costly missteps. In short, your expertise ensures that AI becomes a tool for value creation rather than a source of confusion.

2. Regulatory Rules and AI

Emerging AI-specific laws and proposed regulations are reshaping the compliance landscape. Federal and States are drafting rules to govern transparency, accountability, and ethical use of AI in financial services, which means accountants must anticipate how these standards will affect data governance, audit trails, and liability.

Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) are two laws that have complex regulatory frameworks that all financial companies must understand. Add items like the IRS WISP plan that requires all tax and accounting professionals to create, implement, and maintain to protect your client data. It is overwhelming.

The bottom line is that your employees are using AI today and it must be an ethical use. Which means teams must anticipate how all of these regulations and their use will affect data governance, audit trails, and liability. But understanding AI's role you can not only avoid penalties but also position yourselves as trusted advisors who implement both innovative and legally sound financial practices.

3. AI is a team sport

AI adoption isn't just for your most "technical" tech champion or an IT group. AI needs to be everybody's job. Together. Not in a silo. Again, the first sentence of this blog post is vital. Everyone is using it in some manner today: emails, writing, researching, maybe unknowingly in tools like Quickbooks or Taxdome. If only a select few are assigned to learn AI, everybody else will "tune out" and fall behind.

Firms are going to need accountants who do the following:

• AI skills are foundational: Using AI is using a new muscle and that must be practiced ethically regularly. There are tasks so specific to each workflow that only flexible, knowledgeable employees can know where and how to implement. Making this foundational for everyone in the firm to share.

• The real risk is falling behind: Firms don't build an "AI capable team" now, they'll pay a high cost in the future: Jason Staats who is a CPA and runs a profitable account firm states: “People worry about the cost of AI tools right now—what about the cost, three years from now, of having people on your team who don’t know how to use AI?” He considers it a huge risk to allow staff to remain unskilled in AI, as those skills will only become more essential with time.

• It must be a team-wide skill, not siloed: AI adoption isn't just for a tech champion or an IT group.

• Continuous use is key: Create regular, ongoing touch points where staff share what worked and what didn’t. Actual hands-on experience with AI is what builds skills and boosts adoption.

As a leader of a practice or firm, you are providing opportunity responsibly. Those who possess AI skills will not only secure their positions but also open doors to new opportunities in areas such as forensic accounting, financial consulting, and risk management. Those who have embraced AI will stand out as industry leaders, while those who resist change may find it challenging to keep up.

Conclusion

Every accountant needs AI skills now because it’s quickly becoming a core part of the profession, built into the tools we use every day, future competitiveness, laws and ongoing job security. Not learning or understanding AI means firms (and individual accountants) risk being left behind as the field rapidly transforms. We need to be able to talk to our customers and not have them outpace us.

As we approach 2026, accountants who invest in developing these skills will not only future-proof their careers but also elevate the value they bring to their organizations and clients.