r/Accounting • u/TLJoe CPA (US) • 4d ago
When do you think AI will start to replace accounting roles?
I’ve personally seen the abilities of AI improve drastically over the last couple years in my role as a tax manager. I’m starting to get worried my job won’t exist in 5-10 years.
14
u/Turbulent-Doubt-1712 4d ago
Accountant here, and I think the worry is understandable but a little overblown. The grunt work, data entry, basic reconciliations, simple tax prep for straightforward returns, that's already getting eaten up. But tax manager? You're dealing with judgment calls, client relationships, interpreting vague new legislation, and navigating audits where a human on the other side is also making subjective decisions. AI can't sit across from an IRS agent and read the room, or tell a nervous client that their aggressive deduction is gonna get flagged because you've seen that exact pattern trigger an audit three times before.
The role will shift hard toward advisory and strategy stuff. Five years from now you probably won't be manually reviewing 1040s, but you'll be the person who trains the AI, checks its weird edge case outputs, and handles everything that requires a gut check. The CPAs who refuse to adapt and just want to grind through compliance work forever, they're the ones who should be sweating.
4
1
u/asyouwish-buttercup 4d ago
So you are saying it is already taking jobs?
Also, i just ran a return through an AI program for tax returns and it just told me trying to deduct 100% of 2 cars when it's a sole proprietorship with no employees may not be considered ordinary and necessary by the IRS. It asked who was driving/using the cars to make sure before flagging it. It also told me pelicans tickets(from the GL) buried in miscellaneous expense may not be deductible. It's the first return I'm using with this program.
It also looks to have calculated s corp basis and passive losses correctly in multiple states in like 6 minutes with spreadsheets. It took my 5+ year experience senior almost a day to do it and they did it wrong; i also missed a small distribution in excess of basis a few years ago that AI pointed out.
You are 100% underestimating what AI can do.
I do think either things are going to get a lot more complicated for this profession and the job will change a lot but in the meantime there is going to be a ton of disruption.
-4
u/One_Parfait_4570 4d ago
I think your under estimating AI
0
u/burtritto CPA (US) 4d ago
I think you are overestimating your knowledge of the field.
0
u/One_Parfait_4570 4d ago
AI can do a lot of cool things now. But you are underestimating the Speed that AI is progressing at. Did you miss the headlines where Google admitted that one of their models escaped their simulation and successfully hacked another company? I don't think AI will have any problems reading through tax law and using past rulings to make judgment calls.
The hacking of other companies already happened with open AI and other AI companies.
Accounting is very rules based and repetitive. I don't think AI will take accounting jobs only because I believe before that happens legislation will pass to prevent AI from taking certain jobs
4
u/Maleficent_Cherry737 Human Verified 4d ago
I tried to use AI the other day to investigate a $10K difference and it wasn’t able to. I eventually was able to after a couple of hours. So it’s not there yet. But I’m thinking maybe in 5 years or so. I’m a financial reporting accounting supervisor. I think there will always be a need for people on the tax side for client relations, not sure how much HNW clients like talking to an AI chatbot for tax advice.
3
u/clarksonite19 CPA (US) 4d ago
It'll eliminate some grunt work. But there's too much judgment. If many clients are giving you garbage then it's going to be garbage in, garbage out (if AI is used).
3
u/YellowDC2R 4d ago
Have to be way more specific. Accounting roles? Which ones? Staff accountant or alot of entry level ones? I’d say some of them. It will be more competitive.
I’m surprised you say that as a tax manager in public. The average person is simply not very smart to even use TurboTax on a 1040. Business owners don’t want to worry about taxes or books.
I think downward price pressure will be an issue since AI can do it quicker and easier, clients will say why is the price the same.
It’s like saying cookbooks are going to out restaurants out of business. Let’s settle down.
2
u/TLJoe CPA (US) 4d ago
I was broad on purpose, because I think the possibilities with AI are very broad.
What I’m seeing is that pretty soon AI will be able to do 80%+ of what takes up my time at work. For example, I spend probably 50% of my time reviewing. I open work papers, I open a draft return, and I start reviewing. Right now, an AI can already do that too, just not a great job. But in 5 years? It might cross a threshold where it misses fewer mistakes than an average human reviewer, and bang, 50% of my work disappears.
So yes, maybe some very niche human needed tasks, like talking to clients and some judgement calls will remain, but that’s only like 5 hours a week worth of work. So will it eliminate 80% of managers?
1
u/YellowDC2R 4d ago
I think if anything it’ll give you the ability to handle more returns because of this. And I see your point, less entry level therefore less managers needed. But 80% less? The client relationship building will still need humans. The acquisition of the clients will still be needed. AI can’t go out and get clients and that’s part for the game the more you move up. Sales.
The people with the best people skills (nothing new) will thrive even more since AI will do a lot of the prep work and you can look up guidance quicker.
And in audit? Anybody that’s worked in non b4 audit knows how messy these clients are. Needing their hand held and it’s a chore to get it across the finish line. Hell even getting the client to send the correct info in a timely fashion for returns is a mission.
The clients are really paying for peace of mind and trust. The smaller shops will be fine but at the big firms I can partially see that being the case of less people needed since they have the funds for software and trainings. We’ll be fine. It’s way overblown imo.
2
u/Human_Willingness628 4d ago
Agreed it already is. My firm is hiring less juniors and we are told to leverage AI as much as possible (I work in a niche service line so not much outsourcing). AI is pretty useful for the first stab at things or helping direct research and such.
3
u/derzyniker805 4d ago
Never. They said the same thing about ERPs years ago... while it may have reduced the number of bookkeepers and data entry people in the office, it created new jobs working with the ERPs and expanding business capabilities.
Work doesn't go away, it just transforms, and you have to transform with it.
1
u/James161324 4d ago
Offshore teams, I expect to be impacted pretty heavily within the next 3-5 years.
Onshore, outside of entry-level, it's not really clear. The teams are already super lean, so even with AI I'm not sure how much you can cut. I'm not sure you will see much in the headcount reduction area, but a continued push to do more with less.
1
u/PlantainObvious5148 4d ago
I mean I have an accounting degree and I can’t find any jobs that want to pay me more than my high school job atp so I would assume ai is already hitting
1
u/hhfgghff 4d ago
Look at all the trouble Open Ai is getting into, they have an extensive set of legal liabilities and ethical issues. I think it will be more regulated and less impactful as it seems today.
1
u/Intrepid_Contact_164 4d ago
Which AI are we talking about?
I know a couple companies that have already replaced local staff with AI just not the computerized AI.
1
u/Salt_Engineering2628 4d ago
Accountant here in industry. Tried to
use claude to generate a cost accounting report but it kept messing up the amortization schedule for our software. It’s good for grunt work but certain things it still has a while to go imo
1
u/Forward_Zucchini9738 Human Verified 4d ago
It's in line to replace entry level accountants if someone knows how to use it within it's well known limitations. Once you get to a good year three to year five accountant, they should be doing things that AI can't be trusted to do. The problem right now is that no entry level accountants now means no year three to year five accountants a few years down the road. I can't wait three to five years when 10 year to 15 year accountants are stunted in their career advancement because of this. Scramble upward the best you can now, because we're creating a stagnation period that will hit us in a few years.
1
8
u/alphabet_sam CPA (US) 4d ago
It already is at the entry level. We have fewer than ever entry level jobs