Automation isn’t replacing accountants—it’s exposing who can’t evolve.

Accounting Influencers
With Rob Brown

Artificial intelligence isn’t a future disruptor—it’s already embedded in accounting. The profession’s survival depends on how quickly firms adapt.

“The robots are coming—scratch that—they’re already here,” says Accounting Influencers host Rob Brown. “AI literacy isn’t optional anymore. If you’re treating AI as tomorrow’s problem, you’re already behind the curve.”

The latest episode explores the seismic impact of automation on accounting and the urgent need for firms to transform their skills, strategies, and structures.

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Citing a McKinsey report, Brown notes that nearly 80% of organizations already use AI in at least one core function. “It’s pervasive now,” he says. “Reconciliation, data entry, transaction classification—AI eats those jobs for breakfast.”

A 2023 OpenAI study even found that automation could impact nearly all tasks performed by accountants and auditors. Yet, surprisingly, the accounting job market hasn’t collapsed. “Two years into the generative AI journey, most jobs haven’t vanished,” Brown observes. “The danger isn’t robots replacing humans—it’s humans who fail to leverage robots being replaced by those who do.”

Growth doesn’t always mean moving on—it can mean moving deeper.

Gear Up for Growth
With Jean Caragher
For CPA Trendlines

“I love Smith + Howard, and I loved marketing, but I didn’t think I was the person for that role anymore,” says Julie Barnes, chief of staff of Smith + Howard, during her appearance on Gear Up for Growth, powered by CPA Trendlines, and hosted by Jean Caragher of Capstone Marketing. “I didn’t want to leave; I wanted to do something different. I wanted to be valuable to the firm and create value in whatever role I landed in.”

• More Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here | More Gear Up for Growth
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Barnes shares how her 30-year journey at the firm has evolved through initiative, transparency, and a culture that supports growth from within.

Her story offers two powerful takeaways for professionals in accounting firms.

Leaders tie AI to real workflows, not wish lists, and adoption follows.

Accounting ARC
With Liz Mason, Byron Patrick, and Donny Shimamoto
Center for Accounting Transformation

Accounting leaders are accelerating AI deployment across tax, audit, and advisory—but three accounting veterans and hosts of Accounting ARC argue the difference between adoption and shelfware comes down to focus, guardrails, and relentless training.

On the latest episode, hosts Liz Mason, CPA; Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP, CGMA; and Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA; dissect how large firms are approaching Microsoft Copilot and adjacent tools. They agree that leaders should start now, but do so strategically.

• MORE Accounting ARC: Don’t Get Fired by Your Own Automation | What Amazon Doesn't Tell You | Royalties, Residuals, and Reality Checks | ARC-SLC | Free Speech Is a Right; Respect Is a Responsibility | Cash Bags, Casinos & Audits: How First Jobs Shape Us | Gen Z Redefines Careers | Bootleggers, Baptitsts & CPAs: Rethinking Licensure | CPA Firm Ownership Under Fire | Walking Violation: When Showing Your CPA Gets You in Trouble | Audit Bags to TikTok Tags, Gen Z Talks Success | Students Challenge Accounting's Traditional Career Path | True Grit: Recognizing Struggles That Shape Our Successes |More Admins, Fewer Students, No Plan | What Career Advice Gets Wrong for Gen Z - And How to Fix It | Your Identity is Not a Liability | Burnout, Be Gone: Accounting Needs a Boundary Breakthrough

Patrick, CEO of VERIFYiQ and co-founder and educator at TB Academy, opens with a caution that resonates across enterprise tech cycles: many organizations feel pressured to adopt generative AI without clearly defining expected outcomes. He urges leaders to ask what success specifically looks like, whether that is fewer review points, faster cycle times on close, or reduced audit adjustments.

Key changes to Sections 168 and 179 offer fresh opportunities for strategic deductions.

Quick Tax Tip
With Art Werner
CPE Today

In the latest Quick Tax Tip episode, tax expert Art Werner dives into one of the most talked-about provisions in the new tax bill: the restoration of 100% bonus depreciation.

“Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, bonus depreciation started to phase down from 100% to zero,” Werner explains. “For 2025, it was set at 40%. But this new bill retroactively restores 100% bonus depreciation — starting Jan. 20, 2025 — and keeps it that way through the end of 2029.”

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The move reverses years of gradual cutbacks and offers businesses renewed incentive to invest in equipment and property. According to Werner, this means tax practitioners can breathe easier — at least for now.

In the age of AI, conversations, not calculations, will define the future of the profession.

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

Ed Kless believes accountants can do much more than monitor the numbers. Together with Ron Baker, their latest venture, Threshold, is a community that aims to support professionals in facilitating transformations in their customers. As Kless explains, transformations occur when someone makes lasting changes in one or more of the domains of human flourishing.

• MORE STREAMING: Whitman: Build Culture on 'Progress,' Not Change | Shein: No PE? No M&A? No Problem | Hood and Weber: Time to RISE | Proctor: Turn Dumb Ideas into Brilliant Solutions | Carter-Gray: How 1 Poor Review Strengthened the Firm | Hartman: Upwork to “40 Under 40” in 3 Years | Telka: Transform Fear into Fuel

“The purpose of business is to promote human flourishing. Profit is the result of a business. And there's nothing wrong with that,” Kless says. “I think profit is good, but it's the result. It's not the purpose.” Drawing from Benjamin Franklin and economist Russ Roberts, Kless explains that human flourishing has four domains: making people healthier, wealthier, wiser, or helping them live with more purpose.

When accountants work with customers across these four domains, they are not merely providing accounting services but are also facilitating transformations. In a recent episode of The Disruptors, Ron Baker explained Joe Pine’s model for economic value, which Pine described in his earlier book, “The Experience Economy.” In this model, transformations are the most valuable of economic offerings.

A new generation of borrowers is emerging—and advisors need to be ready to serve them.

By Rory Henry CFP®, BFA™
For CPA Trendlines

Student loan debt is not just a problem for young professionals anymore. It is a challenge that increasingly touches families, near-retirees, and even retirees. With more than $1.8 trillion in federal student loan debt across 42.5 million borrowers, the issue is too significant for CPAs and financial advisors to overlook because more and more of their clients are directly affected.

• MORE Rory Henry and The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management
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On the latest episode of Holistic Guide to Wealth Management, Alex Bottom, CEO of Finology, and Ryan Galiotto, CFP®, CSLP®, founder of the Student Loan Help Network, discuss how new legislation, shifting demographics, and growing demand for guidance are reshaping this area of planning.

“Student loan planning is essentially looking at a client’s full financial picture and helping them find the fastest and cheapest way to eliminate that debt,” Galiotto explains. “[Student loan] debt is a massive issue within our country right now, and it is only going to get bigger.”

"The classroom is no longer a pipeline for work-ready professionals."

Accounting Influencers
With Rob Brown

Today’s accounting leaders are facing an alarming truth: the next generation of recruits may be the least “work-ready” in decades.

They know their algebra, their Shakespeare, and their chemistry formulas—but not how to introduce themselves in a job interview, meet a deadline, or handle feedback. That’s the provocative premise explored in the latest episode of Accounting Influencers Podcast, where host Rob Brown tackles the widening gap between what schools teach and what firms need.

“The classroom is no longer a pipeline for work-ready professionals,” Brown warns. “And accounting firms are starting to feel the pain.”

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Brown, a former high school math teacher, speaks from experience. He spent years coaching students to pass tests—not preparing them for the real world. “The curriculum is built for exams, not for the workplace,” he says. “No one’s teaching children how to build trust, handle tough feedback, or develop emotional intelligence.”

That shortfall has far-reaching consequences. According to research cited in the episode, only 11% of business leaders strongly agree that graduates leave school ready for work. Eight in ten employers say that new hires lack not only technical proficiency but also critical soft skills, such as resilience, digital literacy, and time management.

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Poe Group Advisors is the premier accounting practice intermediary firm in the industry with over 20 years of M&A experience. PGA was founded by Brannon Poe, a CPA with a Big 4 background. Buying or selling a CPA firm is one of life’s most significant ventures for business owners. Qualified buyers looking to buy an accounting firm want to find the right CPA practice for sale, and accounting practice sellers want to find the right buyer. This is where Poe Group Advisors excels time and time again in helping our clients find the right accounting practice sales opportunity. Learn More